#the lady doth protest too much

[trashcanzaddy]

maomaos intrusive thoughts are so funny because they're always jinshi!

source: light novel vol 6, chapter 10: the bad dumplings

#the lady doth protest too much #the apothecary diaries #kusuriya no hitorigoto #maomao #jinshi #jinmao

[tall-glass-of-nope]

Let’s talk about “the lady doth protest too much,” because it’s a phrase I heard and used before I knew the actual context. And now, after I’ve finally gotten the context, I find myself continually thinking about its intent.

When I first heard it, (and pretty much exclusively how I still hear it) it’s been used to mean “it is suspicious that this person is denying something waaaay too hard.”

Ex. “The PR people keep insisting this chemical won’t harm the environment. They doth protest too much, methinks.”

And I never questioned that usage, because it makes sense.

Then I read Hamlet, and found that the line comes from a scene wherein Hamlet is trying to trick the people around him into revealing their guilt by having actors perform a thinly veiled parody play of his current predicament as he sees it.

In his actors’ play, the character that parallels his mother is solicited by her husband’s killer — who is also her brother-in-law. And the actress in the show denies her solicitor several times before succumbing to him.

When Hamlet turns to his mother and asks what she thinks of the show so far, he’s looking for her to see herself in the part. To react, or provide some kind of recognition of what she’s done. To condemn the clearly uncomfortable situation her character is in. But all she says is

“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

And I LOVE analyzing that, because my personal takeaway is like.

You know how you can write a whole poem or story about someone who’s wronged you, and they’ll read it and not see themselves in it? Yeah. (If you don’t know: this happens. A lot.)

So, whether or not she saw herself in the character onstage, My interpretation is that Gertrude (Hamlet’s mom) is revealing that her decision to marry Claudius (Hamlet’s uncle) was not a tearful and tormented decision made under coercion and duress. (Which is how Hamlet has experienced seemingly every major decision in his own life, and explains why he’d find this lack of passionate waffling to be offensive.) For better or for worse she’s revealing she just… didn’t say no to her brother-in-law.

And from there you can get into the why behind all that and her motivations and whatnot but that’s beyond the scope of what I’m trying to get into here.

“The lady doth protest too much” doesn’t read to me like condemnation of insincere delivery. Not exactly. The difference is kinda subtle, I guess.

A more parallel usage of the phrase is difficult to imagine, then, because there is some amount of self condemnation that it should invoke.

Me: “I baked you these cookies”

Them: “I shouldn’t; I’m watching my figure”

Me, knowing full well I ate five of the cookies before boxing the rest up to give: “The lady doth protest too much. Take the cookies.”

#hamlet #words #analysis #the lady doth protest too much #methinks #Shakespeare #am I making sense here? #anyone else think about this? #language #phrases #Gertrude #the mouse trap #context #on my mind #late night thoughts

[mewvore]

"I'm arguably the least single person on earth" so part of a polycule, then?

Nah, just one romantic partner, the love for said partner just happens to be so huge and I get ultra laid and I touch so much grass and I'm absolutely well adjusted socially and it culminates into a negative single person sum

#The lady doth protest too much #But I'm telling da truth its just 5am and my brain is goop at this hour

[lemonhemlock]

If your unimportant self insert was interesting enough on her own you wouldn’t have to use Aemond’s popularity to try and pull her into relevancy. Now you and other self inserters are here hating on female characters that are actually valuable and coasting off of headcanons to push them as fact. I still remember the fake conversations and lying about Aemond’s dialogue you shippers made up. Your obsessed and it’s cringe. If you all would stop trying to stoke fandom fights and go back to making slimmed down fanart everyone wouldn’t hate you. Created a plague in our fandom for no reason and everyone is tired of dealing with it and getting second hand embarrassment

#what self-insert i don't even have anything in common with helaena lmao #sounds like the one gatekeeping aemond is you? #the lady doth protest too much #ask #anon #inbox antagonism

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

babe. none of your lovers are even here like. let it go

#do you think she keeps insulting vortex manipulators to get notable people travelling with them in her tardis bc #at this point thats the only reason i see #the lady doth protest too much #the lady doth not have rooms for you in her way-better-than-vortex-manipulator timespace ship so you'll have to sleep in her room is that i #is that it doctor #i think thats it

[groenendaelfic]

Young Royals Snippet #5

Convincing people that the monarchy had to be abolished was a lot harder than it should be.

