act 1

• "Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder."

  
  

  This introduces the idea of retributive justice, the notion that sin must be returned with punishment. Claudius has committed a sin, and now to restore balance to the kingdom, the sin must be punished.
• "Time is out of joint, that I was ever born to set it right!"

  
  

  The rhyming couplet indicates that Hamlet resents the burden placed on his shoulders and expresses the view that it would be better if he had never existed. The idea of retribution haunts Hamlet, and leads him to contemplate suicide as a way to escape his burden.
• In Act 1, the introduction, we meet our central character Hamlet, who already seems to be facing an inner conflict. The Prince’s devastation over his fathers death and feelings of betrayal over his mothers remarraige prompt his soliloquy about suicide.
• P 1

  "O that this too too solid flesh would melt, thaw and resolve itself into a dew!"

  
  

  We can understand this as Hamlet just wishing that his own body would just melt away. He wishes that his flesh would melt or dissolve away, as a way to escape the corruption and moral decay he sees around him. This quote reveals the grief that has been tormenting his mind, how he wishes to die but is unable to do so as it is a sin to commit such a thing in Christian terms. He feels disillusioned with the world, and overall his desire to kill himself is a prime example of a dispute within himself.