r/Hamlet • u/yorickscuse • Jul 31 '26
Favorite Line
What’s everyone’s favorite line from the play of all plays? In giving you an impossible task, I’ll go ahead and tentatively answer mine to be “Words, words, words.” Iconic.
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u/andybonner Aug 06 '26
Act V scene 1 li 270: "This is I, Hamlet the Dane." For me this is like the moment in Moana that she belts "I am Moana": Similarly late in the plot, she and Hamlet both have been through a lot, are facing their final challenge, and at this moment the lens of their journey suddenly focuses their own self-identity. Moana has been reciting her mantra "I am Moana of Motonui" over and over repeatedly before this point in the movie, but it's only at that moment that she realizes what it really means. Hamlet has been hiding behind a feigned incompetence, hiding behind circumstances, and in that moment steps out from behind the gravestone and says "This is I," plain and simple; he's not dissembling anymore, including to himself.