Doubt thou the stars are fire Doubt Hamlet

Doubt thou the stars are fire Doubt thou the sun doth moveDoubt truth to be a liar But never doubt I love

Quote Analysis

Act II, Scene 2, line 115.

This line is told by Hamlet to Ophelia in “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare. Nowadays it can have quite an ironic sense, because stars aren’t made of fire (sort of) and sun doesn’t move, it is the Earth that orbits it. But at the times of Shakespeare these statements were the basic axioms of reality, the eternal truth. With all the passion he’s got, Hamlet tells his beloved that his love is even more solid and eternal than the very bedrock of reality.

The third statement is even more emotional. Hamlet persuades her that his love will stay true even if the truth itself, as an abstract definition, ceases to exist. Even if anything else in the world will be a lie, his love will stay unchanged. So Hamlet equals his love to some primal laws of the world that can’t be shaken.

This lines become a dramatic irony when we learn the ending of the story. Despite Hamlet ends his last letter to Ophelia with the bittersweet "but that I love thee best, O most best, believe it. Adieu.", their love was doomed from the very beginning. His sincere and passionate declaration of love is tragic and heartbreaking, because we know that their hopes and dreams will be shattered mercilessly by the cruel fate.