Hamlet's Soliloquy Essay

One of the best known pieces of literature throughout the world, Hamlet is also granted a position of excellence as a work of art. One of the elements which makes this play one of such prestige is the manner in which the story unfolds. Throughout time, Shakespeare has been renowned for writing excellent superlative opening scenes for his plays. By reviewing Act 1, Scene 1 of Hamlet, the reader is able to establish a clear understanding of events to come. This scene effectively sets a strong mood for the events to come, gives important background information, and introduces the main characters. With the use of this information, it is simple to see how Shakespeare manages to create stories with such everlasting appeal.

Hamlet is dissatisfied with his inability to kill Claudius, thus allowing him time to rewrite his wrongs. Unable to muster up the courage to carry out his envisions of murdering Claudius, Hamlet calls himself “a dull and muddy-mettled rascal” (2.2.526) that is “unpregnant of [his] cause”. (2.2.527) In both the soliloquies Hamlet stands around dreaming of completing the act, but pushes aside his outraged feelings toward Claudius. Hamlet is mad at himself as he pretends he is unaware of the treason. The soliloquy “what is a man” starts out with “how all occasions do inform against me, and spur my dull revenge!” (4.4.31-32) By “spur my dull revenge” Hamlet is stalling and much like a dull revenge a dull knife would do little to help achieve a stout revenge. This soliloquy also ties in with the

By so doing it was believed that the sins of the dead person would be

on an epic scale, Hamlet tell us that his father was so loving to her

While Hamlet declares his disgust towards Claudius, he compares the two characters, Old Hamlet and Claudius, as, “Hyperion to a satyr.”(line 140) and exclaims they are absolutely different like, “[him] to Hercules.”(line 153) Full of anger, Hamlet alludes to Greek mythology, because he wants to highlight how great and brave his father is, whereas Claudius is just a drunk beast. Additionally Hamlet displays a further employment of misogyny explains how Gertrude is, “Like Niobe, all tears,”(line 149) however he makes use of an antithesis to describe his mother’s too quick recovery from the death of his father. Through the allusion Hamlet wishes to show his hatred towards Gertrude for disrespecting his father’s great memory by forgetting him after such a short period of time and giving in to

In act III scene I Shakespeare’s exemplifies the stimulation of emotions and feelings through Hamlet’s words. The speech or soliloquy Hamlet gives in this scene is very much philosophical in a sense while maintaining an emotional side of the speech. Hamlet contemplates on suicide; it’s the thought that Hamlet gets that creates a sense of emotion in philosophy. The soliloquy that Hamlet states goes into the depth of philosophy “to be or not to be” (3.1, 57), these thoughts of Hamlet give a feeling of catharsis which few people know about. Whatever Hamlet contemplates is somehow subconsciously linked to each and every person, but people do not contemplate on it too much because of fear. The extent to which there is a sense of emotional appeal is quite effective and in depth to a person’s thoughts.

Hamlet delivers his first important soliloquy in Act One, Scene Two in Shakespeare’s masterful play, Hamlet. Often used in fine pieces of work, a soliloquy occurs when a character speaks to oneself, relating their thoughts and feelings and simultaneously giving insight to the audience. It is in this soliloquy where Hamlet reveals the genuine thoughts that occur in his head in addition to his feelings regarding the events that have transpired in his life. This soliloquy serves to bare Hamlet’s true melancholic nature and the purpose for his despondency. He discloses his feelings in an outpour of anger, grief, disgust and sorrow towards Claudius, his late father, the union of his uncle and mother and most prevalent, the state of his life.

