Quote Analysis

Rosencrantz asks Hamlet what he has done with Polonius's corpse. Hamlet responds cryptically, reducing the body to its material essence rather than revealing its location.

The verb 'compounded' transforms death into a chemical process—mixing body back into earth—stripping away any spiritual dimension and leaving only material fact. This clinical diction makes Polonius's murder sound like a mere rearrangement of matter, deflecting moral responsibility through impersonal language. The word 'kin' quietly suggests all human flesh shares this destiny, universalizing death in a way that diminishes this particular killing.

Use this to argue that Hamlet's language after the murder shows him distancing himself from guilt—he talks about death in abstract, intellectual terms to avoid confronting what he's actually done to another person.