| 1. “How all occasions do inform against me,And spur my dull revenge! What is a manIf his chief good and market of his timeBe but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,Looking before and after, gave us notThat capability and godlike reasonTo fust in us unused” | Speaker: HamletSituation: After Hamlet sees the array of FortinbrasParaphrase: Hamlet recognizes that the action of Fortinbras shows how inactive he has been. He questions what value human beings posses if they behave like animals nearly eating & sleeping certainly god did not give humans such power of thought not to be used. |
| 2. “Lord, we know what we are but know not what we may be.” | Speaker: Ophelia Situation: Talking to Claudius & Gertrude in her madnessParaphrase: Human beings may develope some capacity for self-knowledege but we are less able to recongize the greatness we may be capable of, what we could accomplish |
| 3. “When sorrows come, they come not single spiesBut in battalions: “ | Speaker: Claudius Situation: After Ophelias mad sceneParaphrase: When load of bad things happen they dont occur singly but in a series of bad events |
| 4. “There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance. Pray you, love, remember. And there is pansies, that’s for thoughts.There’s fennel for you, and columbines. There’s rue for you; and here’s some for me: we may call it herb of grace a’ Sundays. You may wear your rue with a difference. There’s a daisy. I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died. They say he made a good end. “ | Speaker: OpheliaSituation: Ophelias second mad scene with LaertesParaphrase: Know they symbolism of the flowers & who receives them; Rosemary (remeberance) & Pansies (thoughts) – Laretes; Fennel (Martial infedelity) and Columbius (lust) – Gertrude; Rue (repentance & pity) – Gertrude; Daisy (faithfulness & trickery) – Claudius; No violets (faithfulness) – They all die when her father died. |
| 5. “{Let me see.} Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath bore me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rims at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own grinning? quite chap-fallen? Now get you to my lady’s chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come; make her laugh at that.” | Speaker: HamletSituation: In the graveyard to HortatioParaphrase: Here Hamlet describes Yoric, the King’s Jester (a man who had been a playful clown in Hamlets youth). He asks the skull where all his playfulness has gone. Now he has no one around to laugh at him and his jaw seems to have fallen off, so he is “chap fallen” (a term that meant sad down in the mouth). Hamlet tells the skull to go to Gertrude’s room and informs her that she can put on all the heavy makeup she wants to but she will become a skull — see if she thinks that’s funny. |
| 6. “The cat will mew, and dog will have his day” | Speaker: HamletSituation: Confrontation with Laertes in the graveyardParaphrase: Whatever is fated to happen will happen |
| 7. “Our indiscretion sometimes serves us wellWhen our deep plots do pall, and that should learn us There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,Rough-hew them how we will—” | Speaker: Hamlet Situation: to Horatio after Ophelia’s funeral Paraphrase:Hamlet explains at times its a good idea not to be restrained when our plans don’t seem to be working out which should teach us that God affects what happens in our lives no matter how we mess things up. |
| 8. “Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes Between the pass and fell incensed pointsOf mighty opposites.” | Speaker: Hamlet Situation: to Horatio before the duelParaphrase: It’s risky for commoners to come between the thrust & fiercely angry sword points of great opposing forces.Significance: Here Hamlet is describing his mision of revenge against Claudius as a duel the “might opposites” are the forces of good & evil the everyday folds better stay out of it. |
| 9. “Not a whit, we defy augury. There is {a}special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come—the readiness is all.” | Speaker: Hamlet Situation: to Horatio before the duel Paraphrase: Here Hamlet says she will pay no attention to owners. He realizes that God is concerned even with the fall of sparrows if his opportunity to revenge his fathers death is to happen now it wont happen the future if it is hot now it will happen all we can do is be ready to do God’s will. |
| 10. “So shall you hearOf carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts,Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters,Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause,And, in this upshot, purposes mistookFall’n on th’ inventors’ heads.” | Speaker: HoratioSituation: after Hamlet’s death Horatio addresses Fortinbras & his army Meaning: “Carnal, bloody and unnatural acts” = Claudius killing his brother”Accidental judgements” = mistaken theories of Hamlet’s madness”casual slaughters” = Hamlet killing Polonius “Deaths put on by cunning & forces curse” = Hamets & Laerte’s deaths & Gertrude’s death “purposes mistook Fall’n on th’ inventors’ heads” = Rosencrantz & Guildenstern’s deaths |
Hamlet 4-5
August 19, 2019