Hamlet Hamlet Quotes

Hamlet

Quote 19

HAMLET
That skull had a tongue in it and could sing
once. How the knave jowls it to the ground, as if
it were Cain's jawbone, that did the first murder!
(5.1.77-79)

Here, Hamlet is complaining that the gravedigger is being a little rough with the bones—only murderers deserve to be handled so roughly. This says a lot about our sensitive protagonist. Despite all his emo musings about death and suicide, Hamlet values life.

Hamlet

Quote 20

HAMLET
Not a whit, we defy augury. There is a
special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be
now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be
now; if it be not now, yet it will come. The
readiness is all. Since no man of aught he leaves,
knows, what is 't to leave betimes?
(5.2.233-238)

When BFF Horatio warns Hamlet that he'll lose the duel with Laertes, he reveals that he's decided to give in to God's "providence," i.e. fate. The reference to the "fall of the sparrow" is from Matthew 10.29 —"Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father" —which is taken to mean that God oversees the life and death of every single creature, even the sparrow. Was Hamlet's delay just a way of resisting fate all along?

Hamlet

Quote 21

HAMLET
How strange or odd some'er I bear myself
(As I perchance hereafter shall think meet
To put an antic disposition on)
(1.5.190-192)

When Hamlet warns his friends that he's going to "put an antic disposition on," he's literally referring to a "clown" or a performer who plays the role of a "grotesque." That means he gets verbal freedom. Like the fool, he can say whatever he wants without getting in trouble. No one holds a crazy man responsible, right?