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Hamlet Soliloquy Act 1, Scene 2 Essay

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Hamlet Soliloquy Act 1, Scene 2

The play opens with the two guards witnessing the ghost of the late king one night on the castle wall in Elsinore. The king at present is the brother of the late king, we find out that king Claudius has married his brother’s wife and thus is having an incestuous relationship with her. We also learn that Claudius has plans to stop the Norwegian invasion from the north. Hamlet, the son of the late king is unhappy about his mother’s marriage to his uncle and is still mourning the death of his father. Hamlet has become withdrawn and depressed and wants to return to his studies in Wittenberg (Germany), but stays because they are the wishes of his mother and Claudius. …show more content…

“Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden, That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature

Possess it merely. That it should come to this!”

Hamlet is saying that the whole of Denmark is corrupt and bad and that if these weeds are not dug up they will go to seed and spread more corruption around Denmark. Throughout the play Shakespeare has a gardening theme written into it this reinforces the idea that Denmark is an unweeded garden.

“But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two: So excellent a king; that was, to this, Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother”

Hamlet really loves his father he is his idol and hero and Shakespeare shows this in this part of the soliloquy. He compares his father to Hyperion the Titan, the son of Gaea and Uranus and the father of Helios of Greek mythology. He also says that his father a hyperion compared to satyr so he is even better than a satyr.

“That he might not beteem the winds of heaven Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth! Must I remember? why, she would hang on him,”

He says that his father would not hurt a fly and that he would not

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