HAMLET QUOTES – HUMAN CONDITION

H – To be or not to be 58.3.1 Antithesis
H – Th’oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, The pangs of disprized love, the law’s delay, The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of th’unworthy takes’ 70.3.1 Listing all of humanity’s faults
H – For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, when we have shuffled off this mortal coil, must give us pause.’ 3.1 It is man’s nature to fear the unknownPrevents them from wishing for the ‘consummation’ and ‘sleep’ that Hamlet entertains Elizabethan audience would have mixed feelings when considering mortality of actions and decisions. Audience would strongly disagree with ideas of suicide due to religious demographic – going against the church
H – The potent poison quite o’ercrows my spirit. 333.5.2 The poison is a metaphor of the human condition of fault and folly
G to L- So fast they follow. Your sister’s drowned, Laertes 164.4.7 The inevitability of death and how people may appear to be different in life but in reality our end are all the same. Everyone returns to the same state after death.Religious context: whether there is an afterlife/ the questioning of religious beliefs of the time.
G – Thou know ’tis common, all that lives must die Bleak, realistic way of thinkingBasic yet complexRaises question up to audience’s perception ‘is it right to grieve, for something so unavoidable such as death? Or is just a whim of my own wind?’Sparks moral and ethical discussion with a very strict Elizabethan society at the time
G – Do not forever with thy vailed lids, seek the father in the dust Elizabethan context and contemporary times: value to always be faithful and loyal to loved ones to respect their memories