Hamlet Quotes

Question 1

Action / Inaction: Hamlet’s urgency and initial willingness to avenge

Answer 1

Haste me to know’t… May sweep to my revenge. (1.5)

Question 2

Action / Inaction: Hamlet’s self-criticism after the Player’s speech

Answer 2

O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I! / Am I a coward? / Must like a whore unpack my heart… (2.2)

Question 3

Action / Inaction: Hamlet’s resolution to embrace violence

Answer 3

From this time forth / My thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth. (4.4)

Question 5

Appearance vs Reality: Hamlet uses theatre to reveal truth

Answer 5

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

Question 6

Appearance vs Reality: Polonius on religious hypocrisy

Answer 6

With devotion’s visage… sugar o’er / The devil himself. (3.1)

Question 7

Appearance vs Reality: Hamlet on Gertrude and Claudius’ false roles

Answer 7

My uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceived. (2.2)

Question 8

Appearance vs Reality: Claudius on the disconnect between words and thoughts

Answer 8

My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts never to heaven go. (3.3)

Question 10

Women: Hamlet’s disgust at Gertrude’s remarriage

Answer 10

Frailty, thy name is woman! (1.2)

Question 11

Women: Hamlet attacking Ophelia and her reaction

Answer 11

Get thee to a nunnery! / I of ladies most deject and wretched… (3.1)

Question 12

Women: Hamlet condemns Gertrude’s desire

Answer 12

You cannot call it love… What judgement / Would step from this to this? (3.4)

Question 13

Women: Laertes on Ophelia’s purity

Answer 13

Her fair and unpolluted flesh. (5.1)

Question 15

Religion / Honour: Claudius on guilt and unrepented sin

Answer 15

I am still possessed / Of those effects for which I did the murder. (3.3)

Question 16

Religion / Honour: Laertes’ revenge despite the setting

Answer 16

To cut his throat i’th’ church. (4.7)

Question 17

Religion / Honour: Hamlet urges Gertrude to repent

Answer 17

Confess yourself to heaven, Repent what’s past. (3.4)

Question 18

Religion / Honour: Church grants Ophelia a Christian burial

Answer 18

Yet here she is allowed her virgin crants. (5.1)

Question 20

Corruption / Death: Claudius on the stench of his sin

Answer 20

O, my offence is rank: it smells to heaven. (3.3)

Question 21

Corruption / Death: Marcellus on Denmark’s decay

Answer 21

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. (1.4)

Question 22

Corruption / Death: Pyrrhus’ violence as a mirror of the state

Answer 22

Horridly tricked / With blood… (2.2)

Question 23

Corruption / Death: Hamlet on the purpose of fattening

Answer 23

We fat all creatures else to fat us… for maggots. (4.3)

Question 24

Corruption / Death: Hamlet on Caesar’s decay

Answer 24

Imperious Caesar, dead and turned to clay. (5.1)

Question 26

Revenge: The Ghost's command

Answer 26

Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder! (1.5)

Question 27

Revenge: Hamlet’s divine/demonic motivation

Answer 27

Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell. (2.2)

Question 28

Revenge: Hamlet tests Claudius' guilt via play

Answer 28

I’ll observe his looks… If he do blench, I know my course. (2.2)

Question 29

Revenge: Hamlet’s commitment to violent action

Answer 29

My thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth. (4.4)

Question 30

Revenge: Laertes vows vengeance

Answer 30

Only I’ll be revenged / Most thoroughly for my father. (4.5)

Question 32

Supernatural: Horatio’s reaction to the Ghost

Answer 32

It harrows me with fear and wonder. (1.1)

Question 33

Supernatural: The Ghost’s origin

Answer 33

I am thy father’s spirit… (1.5)

Question 34

Supernatural: The Ghost vanishes at dawn

Answer 34

It started like a guilty thing… (1.1)

Question 35

Supernatural: Ghost reappears to sharpen Hamlet’s resolve

Answer 35

Do not forget! This visitation / Is but to whet thy almost blunt purpose. (3.4)

Question 36

Supernatural: Claudius exposed in the play

Answer 36

Give me some light, away! (3.2)