O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown! / The courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s, eye, tongue, sword, / Th’expectancy and rose of the fair state, / The glass of fashion and the mould of form, / Th’observ’d of all observers, quite, quite down!
Act III, Scene 1 · Ophelia
Context
After Hamlet exits, Ophelia laments his transformation. She recalls what he once was—courtier, soldier, scholar, the model of nobility—and grieves that this 'noble mind' is now destroyed.
Analysis
Ophelia's catalog 'The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword' uses asyndeton (no conjunctions) to create a rushing, accumulative portrait of Renaissance ideal manhood, each role paired with its instrument. The metaphors 'glass of fashion' and 'mould of form' cast Hamlet as the template others copied, making his fall a loss not just for Ophelia but for the entire court's social order. The repetition 'quite, quite down' breaks the formal eloquence with raw emphasis, her syntax collapsing as she describes his collapse.
Essay Tip
Use this to support a thesis that Ophelia functions as the play's elegist for an idealized past—she articulates what Hamlet was before the play's events destroyed him, giving the audience a measure of how far he has fallen that he himself never provides.