# Epigraph explained — The Greene Murder Case

> Chapter companion for The Greene Murder Case by S. S. Van Dine.

## What happens

The chapter opens with a quotation from Shakespeare's Hamlet, setting a tone of foul, strange, and unnatural murder.

## Themes in this chapter

### The Unnatural and Grotesque

The epigraph directly invokes the unnatural and grotesque nature of the murder, framing the crime as something beyond ordinary villainy.

## Key lines

> Murder most foul, as in the best it is; But this most foul, strange and unnatural.

This murder is exceptionally wicked, even by the standards of murder, and it is bizarre and against the natural order.

_The epigraph from Hamlet foreshadows the peculiar and shocking nature of the crimes to come._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_greene_murder_case_se/chapters/epigraph
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_greene_murder_case_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_greene_murder_case_se/chapters