The Battle

The Final Battle was filled with as much deceit as the entire play. Everything is poisoned, from the tip of the sward to the glass of whine that brings Gertrude to her death. After a heated battle between Hamlet and Laertes, the entire royal family is dead. Leaving only Horatio to tell the story of Hamlet. Ironically the enemy, the prince of Norway, takes over Denmark. I think it is very Ironic how the original enemy turned out to be nothing of a threat compared to the tragity caused by the people within the royal family.

The Romance...

Before the Death of His Father, Hamlet was a young man in collage, courting Polonius' daughter Orphelia. She causes a debate as to why Hamlet is mad, is he love sick or truly mad? However that is cleared up early in the play after he tells her to go to a nunnery.

After Hamlet accidentally kills her father, Orphelia goes insane. And while Hamlet is in England she drowns herself in a stream.

When Hamlet finds her dead apon arriving home from England he is enraged. He gets into a fight in Orphelia's grave with her Brother Laertes, Hamlet clams that he always loved Orphelia, and that he loved her more than Laertes.

"Lay her i' the earth:

And from her fair and unpolluted flesh

May violets spring!"

-Laertes after Orphelia's death

The Skull

In Act 5 Scene 1, Hamlet has returned home from England. On his way, he runs into a pair of gravediggers. While talking to them, Hamlet finds the skull of his fathers former jester Yorik. Seeing the bare skull of someone Hamlet knew well brings him to a realization of how short life is. I think the skull symbolizes not only how short life is, and what is left of us in only a short time after dying; but, in hamlets eyes, our lack of purpose on earth. Seeing the skull starts hamlet on a painfully melancholy soliloquy.

"Alas! poor Yorick. I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy; he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own grinning? quite chap-fallen? Now get yet to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come; make her laugh at that."

-Hamlet to Yorik's skull

The Question

Scene 1 of act 3, the most famous question in the play is asked. "To be, or not to be? That is the question-" this is said by Hamlet in a soliloquy. Life has become to much for Hamlet to bare. He is constantly seeking revenge, and still has not gotten over the death of his father and the union of his mother. He debates whether or not life is worth living. He says that we are scared to death of the consequences we may face after killing ourselves. I think this line is a summary of Hamlet's character, threw out the play he is angry and confused, unsure what his purpose is and who he should believe.

Hamlet Act3, Scene1 Soliloquy

The Deceit

In Act 1 Scene 3, Polonius gives another long somewhat foolish lecture to his son. However, in this speech he says something rather ironic, "This above all: to thine own self be true". I found this quote especially interesting. When first reading it, it seems true, even good advice. However when put into context with the rest of the play it seems somewhat ridiculous. It is fitting that this line came from Polonius, he thinks he is all-knowing; but nonetheless, he seems foolish because of his constant rambling. The quote is talking about staying true to yourself, and your beliefs. In a world were no one is telling the truth, there is no line between good and evil, and there is even difficulty differentiating between reality and imagination, who is to say what you really believe, and if you can be true to yourself when when you are lying to everyone else.

The Pain

The next quote is from the video below. In the 2nd scene of the first act Hamlet has a soliloguy were he expresses the pain that has been inflicted on him prior to the play. His father passed away, within 2 weeks of his passing, his mother married his uncle. This quote deals with the first time Hamlet considers suicide. "the Everlasting had not fix'd his cannon 'gainst self slaughter". I believe that in the quote you really understand how confused and upset Hamlet really is. After he discovered that his Uncle might have murdered his father, he was hindered with more emotional pain and confusion than one person can manage.

Hamlet Act 1 Scene 2 Soliloquy (1996)

The Foreshadowing

The First Quote I am going to discuss, is not one of the most famous from the play; however, I believe that it holds an important meaning. In scene 4 act 1, Marcellus, a guard says "something is rotten in the state of Denmark". The character that spoke this holds little substance in the play and this line seems only to be talking about the ghost that has appeared; yet, it is truly foreshadowing the dishonorable events that will take place during the play.