Hamlet To Thine Own Self Be True: An Analysis

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Hamlet: Introduction
Hamlet: William Shakespeare Biography
Hamlet: Summary
Hamlet: Reading Shakespeare
Hamlet: List of Characters
Hamlet: Historical Background
Hamlet: Summary and Analysis
- Act I, Scene 1 Summary and Analysis
- Act I, Scene 2 Summary and Analysis
- Act I, Scene 3 Summary and Analysis
- Act I, Scene 4 Summary and Analysis
- Act I, Scene 5 Summary and Analysis
- Act II, Scene 1 Summary and Analysis
- Act II, Scene 2 Summary and Analysis
- Act III, Scene 1 Summary and Analysis
- Act III, Scene 2 Summary and Analysis
- Act III, Scene 3 Summary and Analysis
- Act III, Scene 4 Summary and Analysis
- Act IV, Scene 1 Summary and Analysis
- Act IV, Scene 2 Summary and Analysis
- Act IV, Scene 3 Summary and Analysis
- Act IV, Scene 4 Summary and Analysis
- Act IV, Scene 5 Summary and Analysis
- Act IV, Scene 6 Summary and Analysis
- Act IV, Scene 7 Summary and Analysis
- Act V, Scene 1 Summary and Analysis
- Act V, Scene 2 Summary and Analysis
Hamlet: Critical Commentary
- Preface to the Critical Commentary
- Act I Commentary
- Act II Commentary
- Act III Commentary
- Act IV Commentary
- Act V Commentary
Hamlet: Quizzes
- Act I Questions and Answers
- Act II Questions and Answers
- Act III Questions and Answers
- Act IV Questions and Answers
- Act V Questions and Answers
Hamlet: Essential Facts
Hamlet: Essential Passages
- Essential Passage by Character: Hamlet
- Essential Passage by Character: Gertrude
- Essential Passage by Character: The Ghost
- Essential Passage by Theme: Revenge
- Essential Passage by Theme: Redemption
Hamlet: Themes
Hamlet: Character Analysis
- Other Characters (Descriptions)
- Hamlet (Character Analysis)
- Claudius (Character Analysis)
- Gertrude (Character Analysis)
- Ghost (Character Analysis)
- Horatio (Character Analysis)
- Laertes (Character Analysis)
- Ophelia (Character Analysis)
Hamlet: Principal Topics
Hamlet: Essays
- Hamlet's Delay
- Exploring Hamlet's Hesitation
- Is Hamlet Sane?
- The Ghost: Is He Really Hamlet's Father?
- The Character of Ophelia: Why Does She Go Mad?
- To Thine Own Self Be True: An Analysis
- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
- Minor Characters and the Number Three
- To See or Not to See: Fortinbras in Two Film Productions of Hamlet
- Hamlet and Macbeth: A Comparison
- The Theme of Pretense in Shakespeare's Hamlet
- Analysis of Act Five of Shakespeare's Hamlet
- Character Analysis of Horatio
- Comment on Hamlet's "To Be or Not to Be" Soliloquy
- Staging for Shakespeare's Hamlet: Act II, Scene ii, Lines 85-221
- The Nature of Hamlet's Character
- Hamlet's Delay: An Objective and Subjective Analysis Compared
- Analysis of Three Critical Works on Hamlet
- Hamlet: History, Religion, and Myth
Hamlet: Criticism
- An Approach to Hamlet
- Hamlet and Revenge
- Overviews of Hamlet
- Delay in Hamlet
- Revenge in Hamlet
- Melancholy and Grief in Hamlet
- Imagery in Hamlet
- Hamlet
- The Ghost
- Claudius
- Gertrude
- Ophelia
Hamlet: Selected Quotes
Hamlet: Suggested Essay Topics
Hamlet: Sample Essay Outlines
Hamlet: Modern Connections
Hamlet: Media Adaptations
Hamlet: FAQs
- Why does Shakespeare choose Denmark as the setting for Hamlet?
- What is the mood at the opening of Hamlet?
- Does Hamlet really hate his mother?
- Who is Yorick?
- What is Osric's function?
- Why is Hamlet given a military funeral?
Hamlet: Bibliography and Further Reading
Hamlet: Pictures
Copyright

In Act I, scene iii of Hamlet, the character of Polonius prepares his son Laertes for travel abroad with a speech (ll.55-81) in which he directs the youth to commit a "few precepts to memory." Among these percepts is the now-familiar adage "neither a borrower nor a lender be" (l.75) and the dictum: "This above all: to thine own self be true,/And it must follow, as the night the day,/Thou cans't not be false to any man "(ll.78-80). The occasion of the speech has been established in advance, for in the previous scene, Polonius has told the King and Queen that he has granted his son...

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