Flashcards for Hamlet

Claudius

Claudius is the main antagonist of Hamlet — the usurping King of Denmark whose secret killing of his brother sets the entire tragedy in motion.

character

Gertrude

Gertrude is the Queen of Denmark, mother to Prince Hamlet, and was first married to the murdered King Hamlet before quickly marrying his brother Claudius.

character

Ghost of King Hamlet

The Ghost of King Hamlet acts as the driving force of the entire play.

character

Guildenstern

Guildenstern is one of Hamlet's childhood friends who is summoned to Elsinore by King Claudius and Queen Gertrude to spy on the troubled prince.

character

Hamlet

Prince Hamlet of Denmark is the play's introspective protagonist, whose journey moves from deep grief and inaction to violent, tragic outcomes.

character

Horatio

Horatio is Hamlet's closest and most trusted friend, a fellow scholar from Wittenberg whose steady rationality acts as a moral compass throughout the play.

character

Laertes

Laertes is the son of Polonius and the brother of Ophelia, serving as Hamlet's main foil throughout the play.

character

Ophelia

Ophelia is a young noblewoman in the Danish court, the daughter of Polonius and sister to Laertes.

character

Polonius

Polonius is the Lord Chamberlain of Denmark and the chief advisor to King Claudius, serving as a symbol of political authority while also providing unintended comic relief.

character

Rosencrantz

Rosencrantz is one of Hamlet's old university friends, called to Elsinore by King Claudius and Queen Gertrude to keep an eye on the troubled prince and report back on the reasons behind his apparent madness.

character

“Brevity is the soul of wit.”

This famous line comes from Polonius, the talkative and self-important Lord Chamberlain, in Act II, Scene 2 of Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Polonius · Act II

“To die, to sleep — no more; and by a sleep to say we end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to.”

This line comes from Prince Hamlet’s iconic "To be, or not to be" soliloquy in Act III, Scene 1 of Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Hamlet · Act III

“What a piece of work is a man!”

This famous line is delivered by Hamlet to his childhood friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Act II, Scene 2.

Hamlet · Act II

“What dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil must give us pause.”

This line comes from Prince Hamlet's well-known "To be, or not to be" soliloquy in Act III, Scene 1 of Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Hamlet · Act III

“Frailty, thy name is woman!”

This line is spoken by Prince Hamlet in Act I, Scene 2, during his first soliloquy.

Hamlet · Act I

“The rest is silence.”

These are Hamlet's last words, delivered in Act 5, Scene 2 of Shakespeare's Hamlet, as the Prince of Denmark lies dying from a poisoned wound he received during his duel with Laertes.

Hamlet · Act 5

“We know what we are, but know not what we may be.”

This line is spoken by Ophelia during her descent into madness in Act 4, Scene 5.

Ophelia · Act 4

“This above all: to thine own self be true.”

This famous line is delivered by Polonius, the Lord Chamberlain of Denmark, as he says goodbye to his son Laertes, who is heading to France.

Polonius · Act I, Scene 3

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

This famous line is delivered by Hamlet to his close friend Horatio in Act I, Scene 5, right after the Ghost of Hamlet's father has disclosed the startling truth about his murder.

Hamlet · Act I, Scene 5

“To be, or not to be, that is the question.”

This is arguably the most famous line in Western literature, spoken by Prince Hamlet in William Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Hamlet (Prince of Denmark) · Act III

“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”

This line is delivered by Marcellus, a soldier and sentinel, to Horatio while they watch Hamlet follow his father's ghost into the darkness in Act I, Scene 4.

Marcellus · Act I

“The lady protests too much, methinks.”

This line is delivered by Queen Gertrude in Act III, Scene 2 of Shakespeare's Hamlet, during the performance of "The Mousetrap" — the play-within-a-play that Hamlet has set up to gauge King Claudius's guilt.

Queen Gertrude · Act III

Ophelia's Flowers

In Hamlet, Ophelia's flowers represent the delicate nature of innocence, the breakdown of both social and emotional stability, and the expression of grief when words fail.

Poison

In Hamlet, poison stands for corruption, deceit, and the hidden decay at the core of the Danish court.

The Ghost

In Hamlet, the Ghost of King Hamlet represents the heavy burden of the past and the corrupting thirst for revenge.

The Play-Within-the-Play

In Hamlet, the play-within-the-play — "The Mousetrap" — highlights how art can reveal truths and expose moral failings.

Yorick's Skull

Yorick's skull in Hamlet symbolizes the unavoidable truth of death and its equalizing force.

Dramatic Monologue

Hamlet's soliloquies drive the play's exploration of inner thoughts.

Blank Verse

Shakespeare crafts Hamlet mostly in unrhymed iambic pentameter, using prose for comedic moments, pretend madness, and the actors' rehearsal notes.

Metaphor

The play is filled with metaphors that convey ideas in ways that literal statements cannot.

Irony

Dramatic irony is the backbone of the play.

