Cutest scene
Henry V Act V Scene II: When Henry flirts with Katherine of France.
Funniest fight
A Midsummer Night’s Dream Act III Scene II: When Hermia and Helena fight and Hermia gets a complex about her height.
Best motivational speech
Henry V Act IV Scene III: We happy few, we band of brothers.
Best emo speech
Richard II Act III Scene II: “Let’s talk of graves, of worms and epitaphs.”
Most transcendent speech
Antony and Cleopatra: Act V Scene II: When Cleopatra resolves to die. “Give me my robe. Put on my crown. I have immortal longings in me…”
Best verbal undressing
Hamlet Act III Scene II: When Hamlet compares Guildenstern’s attempts to manipulate him to playing the recorder. “You would play upon me, you would seem to know my stops…”
Best insult
Tie. 1: King Lear Act II Scene II: Kent tells off his son with seven lines of continuous insult. 2: Hamlet Act II Scene II: When Hamlet is disgusted. by Polonius’ lack of literary taste during the Priam recitation. “He’s for a jig or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps! Say on…”
Most brutal scene
Titus Andronicus Act II Scene IV: The rape and mutilation of Lavinia.
Most questionable parenting
Coriolanus Act I Scene III: When Volumnia speaks joyfully of her sons near-fatal battle injuries and says if he had died, “Then his good report should have been my son.”
Most subversively feminist speech
Much Ado About Nothing Act IV Scene I: Beatrice’s “oh that I were a man” speech. “I cannot be a man with wishing, therefore I will die a woman with grieving.”
Cruelest comedy
Twelfth Night Act IV Scene II: When Feste the otherwise friendly clown torments the falsely-imprisoned and terrified Malvolio. “Madman thou errest. I say there is no darkness but ignorance.”
Archived Post
This post is archived from my account on li.st, a social media app that shut down in 2017. Some posts have been edited slightly to fix typographical errors and correctly represent the gender of some individuals. You can view the full archive here.