Hamlet Quote Analysis

After stabbing Claudius, Hamlet forces him to drink the remaining poisoned wine, ensuring he dies by the same means he used to try to kill Hamlet and that actually killed Gertrude.

The string of damning adjectives 'incestuous, murderous, damned Dane' finally names aloud what Hamlet has known since Act I, yet the pun on 'union' (Claudius's word for the poisoned pearl) twists the king's own language against him. By asking 'Is thy union here?' Hamlet forces Claudius to die by the symbol he created, making the poetic justice verbal as well as physical. 'Follow my mother' commands Claudius into death as a final act of filial vengeance.

Support a thesis that Hamlet performs revenge as symbolic ritual—the repetition of Claudius's own poison and the verbal echo of 'union' show Hamlet scripting the death to carry meaning, not just ending a life but staging justice.