Hamlet Soliloquies

Hamlet then talks about how a man looks back on his past and learns from it. This is where a man gets his wisdom from, “Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple of thinking too precisely on the event, a thought which, quartered, hath but one part wisdom” (4.4.41-43). Hamlet know that he has to avenge the death of his father but he is too cowardly to do it “and ever three parts coward, I do not know why yet I live to say ‘this thing’s to do;’ Sith I have caused and will and strength and means to do’t” (4.4.44-47). Hamlet realizes that he must take actions into his own hands and kill Claudius because he has everything in his power to do the deed.

Hamlet recognizes that suicide is a sin in the eyes of God, so consequently wishes that he could simply cease to exist. In doubting that life is worth all the hardships one must face, Hamlet briefly relishes in the concept of death, equating it to nothing more than a sleep wherein one can be rid of the “heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks” of physical life (III.i.70). Though immediately thereafter Hamlet acknowledges the startling unknown, and the fact that one does not know what comes after death. Hamlet feels a great deal of uncertainty, which surely enhances his overall frustration. Herein lies Hamlet’s reservations in regards to committing suicide: it is a sin, and the afterlife may prove to be more unpleasant than life itself.

“To be, or not to be, that is the question,” (3.1.64). This famous line in William Shakespeare's Hamlet perfectly encapsulates Hamlet’s internal struggle throughout the play. Hamlet tells the story of the young prince of Denmark and his desire for revenge on the uncle, Claudius, who murdered his father. As is the case in many works of literature, Hamlet changes greatly throughout the play. However, because of his attempts to act insane, it can be difficult to precisely map the changes in Hamlet’s character. By carefully investigating his seven soliloquies, where he is alone and has no need to “put on an antic disposition,” one can understand and interpret how Hamlet’s character develops throughout the play.

Levy said Hamlet’s “thought is not merely the operation or manifestation of his intrinsic nature, but the progressive creation of it. In the classical view, man thinks in virtue of his nature as a rational animal. Thought does not make his identity, but instead is the consequence of it.” (para 28) His cowardliness might come from the fear of having to murder someone making him commit a sin sending him into damnation. Religion is a part of his need to get his father out of the predicament he is by revenging his death, but also Hamlet’s “wisdom” of knowing by revenging his father in return he will be sending himself into his own hell. In the soliloquy “what is a man” asks the question “why yet I live to say “This thing’s to do,” sith I have cause and will and strength and means to do ’t. Examples gross as earth exhort me.” (4.4.44-46) Hamlet wonders why with all the days passing by, he is still alive to say Claudius is alive and well. Hamlet has all the motivation needed for one to commit a murder his dear beloved father was poisoned and taken from his reign and family. As everything he knows to be true, he knows he must murder the person responsible for the hideous

Next, in one of the most famous soliloquies in the English language, Hamlet again contemplates the subject of suicide, but he does not do so on impulses of emotion. Instead, his contemplation is based on reason. “To be or not to be, that is the question: whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer outrageous fortune…or end them. To die, to sleep- no more- and by a sleep to say we end the heartache…’Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished. For who would bear the whips and scorns of time…who would fardels bear, to grunt and sweat under a weary life, but that the dread of something after death, the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler

In this paper I will be analyzing and discussing how these four soliloquies reflect changes in Hamlet’s mental state; his

Hamlet’s character drastically develops over the first four acts of Hamlet, and his character development is most evident through the soliloquys he delivers throughout the play. The most character development can be seen from the first soliloquy, to the second, the third, the sixth, and the seventh and final soliloquy. Hamlet’s inner conflict with his thoughts and his actions are well analyzed in his soliloquys, as well as his struggles with life and death, and his very own existence. He begins the play wondering what purpose he has in life now that his father is dead and his mother has remarried to his uncle. After finding out foul play was involved in his father’s death, he is motivated by revenge. Finally, he wonders how he can enact his revenge while continuously overthinking and overanalyzing his actions.

