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All Site ContentHamletAct 3Scene 2
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"Purpose" and "fruit"
Simile
Act 3,
Scene 2
Lines 173-184

An explanation of the fruit simile in Act 3, Scene 2 of myShakespeare’s Hamlet.

Player King

I do believe you think what now you speak,
But what we do determine, oft we break.
Purpose is but the slave to memory,
Of violent birth but poor validity;
Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree,
But fall unshaken when they mellow be.    
Most necessary 'tis that we forget
To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt.
What to ourselves in passion we propose,
The passion ending, does the purpose lose.
The violence of either grief or joy 
Their own enactors with themselves destroy.

This simile suggests that, we hold on tightly to our intentions at first, but then let them slip away, just as green fruit is strongly attached to its tree, but falls off when it ripens.