11 Times Shakespeare Understood Student Life

They say there is a Shakespeare quote for pretty much every situation and emotion – but how about the university experience? This is a collection of Shakespeare quotes for those times when a reaction gif or a plethora of emojis would usually be employed to describe the highs and lows of student life. 

Scenario: You are reading an incredibly dense essay that is almost completely incomprehensible to you. When you finally finish, you try to think about what on earth you have just read, but can’t come up with anything substantial.

Quote: “Words, words, words” – Hamlet, in Hamlet Act 2, Scene 2.

 

Scenario: You’ve caught your flatmate stealing your milk again, but you don’t want to kick up a fuss. Instead, you take a deep breath and walk away. It’s not worth it.

Quote: “The robb’d that smiles, steals something from the thief” – Duke of Venice, in Othello, Act 1, Scene 3. 

 

Scenario: Your seminar tutor is always nice – encourages everyone to speak, will happily meet with you to discuss essay ideas, didn’t get mad when you left your notes at home one time – but  when you get your first essay back, you discover this tutor is an unexpectedly harsh marker! Your grade average drops dramatically and you feel betrayed.

Quote: “One may smile, and smile, and be a villain!” – Hamlet, in Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 5.

 

Scenario: You are at a bar or club night you really enjoy. The music is great, the drinks are cheap and you are surrounded by friends. The work you have to do is suddenly irrelevant. Nothing can drag you away until kick-out.

Quote: “Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch / Of the ranged empire fall. Here is my space.” – Antony, in Antony and Cleopatra, Act 1, Scene 1.

 

Scenario: Your flatmates find you at 2am eating cereal from the box in fistfuls, muttering equations to yourself in a revision frenzy. You don’t know why, but this helps.

Quote: “Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t” – Polonius, in Hamlet Act 2, Scene 2.

 

Scenario: You really want to try a new sport or society but fear you won’t know anyone there, or will be awful at it. You know it would be good for you to go outside your comfort zone, but you aren’t sure if you can.

Quote: “Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt” – Lucio, in Measure for Measure, Act 1, Scene 4. 

 

Scenario: You write an essay and finally hit the lower word limit – 10% below word count. You are thrilled to have done the amount required of you and try to convince yourself that you’ve said all that needs to be said on the topic.

Quote: “Brevity is the soul of wit” – Polonius, in Hamlet Act 2, Scene 2.

 

Scenario: Your family points out that you have put on a little bit of weight since you left for uni, but you are enjoying the life of pizza too much to feel any guilt about it. You’re a student after all!

Quote: “Let me be that I am and seek not to alter me.” –Don John, in Much Ado About Nothing, Scene 3, Act 2.

 

Scenario: You have just realised your days of procrastination are catching up with you, and you have one evening to bash out a lab report. There is no time to sleep, eat or shower, and you accept your fate.

Quote: “I wasted time, and now doth time waste me” – King Richard II, in Richard II, Act 5, Scene 5.

 

Scenario: You come down with freshers’ flu, just as you have 2 reports and a presentation to write. Worse yet, you are out of soup and painkillers but cannot bring yourself to leave your bed. You wish your parents were here to look after you.

Quote: “When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions” – Claudius, in Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 5

 

Scenario: You accidentally stay up all night watching Netflix. The birds are beginning to sing and you can see the daylight through your curtains. You’ve done it again.

Quote: “But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?” – Romeo, in Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2.

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Image Credits: Meg / Flickr (Header)