Nowadays people simply no longer saw it as a threat.

At best they rolled their eyes and said, "So what? It's not just the monarchy causing class division and inequality. They don't have any political power, not like that one CEO, you know the one who—"

Most merely shrugged and didn't care, or they pretended not to, while secretly or not so secretly romanticizing the royal family and all their hanger-ons, speculating about their love lives for entertainment, like celebrities, but ones which had to be addressed by a deferential title and who received millions each year to dress pretty and shake hands, their privilege a matter of pride and tradition, a deserved compensation for representing their country on the world stage.

And oh look, isn't the Crown Prince handsome? Don't you just have to feel for him after how sad he looked at his brother's funeral almost a decade ago? How time flies by, the poor dear, so handsome and strong despite his grief, all grown up now, but well, you are probably too young to remember how cute he was as a toddler when he ...

It was infuriating.

It didn’t matter that the monarchy had no more power on paper, was entirely useless in theory, because when the Crown Prince visited an animal sanctuary journalists and random people alike suddenly paid attention to the cause, had an opinion and cared, acting as if the concept of such a thing was entirely new to them, as if they couldn’t conceptualize the importance of animal welfare without the heir to centuries of injustice and exploitation showing up for a minute to shake hands and cuddle a puppy, cameras of course always ready to capture every second and to make the visit seem much longer than it actually had been.

The fact that said Crown Prince looked cute cuddling puppies was entirely beside the point.

Or rather it wasn’t, because that was intentional as well, was another way for the establishment to romanticize the monarchy, to make it seem benign and harmless, and Simon had no doubt that countless teenage girls were right at this moment saving the pictures of the puppy cuddling prince on their phones, dreaming of being his future princess and to one day be cuddled by the privileged waste of taxes in turn, not spending a second caring about the starvation and death his palaces were built upon, about the countless other animals the Crown Prince hadn’t cuddled, nor about the puppy which had most certainly gotten dozens of adoption requests the moment the pictures were posted, completely ignoring the fact that that wasn’t what animal sanctuaries were for, that they weren’t shelters eager to find a forever home for their charges, that this wasn't even a dog sanctuary, that the puppy was just a prop, one which was safer and less divisive than having the heir to the throne pet the actual wildlife there, and it made Simon so angry, because all of that shouldn’t be necessary.

People shouldn’t require pampered mascots to highlight worthy causes, especially not when the only reason said mascots did anything worthwhile was to distract from their own scandals and shady dealings. And anyway, what about all the other causes which didn’t come with a charming photo opportunity or glitzy galas?

Simon hated the monarchy, and the fact that its currently most popular face was objectively aesthetically pleasing and constantly surrounded by an alluring air of melancholy didn’t change that one bit.

Still, know your enemy, or so the saying went, and Simon very much understood the reasons for that, pressing save on the picture he was never going to look at again, because being hot did not magically make one a good person, nor did it make profiteering off of inherited wealth and inequality any less inexcusable, and really, fuck the monarchy, fuck it very much.

and then 30k later wilmon have angry sex

somehow

#in which Simon is a staunch republican campaigning to abolish the monarchy #and Wilhelm is the Crown Prince of Sweden who just so happens to be very handsome indeed #the lady doth protest too much #fics I’ll never write #fic snippet #young royals #young royals fic

[thewitchqueenofharrenhal]

Imagine sitting in someone’s inbox who you don't know...crying, screaming and throwing up because they break your self insert 50 shades of grey delusion you have going on with daemon (Matt Smith) Targaryen by discussing canon. LMAO. 

I knooooow this is how you felt typing in my inbox ^ 😭

#I know your ass is 40 #probably a doctor who Stan #I can't stop laughing #not blocking you because Im collecting those messages to laugh at with everyone. #the lady doth protest too much #like I'm imagining you unironically typing #and I'm about to pee over the cringe #plsssss keep going #I’m begging for the funnies #but anyways

[maxsix]

Another day has passed. And to all the people who got to see TXT performing the Lovesick trilogy (Lovesong, Anti Romantic, Loser=Lover) live: my resentment of you all grows with each passing day. 

#i said what i said #the lady doth protest too much #but the lady wants to see LL live ok #with a band #at barrier #with taehyun doing his thing #please and thank you

[mxtxfanatic]

“...What an unlucky journey this has been! Either I get dragged to facials by women and girls, or I had to swallow my honour to dress like this. I have never, ever, made sacrifices this huge.”

