Act I
Who said it? To whom?
"Murder most foul."
Ghost to Hamlet
Who said it? To whom?
"Brevity is the soul of wit..."
Polonius to the King & Queen
Who said it? To whom?
"To be or not to be, that is the question..."
Hamlet to himself (in a soliloquy)
Who said it? To whom?
"O thou vile King,/Give me my father"
Laertes to Claudius
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Who said it? To whom?
"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."
Marcellus to Horatio
Who said it? To whom?
"More matter with less art."
Queen Gertrude to Polonius
Who said it? To whom?
What does it mean?
"Suit the action to the word, the word to the action."
Hamlet to the player(s)
Act it out as it is, don't overdo it or ham it up, just act it out the way you should as realistically as possible.
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Take a chance at winning SOME points just for choosing this card, or choose another card...what will it be??
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Take 200 points
Who said it? To whom?
Neither a borrower nor a lender be
Polonius to Laertes
Who said it? To whom?
"Though this be madness, yet there is method in it."
Polonius to himself (as an aside)
Who said it? To whom?
What does it mean?
"Let me be cruel, not unnatural; /I will speak daggers to her, but use none."
Hamlet to himself
He is going to lash out at his mom by speaking to her in a very mean way, but he will not physically harm her.
Who said it? To whom?
"…this contagion, that, if I gall him slightly, / It may be death"
Laertes to Claudius
Who said it? To whom?
"Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him well, Horatio."
Hamlet to Horatio
Who said it? To whom?
What is the occasion?
"This above all, to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man."
Polonius to Laertes
He is giving advice to his son before Laertes leave for France.
Who said it? To whom?
What does it mean?
"...the devil hath power to assume a pleasing shape."
Hamlet to himself in a soliloquy
The ghost may have taken a pleasing shape like his father's spirit to fool him -- is the ghost good or bad?
Who said it? To whom?
What is the occasion?
What does it mean?
"The lady doth protest too much, methinks."
Queen to Hamlet
They are watching the play; after the player queen swears her undying loyalty to her husband Hamlet asks Gertrude what she thinks of the play.
Gertrude suspects her declarations of faithfulness are either for show or dishonest. In either case, the player queen is false to her husband. Gertrude probably also sees herself reflected in the character.
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Who said it? To whom?
What is the occasion?
What does it mean?
"Imperious Caesar, dead and turned to clay."
Hamlet to Horatio
Hamlet is discussing the fate of all men (including the powerful) to Horatio while in the cemetery.
Even a great man like Julius Caesar (the ruler of the vast Roman Empire) will be reduced to dirt (clay) after he dies and decomposes, becoming part of the earth.
Who said it? To whom?
What is the occasion and what does it mean?
"Do not as some ungracious pastors do/ Show the steep and thorny way to heaven whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine,/Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads."
Ophelia to Laertes
He is lecturing her to stay away from Hamlet before he leaves for France, and this is her reaction.
She is comparing Laertes to a priest that doesn't practice what he preaches; she cautions him to avoid the trap of giving out moral advice that he can't heed himself.
Who said it? To whom?
What is the occasion?
What does it mean?
"The play's the thing / Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king."
Hamlet to himself (in a soliloquy)
Shortly after speaking to the players about putting on a performance, Hamlet is reviewing his plan to determine if Claudius indeed killed his father.
By observing Claudius's reaction to the play that mirrors an action he is possibly guilty of, Hamlet will be able to determine if Claudius is responsible for his father's death or if Claudius has a clear conscience.
Who said it? To whom?
What is the occasion?
What does it mean?
"A villain kills my father, and for that /I, his sole son, do this villain sent/ To heaven. ?Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge."
Hamlet to himself
He has just heard Claudius admit his guilt in what appears to be a prayer asking for forgiveness (confessing).
Hamlet is about to kill Claudius to exact his revenge, but then he realizes that if Claudius is repenting, then Claudius will go to heaven and it will be more like a reward than a punishment since his own father is purging away his sins.
Who said it? To whom?
What is the occasion?
What does it mean?
"...her garments, heavy with their drink, /Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay / To muddy death"
Gertrude to Claudius and Laertes
Ophelia is dead and the Queen has come to report it
It means that Ophelia fell in the water and once her clothing got saturated with the water, she was unable to bring herself to the surface for air and incidentally ended up drowning.
Who said it? To whom?
What is the occasion?
What does it mean?
"Sweets to the sweet."
Queen to (dead) Ophelia
The queen is throwing flowers on her coffin as she is saying it at Ophelia's funeral.
She is basically saying that Ophelia is sweet and that the flowers are a sweet offering to her. This is when she also admits she would have liked it if Ophelia had married Hamlet, and reiterates how 'sweet' she feels Ophelia was.