To be or not to be�that is the question." (3.1.64)
Speaker: Hamlet to Himself
Meaning: Questioning life or death, whether he should kill himself out of pressure to revenge his father's death or rise above and kill Claudius
Who would fardels bear/to grunt and sweat under a weary life, /But that the dread of something after life,/ the undiscovered country from whose bourn / no traveler returns." (3.1.84-87)
Speaker: Hamlet to Ophelia
Meaning: Questioning who would put up with life's challenges if we knew what lied in the afterlife
Ay, truly, for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is." (3.1.121-22)
Speaker: Hamlet to Ophelia
Meaning: Explaining to her that since she is pretty boys do not look at her as pure they look at her physically
Get thee to a nunnery." (3.1.131)
Speaker: Hamlet to Ophelia
Meaning: Telling Ophelia to go to a convent because she needs to relieve herself from sin and not give birth to any sinners
Tis now the very witching time of night,/ when churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out." (3.2.419-21)
Speaker: Hamlet to Himself
Meaning: This time of night is when terrible things happen and the witches come out, referencing his rage and mother
I must be cruel only to be kind." (3.4.199)
Speaker: Hamlet to Gertrude
Meaning: He must say these horrible things to his mother so that he can be kind to himself and his father
Mother, good night indeed. This counselor / Is now most still, most secret, and most grave / who was in life a foolish prating knave." (3.4.236-38)
Speaker: Hamlet to Gertrude
Meaning: Saying how Polonius was an idiot before he killed him and now he is quiet and respectable
O heavy deed! / His liberty is full of threats to all�(4.1.14-15)
Speaker: Claudius to Gertrude
Meaning: Hamlets madness is a threat to all, Claudius could've been the one dead if he was there
Not where he eats, but where he is eaten. / A certain convocation of politic worm are e'en at him." (4.3.23-24)
Speaker: Hamlet to Claudius
Meaning: Polonius is being eaten by a group of politicians (pun off of event in European history)
Exposing what is mortal and unsure / To all that fortune, death, and danger dare, / Even for an eggshell." (4.4.55-56)
Speaker: Hamlet to Himself
Meaning: He is exposing danger and death for a reason as thin as an eggshell, the reason being Fortinbras coming back to Denmark and revenging his fathers death
O, from this time forth / My thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth." (4.4.69)
Speaker: Hamlet to Himself
Meaning:IF his thoughts aren't violent, they are worthless to him
To much water hast thou, poor Ophelia / And therefore I forbid my tears." (4.7.211-12)
Speaker: Laeartes to Dead Ophelia
Meaning: You have had too much water (drowning) so I won't cry for you
Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him Horatio�a fellow of infinite jest. . . " (5.1.190-91)
Speaker: Hamlet to Horatio
Meaning: Holding a skull Hamlet is astounded that he once knew the person, Yorick, speaking about what a wonderful person he was
Dost thou thnk Alexander looked o' this fashion I' th' earth?" (5.1.205)
Speaker: Hamlet to Horatio
Meaning: Do you think Alexander looked like this when he was buried? Referencing the skull pulled for the ground, comic relief
I loved Ophelia. / Forty thousand brothers could not with all their quantity of love make up my sum." (5.1.285-86)
Speaker: Hamlet to Group (mainly Laeartes)
Meaning: Declaring his love for Ophelia at her burial, saying that the sum of 4000 people could not equal his love for her
No, no, the drink! O, my dear Hamlet! / The drink, the drink! I am poisoned." (5.2.340)
Speaker: Gertrude to Hamlet
Meaning: Gertrude's last words before she dies warning Hamlet of the poisoned drink
For he was likely, had he been put on / To have proved most royal." (5.2.443)
Speaker: Fortinbras
Meaning: Hamlet would've been a great king if he had time to prove himself before he died