| “But in the gross scope of mine opinion, this bodes some strange eruption to our state.” | speaker: Horatiotalking to: Marcellus & Barnardoliterary device: foreshadowcontext: they’re all talking about what the worry is & why they have to stand guardexplanation: they don’t really know why they’re on guard or who they’re guarding from, but it doesn’t look good; something is happening & going to happen |
| “A mote it is to trouble the mind’s eye.” | speaker: Horatiotalking to: Marcellus & Barnardoliterary device: synecdochecontext: they’re all talking about what the worry is & why they have to stand guardexplanation: the Norwegian army isn’t huge so it’s not a huge deal right now, it’s more of an annoyance, like having something tiny in your eye that you can’t get out or see |
| “With an auspicious, and a dropping eye, With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage, In equal scale weighing delight and dole, Taken to wife.” | speaker: King Claudiustalking to: the courtroom of people (including Laertes, Gertrude, Polonius, the council, Hamlet, Voltemand, and Cornelius)literary device: oxymoroncontext: Claudius addresses the funeral partyexplanation: with humor in the funeral and sadness in the marriage, basically it sucks we had to bury your dad Ham but hey I got to marry your mom so we chill; he’s trying to make everybody like him and get them to move forward with him instead of against him |
| “Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister, And keep you in the rear of your affection, Out of the shot and danger of desire.” | speaker: Laertestalking to: Opheliaexplanation: don’t date Hamlet, it’ll only come to nothing and you’ll be sad so it’s pointless |
| “Why, what should be the fear? I do not set my life at a pin’s fee.” | speaker: Hamlettalking to: Horatioexplanation: why should I be afraid to go talk to my dad in ghost form? I don’t really value my life that much, anyway |
| “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” | speaker: Marcellustalking to: Hamlet, Horatioliterary device: foreshadowexplanation: uh-oh |
| “Sleeping in my orchard, a serpent stung me, so the whole ear of Denmark Is by a forged process of my death Rankly abus’d.” | speaker: ghost of Hamlet’s dadtalking to: Hamletliterary device: synecdoche, metaphorexplanation: serpent is a metaphor for Claudius, ear of Denmark (part for whole), it’s all very clever because Claudius poisoned him in his ear |
| “These are but wild and whirling words, my lord.” | speaker: Horatiotalking to: Hamletliterary device: alliterationexplanation: repeated w sound makes it sound confused, Ham why you bein cray |
| “The time is out of joint–O cursed spite, That ever I was born to set it right!” | speaker: Hamlettalking to: ghost of dadliterary device: rhymeexplanation: imagery of time as a broken bone & Hamlet having to set it; rhyme makes the line stand out as important |
| “Sit down a while and let us once again assail your ears that are so fortified against our story.” | speaker: Barnardotalking to: Horatioliterary device: synecdocheexplanation: “assail your ears”–tell you the story (part for whole); let me tell you all about the ghost we’ve seen for two nights now even though you haven’t wanted to hear it til now |
| “Before my God, I might not this believe Without the sensible and true avouch Of mine own eyes.” | speaker: Horatiotalking to: Barnardoexplanation: I wouldn’t believe the ghost was Hamlet’s dad if I hadn’t seen it for myself; never questioned the ghost, just the king’s appearance |
| “Some say that ever ‘gainst that season comes Wherein our Savior’s birth is celebrated, This bird of dawning singeth all night long.” | speaker: Marcellustalking to: Horatio & Barnardoexplanation: maybe the ghost means the second coming of Jesus |
| “As harbingers preceding still the fates And prologue to the omen coming on.” | Horatio |
| “The head is not more native to the heart, The hand more instrumental to the mouth, Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.” | speaker: Claudiustalking to: Laertesexplanation: your dad is super important so I’ll give you whatever you want; thy shows intimacy |
| What is a periodic sentence & who likes to use it & why? | lots of dependent clauses before the point; Claudius; meant to deceive |
| What is a loose sentence? | subject + predicate, dependence clauses |
| “A little more than kin and less than kind.” | speaker: Hamlettalking to: [aside]explanation: he’s technically Claudius’ stepson, but that’s not how he feels |
| “But I have that within which passes show, These but the trappings and the suits of woe.” | speaker: Hamlettalking to: king & queenliterary device: coupletexplanation: only inside do I show the depth of my despair about my dad |
| “But to persevere In obstinate condolement is a course of impious stubbornness, ’tis unmanly grief, It shows a will most incorrect to heaven.” | speaker: Claudiustalking to: Hamletexplanation: God doesn’t want you mourning and also ur a girl |
| “Frailty, thy name is woman!” | speaker: Hamlettalking to: [soliloquy]explanation: omg mom why do u need a man |
| “With such dexterity to incestious sheets, It is not, nor it cannot come to good, But break my heart, for I must hold my tongue.” | speaker: Hamlettalking to: [soliloquy]explanation: it’s illegal and gross but I can’t say anything yet because I want to know more about this whole situation |
| “Would the night were come! Till then sit still, my soul. Foul deeds will rise.” | speaker: Hamlettalking to: Horatio, Marcellus, Barnardoliterary device: foreshadowexplanation: bad things are gonna happen |
| “A violet in the youth of primy nature, Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting, The perfume and suppliance of a minute–no more.” | speaker: Laertestalking to: Ophelialiterary device: imageryexplanation: young love is fleeting |
| “But good, my brother, Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven, Whiles, like a puff’d and reckless libertine, Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, And reaks not his own rede.” | speaker: Opheliatalking to: Laertesexplanation: don’t tell me what to do |
| “Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportion’d thought his act. Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.” | speaker: Poloniustalking to: Ophelia explanation: don’t speak hastily; be Ham’s friend but NOT his lover |
| “Neither a borrower nor a lender be, For loan oft loses both itself and friend.” | speaker: Poloniustalking to: Ophelia & Laertesexplanation: you do you and don’t rely on others; esp. Ham |
| “In few, Ophelia, Do not believe his vows, for they are brokers, Not of that dye which their investments show, But mere implorators of unholy suits, Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds, The better to beguile.” | speaker: Poloniustalking to: Opheliaexplanation: Ham will only take advantage of you and seduce you into an illicit relationship; orders her to break it off with Ham |
| “What if I tempt you toward the flood, my lord, or to the dreadful summit of the cliff, that beetles over his base into the sea, and there assume some other horrible form which might deprive your sovereignty of reason, and draw you into madness?” | speaker: Horatiotalking to: Hamletexplanation: sure looks like your dad but let’s be real here… |
| “My fate cries out.” | speaker: Hamlettalking to: Horatio, Marcellusexplanation: I gotta go man that’s my dad |
| “I am thy father’s spirit, doomed for a certain term to walk the night, and for the day confined to fast in fires, till the foul crimes done in my days of nature are burned and purged away.” | speaker: ghost of Ham’s dadtalking to: Hamletexplanation: he never had his last confession cause he was killed so now he’s condemned to purgatory |
| “Haste me to know’t, that I with winds as swift as meditation, or the thoughts of love, may sweep to my revenge.” | speaker: Hamlettalking to: ghostexplanation: I got this; I’ll get revenge as fast as people fall in love (ironic cause he doesn’t) |
| “Adieu, adieu, adieu! remember me.” | speaker: ghosttalking to: Hamletliterary device: tricolonexplanation: don’t you forget about me |
| “Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother’s hand Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatched.” | speaker: ghosttalking to: Hamletliterary device: inverted syntaxexplanation: emphasizes how he was so suddenly deprived of all of these things |
HAMLET Act 1
August 23, 2019