talks of actors on the stage and says ‘Had he the motive and the cue

Coming immediately after the meeting with the Ghost of Hamlet’s father, Shakespeare uses his second soliloquy to present Hamlet’s initial responses to his new role of revenger. Shakespeare is not hesitant in foreboding the religious and metaphysical implications of this role, something widely explored in Elizabethan revenge tragedy, doing so in the first lines as Hamlet makes an invocation to ‘all you host of heaven’ and ‘earth’. Hamlet is shown to impulsively rationalize the ethical issues behind his task as he views it as a divine ordinance of justice, his fatalistic view reiterated at the end of scene 5 with the rhyming couplet ‘O cursed spite,/That ever I was born to set it right’. These ideas are

In the first place, the opening lines of Hamlet’s soliloquy uncovers his innermost feelings about all the events that are occurring around him. His father’s death and his mother remarrying his uncle, have all impacted him so much that he is thinking about ways to escape this world. “Oh, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt (…), / Or that the Everlasting had not fixed / His canon 'gainst self-slaughter!”

Hamlet, one of Shakespeare’s tragic plays, portrays the story of a young man’s quest to avenge his murdered father and his quest to find his true identity. In his soliloquies, Prince Hamlet reveals to the readers his personal perceptions of the events that take place in his homeland, Denmark, and of which are either indirectly or directly tied to his father’s murder. Many critics and scholars agree that while Hamlet’s soliloquies reveal the search of his identity and true character, his soliloquies universally illustrate man’s search for his true identity.

When the audience first meets Hamlet he is grief-stricken and upset with his mother for her hasty remarriage to his uncle. Directly preceding Hamlet’s first soliloquy he is firmly scolded by his mother and uncle for mourning his father and is denied permission to return to the University of Wittenberg. In his soliloquy, Hamlet says, “O, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt,/Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,” (1.2.133-134.) Hamlet is expressing his desire to die, but is unwilling to kill himself because he does not want to be sent to Hell. In this statement, the audience is able to see that Hamlet is deeply depressed and ready for death. Also in the first soliloquy, Hamlet says, “O, most wicked speed, to post/With such dexterity to incestuous sheets,” (1.2.161-162.) Hamlet makes this statement in order to reflect his anger with his mother for marrying her brother-in-law, a marriage he deems incestuous, within a month of his father’s death. This statement shows that Hamlet’s depression is not only caused by his father’s death, but also by his mother’s apparent betrayal of his father. Hamlet’s first soliloquy shows him to be very depressed and establishes a strong base for his character to develop.

I Hamlet's second soliloquy, we face a determined Hamlet who is craving revenge for his father. “Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat/ In this distracted globe. Remember thee!” Hamlet feels sorry for his father who was unable to repent of his sins and is therefore condemned to a time in purgatory. He promises his father that in spite of his mental state (he is distracted, confused and shocked) he will avenge his death. He holds him in the highest regards because he sees his father as a role model. “Yea, from the table of my memory/ I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records,”. He’ll erase all prior Knowledge and experience and leave only his father’s “commandment”. He will engrave it in the front of his mind to show his

By Hamlet’s third soliloquy he still has not taken action to avenge his father’s death and hates everyone around him, including himself. He begins his soliloquy with the famous line “To be, or not to be?” With this line Hamlet is asking whether is it better to be alive or to be dead. In this soliloquy Hamlet contemplates suicide and discusses the trials of life. He wishes not to have to deal with the hardships of life, but realizes that he is not brave enough to take his own life. Not only is he, like most humans, afraid of the unknown, but he is also afraid of committing a sin and damning his soul. At the end of his third soliloquy Hamlet has yet to do as his father’s ghost told him and Hamlet is still angry with himself for being such a coward.

Shakespeare's main character Hamlet is a victim of both internal and external conflict. His conflict includes a physical nature as he goes about to avenge his father's death. Shakespeare translates further the idea of internal versus external conflict by giving it a physical nature. Shakespeare also uses soliloquies to emphasise Hamlets inner thoughts and conflict. This stands in contrast to the way he acts amongst others; with the intention of highlighting the inner turmoil he is experiencing. The infamous quote, "To be or not to be: that is the question: whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer…." (Act III, scene i, 58-90). It is during this soliloquy that