“To be or not to be— that is the question.” An exceptionally recognized phrase amid many centuries, cultures, places, and people. This short excerpt derives from the Shakespearean play, Hamlet: The Tragedy of the Prince of Denmark. Originally, this passage was displayed in one of the soliloquies of the play. Defined as “an act of speaking one's thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers, especially by a character in a play”, a soliloquy is crucial to furthering the plot and connecting the audience with the speaker. William Shakespeare reveals the true desires and intentions of Hamlet, the main character of Hamlet: The Tragedy of the Prince of Denmark, within the protagonist’s soliloquies. Even Hamlet, one of the most complex characters in literary history, can be simplified through the use of a soliloquy.

In William Shakespeare’s, Hamlet, the author writes about the Prince who seemingly goes crazy and kills many people that were once close to him after his uncle kills his father only to marry his mother. Shakespeare tends to have his characters talk through soliloquies in his plays to provide specific details about what that character is feeling. Shakespeare is known for his depressingly gruesome writings and Hamlet is definitely in that category. In Hamlet, Prince Hamlet has seven soliloquies to continue the plot and reveal Hamlet’s emotions along with creating a proper feeling for the play. In Hamlet’s soliloquies, he reveals that he is virtuous, yet indecisive, he thinks about

Shakespeare’s employment of dramatic struggle and disillusionment through his character Hamlet, contributes to the continued engagement of modern audiences. The employment of the soliloquy demonstrates Shakespeare’s approach to the dramatic treatment of these emotions. The soliloquy brings a compensating intimacy, and becomes the means by which Shakespeare brings the audience not only to a knowledge of secret thoughts of characters, but into the closest emotional touch with them too. Through this, the audiences therefore gain a closer relationship with Hamlet, and are absorbed by him because they are able to resonate with his circumstances, as he is faced with enduring truths of the human condition. Through these, the struggle and

The play Hamlet is Shakespeare’s most psychological plays. There is a lot that goes into understanding the characters and the reasoning for their actions. The soliloquies in Hamlet are crucial to understanding the meaning of this play. There are so many soliloquies that once you can decipher what they are saying, you can find the deeper meaning and reason for the play. Hamlet is depressed throughout the whole play, always dressed in black, sulking around the castle. He is mourning the death of his father. “That Shakespeare was profoundly influenced by such a play in the structural part of Hamlet there can be no doubt, and modern students find the explanation of many difficulties, inconsistencies, and discrepancies.” (Carroll) The most popular soliloquy in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, maybe even the most

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

Hamlet’s lack of knowledge of the afterlife, along with his inability to wrap his mind around a solid belief of what it entails, leads his fear of the afterlife to go beyond his doubt in the Ghost and result in him deciding against suicide. In what is possibly his most famous soliloquy beginning “To be, or not to be: that is the question,” (3.1.68) Hamlet’s question is referring to life. He is debating whether or not he should commit suicide. Despite his pain and suffering, Hamlet does not carry out his suicide as a result of not knowing what the afterlife will entail. The ghost had referred to purgatory as a prison, which naturally does not make it appeal to Hamlet. However, he is not even certain of the ghost’s existence, so the ghosts description of purgatory is not necessarily a reliable account. Hamlet is unsure of what will happen in the afterlife and is not comfortable with the fact that he cannot guarantee it will cause him to be happier than he is on earth. He is aware of his lack of knowledge in regards to the after life and since he cannot guarantee what it will entail, his fear of it prevents him from entering it before his time has come. This is shown when he states that the fact that one cannot predict what the afterlife involves “makes us rather bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of?” (3.1.81-81) Since Hamlet is unsure

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

Hamlet, the main character of William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, is one of the most complex characters ever created. His intricacy can be seen in the amount of soliloquies he speaks throughout the play. Each one of Hamlet’s soliloquies reveals his innermost thoughts and gives the reader or audience insight as to what he is feeling at that time. Hamlet’s quartet of soliloquies illustrates how Hamlet is initially indecisive, but eventually makes a decision to take revenge against his uncle.