key quotes

Question 1

action, hesitation & uncertainty

Answer 1

• “now he is praying;
  And now I’ll do’t ” (act 3 scene 3)
• “antic disposition” (act 1 scene 5)
• “Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; … And lose the name of action.” (act 3 scene 1)
• “give thy thoughts no tongue, nor any unproportioned thought his act”

Question 2

appearance versus reality

Answer 2

• “antic disposition” (act 1 scene 5)
• “the play’s the thing wherein i’ll catch the conscience of the king” (act 3 scene 2)
• “o villain, villain, smiling damned villain” (act 1)

Question 3

women

Answer 3

• “i shall obey, my lord” (act 1 scene 3)
• thou turn’st my eyes into my very soul, and there i see such black and grained spots.” (act 3 scene 4)
• “frailty, thy name is woman!” (act 1 scene 2)
• “god hath given you one face and you make yourselves another” (act 3 scene 1)

Question 4

religion, honour and death

Answer 4

• “and yet it is almost against my conscience” (act 5 scene 2)
• “the serpent that did sting thy father’s life now wears his crown” (act 1 scene 5)
• “haste me to know’t, that i… may sweep to my revenge” (act 1 scene 5)
• “now breaks a noble heart. goodnight, sweet prince. and flights of angels sing to thy rest”
• “now he is praying, and now i’ll do’t.” (3.3)
• “confess yourself to heaven; repent what’s past; avoid what is to come” (3.4)
• “the spirit that i have seen may be a devil - and the devil hath power”

Question 5

poison, corruption and death

Answer 5

• “something is rotten in the state of denmark”
• “most foul, strange and unnatural murder”
• “it is the poison’d cup: it is too late.”

Question 6

death and the supernatural

Answer 6

• “i am thy father’s spirit, doom’d for a certain term to walk the night …till the foul crimes in my days of nature are burnt and purged away.” (act 1 scene 5)
• “to be or not to be?” (act 3 scene 1)
• “alas, poor yorick!” (act 5 scene 1)
• “the spirit that i have seen may be a devil - and the devil hath power”