O God! A beast that wants discourse of reason / Would have mourn’d longer,—married with mine uncle, / My father’s brother; but no more like my father / Than I to Hercules.
Act I, Scene 2 · Hamlet
Context
Continuing his bitter reflection, Hamlet compares his mother's brief mourning unfavorably to the grief even an irrational animal would show, and contrasts himself with Hercules.
Analysis
The self-comparison to Hercules comes as an aside within a sentence about Claudius, and its self-deprecation ('no more like my father / Than I to Hercules') briefly shifts the target of Hamlet's anger from his mother and uncle to himself. The hyperbole acknowledges his own perceived weakness, foreshadowing the self-reproach that will dominate later soliloquies.
Essay Tip
Use this to argue that Hamlet's fury at his mother is entangled with shame about his own inadequacy—he measures everyone (including himself) against impossible standards and finds them all failing.