��Aren’t you rather enjoying yourself....’ Xie Lian thought.

—Chapt. 42: Borrowing the Underpath; Night Crawl in Paradise Manor (Part One)

Wow, Shi Qingxuan got to play dress-up while being told how beautiful he is in the disguise he chose because he wanted to be in his female form. How tragic 🙄

#human reads tgcf: take 1.5 #the lady doth protest too much

[electric-beaugaloo]

I see your “Alice and Celia are anagrams” post and raise you a “Alice and s1 Jon are wearing the same hat”

S1 Jon is desperately skeptic bc he’s scared & doesn’t feel in control so he’s bluffing in a way that comes across as unlikable. I think Alice is also haunted by the job but faking her way through it by bullishly insisting others don’t think about it… also in a way that can come across as unlikable.

#not me tho I love my good friend Alice Dyer who has never done anything wrong in her life #highlight of the episode to me was the implication that she’s a tall girl #wife material #tmagp #the magnus protocol #I just think she’s brought up the fact that this job doesn’t bother her a tad too much #something something the lady doth protest

[ravenkings]

#this is very much a ‘the lady doth protest too much’ situation imo….. #twitter

[deservesbettcr]

❛   you   always   pretend   you   don’t   care   but   i   know   you   do.   ❜ ( Julian, to Caroline )

"I'm not pretending, Julian. I don't care. In fact, I couldn't care less. You have someone, and she's beautiful and charming and that's great for you. We never said we were exclusive. I'll live."

#[ :i'm in charge of planning; meme answers; ] #the lady doth protest too much #[ :v; oth ]

[uhbasicallyjustmilex]

if i had a nickel for every time alex turner told all of glastonbury he shares a bed with miles kane, i’d have two nickels. which isn't a lot, but it's still weird that it’s happened twice…

#“we don't. we dOnT. WE DON'T” #oh alex #methinks the lady doth protest too much #maybe he was just overcompensating that second time because he was like 'SHIT i can't believe i've done it again' #poor silly little man 💗 #miles's companionable 'we don't' right at the end too 🥺 #they don't help themselves #milex #milex vid #tlsp #the last shadow puppets #miles kane #alex turner #arctic monkeys #lulu posts

[ssaalexblake]

dw is a mid kid's sci-fi tv show and it's quality level has been mostly entirely consistent (mid, basically, with the occasional very good episode to balance out with crimes against humanity it sometimes produces) the whole reboot, and anybody acting like the Only thing going into peoples opinions of the characters are writing preferences are either Deeply naive or are trying to hide something they know people will not take kindly to.

#dw shit #but look. If you seriously think the one Single doctor without depth is 13 then that is a You having a woman issue. it just is. #there's lots of it #there's thousands upon thousands of words of meta about her and her characters online #as there is for Every Other Doctor #because they All have depth #if you fail to see it the one time you're Not presented with a dude that's not my problem #nor am i gonna hold any hands #i'm not trying to convince you of anything i'm not your mother #but sometimes a duck is just a duck and I will call it a duck #this isn't about Liking the story it's about having a brain not cooked in misogyny to even See it #to start with (you failed the challenge) #kinda hoping the large number of people living up rtd's ass will save gatwa from some of this treatment but i'm not holding my breath #'but I personally would never!' okay but... what about all your buddies??? what about everybody else?? if you're distancing yourself from #Those Bad People you are admitting they exist and there was no point getting pissed at me for pointing out they exist #the lady (gender neutral) doth protest too much #look i don't like Rose much (the og) but you can Bet i've seen some Questionable takes on why she's bad and i'll call them that #the classism and the sexism and the noxious fumes #you can just. Admit that. Even about characters you dislike lol pls

[librarygf]

lestat: i love just walking and talking with louis, my love louis :’)

louis:

#damn chill lmao #hes constantly on about how ugly and annoying lestat is sdgfhd. methinks the lady doth protest too much #interview with the vampire #m

[obviouschild2014]

Oh its so crazy btw that im realising in real time how many quotes and phrases we hear referenced everywhere all the time are just lines from hamlet

#never did shakespeare in school so didnt have that early exposure to ut #beyond shes the man starring amanda bynes dhdhdndnjd #but like ‘lady doth protest too much’ and ‘to thine own self be true’ and even ‘goodnight sweet prince’ thats all hamlet! whoda thunk #sh