Hamlet

Play

Hamlet

Summary

Prince of Denmark and the play's tortured protagonist, Hamlet is a philosopher-prince whose acute intellect and moral sensitivity paralyze him in the face of his duty to avenge his father's murder. Caught between action and contemplation, grief and rage, sanity and feigned madness, he embodies the Renaissance question of whether thought corrupts the capacity for decisive action.

Notable Quotations

"To be, or not to be, that is the question: / Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, / And by opposing end them." *(3.1)*

"O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!" *(2.2)*

"The play's the thing / Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King." *(2.2)*

"To thine own self be true." *(1.3 — spoken by Polonius, but often associated with Hamlet's world)*

"Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio — a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy." *(5.1)*

"The readiness is all." *(5.2)*

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, / Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." *(1.5)*

Cross-references

• Hamlet — the play
• Tragedies
• character_claudius — his uncle and murderer of his father
• character_gertrude — his mother
• character_horatio — his closest friend
• character_ophelia — his beloved
• character_polonius — the Lord Chamberlain he kills by accident
• character_laertes — his final antagonist