Am I a coward? / Who calls me villain, breaks my pate across? / Plucks off my beard and blows it in my face? / Tweaks me by the nose, gives me the lie i’ th’ throat / As deep as to the lungs?
Act II, Scene 2 · Hamlet
Context
Hamlet asks himself a series of questions, imagining scenarios in which someone physically assaults or humiliates him.
Analysis
The anaphora 'Who' launches each image of abuse, building a catalog of provocations that Hamlet has not faced—they are hypothetical, not real. By listing insults he has not received, Hamlet is trying to goad himself into anger, but the very fact that he must invent them reveals his lack of instinctive rage.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that Hamlet's problem is not lack of motive but lack of affect—he can intellectually list reasons to act, but he cannot make himself feel the visceral anger that would drive him to violence.