“To thine own self be true.” “Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't.” “Brevity is the soul of wit.” “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
'To be, or not to be: that is the question'.
Arguably the most famous quotation in the whole of Hamlet, this line begins one of Hamlet's darkest and most philosophical soliloquies.
The Mystery of Death
And, since death is both the cause and the consequence of revenge, it is intimately tied to the theme of revenge and justice—Claudius's murder of King Hamlet initiates Hamlet's quest for revenge, and Claudius's death is the end of that quest.
For variety, get a friend or relative to speak lines to you from a piece of paper, and repeat them. Try making an audio recording of yourself speaking the lines, and listen to yourself over. If you can't stand the sound of your own voice, try using free Text-to-Speech software like Balabolka, or listen to audiobooks.
First performed in 1603, Hamlet, The Prince of Denmark is probably the best known of William Shakespeare's works, and may well be the most famous English-language play ever written. Categorized as one of Shakespeare's "later tragedies," Hamlet and its namesake hero display fully the mature Bard's extraordinary talents.
Hamlet is a thoughtful young man whose determination to protect his own honor-to maintain his morality-becomes, for Shakespeare, the heroic social triumph of the play. Hamlet is Shakespeare's absolute hero. He is heroic even in the Greek sense: he is larger than life.
The character of Hamlet has the most lines of any character in all of Shakespeare's plays. Hamlet is also Shakespeare's longest play. William Shakespeare was an actor, not just a playwright, and it is thought that he played the Ghost of old Hamlet in the original production of this play.
“To thine own self be true.” “Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't.” “Brevity is the soul of wit.” “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
In fact, Hamlet's “To be or not to be” speech is the best-known soliloquy in the world.
The "To be or not to be" soliloquy in Shakespeare's Hamlet is one of the most famous passages in English literature, and its opening line, "To be, or not to be, that is the question," is one of the most quoted lines in modern English.
Hamlet has spent the whole play debating whether to avenge his father's death and/or to commit suicide, and the finale effectively enables him to perform both acts.
Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare around 1600, is a tragedy that explores themes of friendship, madness, and revenge.
In Hamlet's moral sensibility, there lies a danger. Any great shock that life might inflict on his sense of right and wrong would be felt with the most extreme intensity. If the shock were great enough, it might—and did—produce tragic results.
it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all. Hamlet's "motto" now seems to be "all is for the best." He has achieved what Aristotle called "tragic recognition" and, in deed, it is the more tragic because, as Bradley says, it comes too late. Now, Hamlet cannot avoid his own tragic fate.
Hamlet Summary. The ghost of the King of Denmark tells his son Hamlet to avenge his murder by killing the new king, Hamlet's uncle. Hamlet feigns madness, contemplates life and death, and seeks revenge.
Editions of Hamlet that are created by conflating the texts of the Second Quarto and the Folio are said to have approximately 3,900 lines; the number of lines varies between those editions based on formatting the prose sections, counting methods, and how the editors have joined the texts together.
Act 5 Scene 2 - The tragic climax
As they fight, Gertrude drinks the poisoned wine that Claudius had intended for Hamlet and dies.
The opening line by the characters in Hamlet is, “Who's there?”This itself is a great question in the context of the play and the western literature. This is also a question of identity asking, “Who am I?” and “Who are you?” And the answer only increases the puzzle when it is said, “Nay, answer me.
"To be, or not to be" is the opening phrase of a speech given by Prince Hamlet in the so-called "nunnery scene" of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1.
Best Hamlet Quotes About Love
“Love is begun by time, And time qualifies the spark and fire of it.” “This is the very ecstasy of love.” “Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear; when little fears grow great, great love grows there.”
Hamlet was written during a time of political uncertainty and fear, which has parallels in both the mood and the events of the play. The play was probably first performed in 1602, when Queen Elizabeth I was sixty-eight. She had no children, and it was unclear who would inherit her crown when she died.
Richard Burbage, the principal actor of Shakespeare's company, was likely around 32 when he played Hamlet, so the common assumption is that these lines are a specific reference to him, while in earlier versions (and in some of the suggested source material), Hamlet is a teenager, around 16.
Recent News. Hamlet, in full Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, tragedy in five acts by William Shakespeare, written about 1599–1601 and published in a quarto edition in 1603 from an unauthorized text, with reference to an earlier play.
(1) Hamlet was at one time sincerely and ardently in love with Ophelia. For she herself says that he had importuned her with love in honourable fashion, and had given countenance to his speech with almost all the holy vows of heaven (I. iii. 110f.).