"Frailty, Thy Name is Woman" (Hamlet - Act 1 / Scene 2, Hamlet Monologue #1)

Hamlet gives several long and very important monologues in the span of the play (about 4 to 5, I believe). The first of these appears in Act 1 / Scene 2. Besides the "to be or not to be" monologue, this one is probably my favorite. It's witty, angry, and overall a very important moment for us to view Hamlet's inner thoughts.

"You know I don't like being the third wheel, Mother."

Alright, let's talk monologues. Hamlet's monologues--for those of you in high school--are possibly the most important part of Hamlet you can learn. You will be tested on them and expected to know what they mean and why what he says is important. To help you really break down these monologues, I'm going to actually include the script in the post. I will follow each line with my own words. In example:

Shakespeare's words go here

My words go here 

Hamlet's first monologue is extremely important. He speaks of his mother's marriage to his uncle, and we learn rather quickly that, while Hamlet is extremely upset over his father's death, he is more enraged and sorrowed by his mother's extremely quick marriage. It upsets him greatly because he views the marriage as incest. Hamlet is very loyal to his father, so he struggles to comprehend his mother's ability to move on.

Alone in the great hall after the marriage ceremony, Hamlet speaks to himself:

Oh, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt,Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew, 

I wish my dirty flesh would melt and turn into a dew/vapor

Or that the Everlasting had not fixedHis canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God, God!

Or that God had not made a law against suicide.
(It is this law against suicide that makes this line shocking, as suicide was not a common topic in literature at the time.)

How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitableSeem to me all the uses of this world!

How tired, boring, and pointless life seems to me.

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.

Damn it! It is an garden full of weeds, untended and growing wild. I can't believe it's come to this.

But two months dead—nay, not so much, not two.

My father has only been dead two months- no, not even 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.

He was such an excellent king, as superior to my uncle as a god to a beast. He was so loving to my mother that he would have kept the wind from blowing too hard on her face.

("Hyperion to a satyr" - Hyperion is one of the Titans from Greek Mythology. He's a child of Gaia (the Earth), so essentially, a God. A satyr is a half-man, half-goat (in Roman mythology. The man has horse parts in Greek mythology). Basically, Hamlet is comparing his father and uncle to Hyperion (a god) and a satyr (a beast).)

—Heaven and earth,
Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on, and yet, within a month—

Oh God, must I remember that? She would hang on him, and the more she was with him, the more time she wanted to spend with him. But still, within a month of my father's passing--

Let me not think on ’t. Frailty, thy name is woman!—

I don't want to think about it. Women are so weak!

(Yes, that probably sounds sexist, but just remember than Hamlet was written in 1599.)

Frailty, thy name is woman? Meet Maxine Peake. She played Hamlet in 2015.

A little month, or ere those shoes were old
With which she followed my poor father’s body,
Like Niobe, all tears. Why she, even she—

Within a month, before she'd even broken in the shoes she wore to the funeral, crying--

(Niobe is also from Greek Mythology. Her children were killed and Zeus turned her to stone, where she continued to weep over her loss.)

O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason
Would have mourned longer!

God, an animal would have mourned longer--

—married with my uncle,
My father’s brother, but no more like my fatherThan I to Hercules. 

She married my uncle, but he is as similar to my father as I am to Hercules.

Within a month,
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her gallèd eyes,
She married. 

Within a month, before the tears had dried on her face or the salt gone from her eyes, she married.

O most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!

She was so quick to jump into a bed of incest!

It is not nor it cannot come to good,
But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue.

It is not good. It cannot come to good. However, I must grieve silently in my heart, for I cannot say my feelings aloud.

The most important things to remember about this monologue:

1. Hamlet views his uncle and mother's marriage as incest. He is disgusted by it.
2. He does not understand how his mother could get married so quickly. He views his mother as a traitor to his father and to their love. Hamlet still loves his mom, but he also cannot forgive what is, in his eyes, a horrific fault.
3. Hamlet does not think his uncle is on the same standard as his father. He firmly believes that Dead King Hamlet is superior to his brother.
4. These feelings drive Hamlet's relationships with his mother and uncle through the play.