The literary techniques used in these three quotations are all types of repetition. In all three cases, the principal effect on the audience is to draw attention to the word repeated.

In the first example, the particular type of repetition is called epanalepsis, which is where the word that begins the line is repeated at the end. Gertrude did not stress the word seems, but Hamlet selects it for emphasis, as he is concerned with the difference between appearance and reality. This epanalepsis draws the audience's attention to the hypocrisy of the Danish court and the hollowness of Claudius and Gertrude's mourning.

The second example is both an example of polyptoton (repetition of a word in a different form) and chiasmus, since the words madness and mad are juxtaposed with the alternative explanations, "essentially" and "in craft," on either side of them. Again, this makes the phrase more emphatic, stressing the idea of madness, even though Hamlet is claiming that he is only feigning his insanity.

The final example is also an example of polyptoton and an instance of ploce, since Hamlet places strong rhetorical emphasis on the idea of greatness, a quality he sees in Fortinbras, but not in himself. This rhetoric challenges the audience to consider the nature of greatness.