Important Monologues from Act 1 of Hamlet

1. Important Monologues from Act 1 of Hamlet

2. Steps for Explication 1. Read passage several times.2. Divide into phrases/complete sentences3. Look up words I don’t know.4. Underline verbs. Who is doing what?5. Write in own words.

3. Oh that this body would dissolve, become less cold, and decide to be fresh and pure! Or that God was not unchanging about His rule against suicide! Oh God! Oh God! How tired, un-fresh, even, and un- useful Seems to me all the things of this world! O, that this too too solid flesh would melt Thaw and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix'dHis canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God! How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable, Seem to me all the uses of this world!

4. Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden, That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature Possess it merely. That it should come to this! Bah! It (life) is like an uncared for garden that grows wild; only weeds grow in it now. I can’t believe it’s come to this! But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two.So excellent a king; that was, to this, Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother That he might not beteem the winds of heaven Visit her face too roughly. My father had been dead for two months: no, not even two. He was an excellent king, as superior to my uncle as a god to a beast; so loving to my mother that he kept the wind from blowing too hard on her face. Greek sun god vs. A creature, noted for its lust and promiscuity.

5. Heaven and earth, Must I remember? Oh God, do I have to remember that? why, she would hang on him, As if increase of appetite had grown By what it fed on: and yet, within a month-- Let me not think on't--Frailty, thy name is woman!– She would hang on him, and the more she was with him the more she wanted to be with him. I don’t want to think about it—women are so weak! A little month, or ere those shoes were old With which she follow'd my poor father's body, Like Niobe, all tears:--why she, even she-- O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason, Would have mourn'd longer--married with my uncle, My father's brother, but no more like my father Than I to Hercules: within a month: Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, She married. Even before she had broken the shoes she wore to his funeral, crying like crazy-even an animal would have mourned its mate longer than she did—she married my uncle, my father’s brother, but no more like my father than I to Hercules: Less than one month after my father’s death, before her tears dried, she remarried. symbol of eternal mourning Hercules was a hero of Greek and Roman mythology who was known for his great strength.

6. O, most wicked speed, to post With such dexterity to incestuous sheets! Oh, so quick and with ease to jump into a bed of impurity! It is not nor it cannot come to good: But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue. It’s not good, and no good can come of it either. But my heart must break in silence because I must not speak of my feelings aloud. (Act 1, Scene 2)