Quote Analysis

Watching the Player Queen condemn remarriage, Hamlet mutters the word 'wormwood' twice to himself, signaling that the line is bitter medicine.

The repetition—'wormwood, wormwood'—has the rhythm of tasting something twice, as if Hamlet is savoring the bitterness he is forcing his mother to swallow. Wormwood, a plant known for its extreme bitterness, was used medicinally as a purgative; by naming it, Hamlet frames the play as purgative theatre, designed to sicken in order to cure. Yet his aside also reveals his own pleasure in this cruelty—he is not a neutral physician but someone who enjoys administering the poison.

Support a thesis that Hamlet's revenge is tinged with sadism—this aside shows him taking visible pleasure in his mother's discomfort, suggesting his motives are less about justice than about inflicting pain.