Symbolism

Yorick's skull (5.1) stands out as the play's most powerful symbol.

Allusion

Shakespeare layers classical and biblical allusions to deepen and complicate Hamlet's predicament.

Imagery

Disease and decay imagery permeates the entire play, from the opening act to the final carnage.

Extended Metaphor

Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" soliloquy features a powerful metaphor, likening life to a sea of troubles that the mind battles against — a mix of military and maritime imagery that shifts into themes of sleep, dreams, and an unknown afterlife.

Juxtaposition

Shakespeare often sets up contrasting characters to highlight Hamlet through opposition.

Paradox

The play is full of paradoxes that defy resolution.

Elegy

Though it's a tragedy rather than a lyric poem, Hamlet is filled with a sense of elegy—grief for the dead king, for lost innocence, and for a Denmark that was whole before the murder.

Motif

The theme of performance and acting appears in nearly every act.

solid flesh

The physical human body, seen here as heavy, earthly matter that traps the soul — Hamlet wishes it could simply dissolve away rather than continue existing in a corrupt world.

phrase · Chapter 1

resolve

To dissolve or break down completely into something else — here, the body melting away into liquid, vanishing entirely rather than remaining solid.

verb · Chapter 1

Everlasting

A name for God, emphasizing His eternal existence — used here to refer to the divine authority whose law forbids suicide.

noun · Chapter 1

canon

A law or commandment, especially one issued by God or the Church — here, the divine prohibition against taking one's own life.

noun · Chapter 1

self-slaughter

The act of killing oneself; suicide — an archaic compound word used to name the act that God's law forbids.

noun · Chapter 1

serpent

A snake — used here as a metaphor for a treacherous murderer, echoing the biblical image of the serpent as a symbol of deceit and evil.

noun · Chapter 1

sting

To kill by injecting venom — here used figuratively for the act of poisoning King Hamlet, as though the murderer were a venomous snake.

verb · Chapter 1

bait of falsehood

A deliberate lie used as a lure to draw out the truth — Polonius means that spreading a small false rumour will trick someone into revealing what is actually happening.

phrase · Chapter 2

carp

A large freshwater fish — used here as a metaphor for a valuable truth that is caught by dangling a false rumour as bait.

noun · Chapter 2

faculty

A natural power or ability of the mind or body — here used in the plural to praise the seemingly limitless mental and physical capacities of human beings.

noun · Chapter 2

quintessence

The purest, most concentrated essence of something — used ironically here: mankind, for all its glory, is ultimately just the finest possible example of mere dust and mortality.

noun · Chapter 2

slings and arrows

Painful attacks or misfortunes that life hurls at a person — drawn from weapons of war, the phrase describes the suffering and bad luck that fortune inflicts on us.

phrase · Chapter 3

outrageous fortune

Cruel, violent bad luck — 'outrageous' here means shockingly harsh and unjust, not merely surprising, describing the brutal way fate treats human beings.

phrase · Chapter 3

doth protest too much

Declares or vows something so insistently and excessively that the very over-emphasis makes the declaration unbelievable — to 'protest' here means to swear or assert, not to object.

phrase · Chapter 3

pat

At exactly the right moment; perfectly timed — Hamlet means this instant is ideally suited for killing Claudius, since he has caught him alone.

adverb · Chapter 3

scanned

Carefully examined or thought through — Hamlet means the idea of killing Claudius at prayer needs to be looked at more closely before he acts on it.

verb · Chapter 3

aslant

At a slant or diagonal angle, leaning over — here describing a willow tree whose branches hang out sideways over the surface of a brook.

adverb · Chapter 4

hoar

White or grey in colour, like frost — here describing the pale silvery undersides of willow leaves that are reflected in the water below.

adjective · Chapter 4

fantastic garlands

Wildly imaginative wreaths of flowers and weeds woven together — 'fantastic' means strange and fanciful rather than wonderful, suggesting Ophelia's disordered, mad state of mind.

phrase · Chapter 4

single spies

Individual scouts sent ahead one at a time — used as a metaphor for troubles that arrive alone at first, before overwhelming numbers follow.

phrase · Chapter 4

battalions

Large bodies of soldiers advancing together — used here as a metaphor for the way misfortunes pile up and attack all at once rather than one by one.

noun · Chapter 4

jest

A joke or playful wit — here used to describe Yorick's talent for humour and entertaining others, which made him beloved at court.

noun · Chapter 5

fancy

Creative imagination or inventive playfulness — here praising Yorick's gift for imaginative, lively entertainment that delighted everyone around him.

noun · Chapter 5

special providence

The belief that God personally oversees and controls every event, no matter how small — Hamlet uses it to argue that even a sparrow's death is part of a divine plan, so he should not fear his own.

phrase · Chapter 5

readiness is all

Being mentally and spiritually prepared for death at any moment is the only thing that truly matters — Hamlet's conclusion that one cannot control when death comes, only one's own state of mind when it does.

phrase · Chapter 5