Quote Analysis

Hamlet exits the confrontation with Laertes by stating that even Hercules can't control fate; in the end, everyone will get what's coming to them.

Invoking Hercules—the mythological embodiment of heroic action—only to say even he is limited reframes the whole revenge plot: if the greatest hero 'do what he may' and still can't determine outcomes, Hamlet's delays might be inevitable rather than failures. The couplet that follows shifts to homely animals: 'cat will mew, and dog will have his day' brings cosmic limitation down to barnyard scale. 'Dog will have his day' is proverbial, suggesting Hamlet is waiting for his turn rather than seizing it, accepting a fatalistic rhythm where action happens when it happens.

Use this to argue that Hamlet's final position is fatalistic acceptance rather than existential paralysis—by framing even Hercules as limited, he recasts his own inaction as recognition that timing is beyond individual control. The folk wisdom of the couplet suggests he's made peace with waiting, or convinced himself that waiting is wisdom.