In Act 1, Scene 2 of Hamlet, what does Hamlet's aside, "A little more than kin and less than kind," mean?

A lot is going on in this scene that reveals Hamlet's character as well as what seems most to be troubling to him. While on stage in this first appearance, Hamlet may seem moody and out of place with the forward-thinking court. his verbal dexterity demonstrates his intellectual superiority. It seems that he is speaking an aside, as Claudius does not pick up on Hamlet's initial statement about "kind" and "kin."

King:But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son—

Hamlet:A little more than kin, and less than kind.

King:How is it that the clouds still hang on you?

Hamlet:Not so, my lord, I am too much in the sun.

(Hamlet act 1, scene 2, 64–67)

Claudius himself is making a weak play on words with "son/sun" and "clouds," which Hamlet immediately disparages. (It might be worth noting that Claudius seems to be recycling the same metaphor Richard III uses in his opening lines: "Now is the winter of our discontent/Made glorious summer by this sun of York/And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house." In this play, we also find a complicated murder-marriage plot.)

Hamlet's exchange both in the aside and in his retort to Claudius emphasizes the dismay he feels at his mother's marriage to his uncle so soon after King Hamlet's death. He has no reason to think Claudius is guilty at this point, but he does resent the marriage. The speed with which his mother could overcome grief and remarry strikes at Hamlet's fundamental understanding of his mother's character and his parents's marriage. This comes out in Hamlet's bitter wordplay, which rejects the new family relationship Claudius and Gertrude seek to impose on Hamlet.

In this case, "kin" means family or blood relatives, and they are a little more than that, as the marriage has made Hamlet both nephew and step-son to Claudius. However, this relationship is neither "kind" as in nurturing nor in the less common use of the word to mean natural. They are both too connected through social conventions and not connected enough through sympathy. In Hamlet's mind, his mother's marriage is unnatural and incestuous (much like Henry VIII claimed his first marriage was incestuous since Catherine of Aragon was officially married to Henry's brother Arthur, though the marriage was not consummated). He feels that there are too many lines being blurred for them to maintain integrity, a problem that persists for him throughout the play.

What does Hamlet's phrase "A little more than kin, and less than kind" mean?

It isn't far into the second scene of Shakespeare's Hamlet that the reader will come upon one of the most famous lines not only from this play but also from all of Shakespeare's collected works. In fact, this line is one of the most common allusions to Shakespeare found in other works. Soon after Hamlet appears on stage, he looks to the side and declares with disgust, "A little more than kin, and less than kind." Hamlet is absolutely disgusted with his uncle Claudius who now, after marrying Hamlet's mother (Gertrude), has become Hamlet's "father." It is important to note the play on the words "kin" and "kind." The phrase relies on the double meanings of something being "natural" vs. something being "kind or nice." Let's take each of them in turn. Hamlet is asserting that Claudius is "more than kin." This means that where Claudius used to be a distant uncle, now he is (disgustingly) considering himself a second father to Hamlet due to Claudius's marriage to Gertrude. The irony here is that the term "more than kin" has a positive connotation, as if someone were saying you are "closer than family." However, Hamlet means the exact opposite in this case. The second aspect of this common allusion is the term "less than kind." The word "kind" can also mean family, as if we were to say "of one's own kind." Hamlet saying Claudius is "less than kind" can mean that Hamlet does not think of Claudius as part of the family and certainly not as his mother's husband. To complete the play on the word "kind," it can also mean that Claudius wasn't being nice (and certainly not kindly) when he took his brother's sister as his wife.