My Understanding Of Hamlet's Soliloquy

Hamlet is very private with his grief. His mourning for his father is long and drawn out. He mulls over how he is going to act and defers action until a perfect moment.

Shakespeare builds and maintains the tension in Hamlet’s soliloquy through tone. The soliloquy begins in a depressing tone with the use of imagery when Hamlet contemplates on committing suicide, “Throw and resolve itself into dew” (1.2, 130). Shakespeare then shifts to a frustrated tone with the use of an exclamation point (syntax), “Seem to me all the uses of the world!” (1.2, 134), gives an idea of how angered Hamlet is with his mother’s incest. Hamlet’s soliloquy then shifts to a somber tone as he characterizes his father who was, “So excellent a king” (1.2, 139) that was so kind to Hamlet's mother, that the King would not allow, “...the winds of heaven Visit her [Gertrude’s] face too roughly.”

In Hamlet’s soliloquy in act IV scene iv, he brings up the question of “what is a man?” Hamlet does this while looking upon the over powering army that is lead by Fortinbras. His army was passing through Denmark to fight over an insignificant piece of land in Poland. Hamlet then thinks about his lack of action with his mission to kill Claudius. While he is seeing this massive army marching, going to war over something so insignificant he realizes that he must try to make his “thoughts bloody” (4.4.64). In this soliloquy, we learn that through Hamlet’s inaction he sees himself no better than a beastly animal where he should see himself as a man that takes action into his own hands which, makes him as the same level as the gods.

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

In Hamlet’s first soliloquy he reveals the inner torment he is facing, due to the aftermath of his father's death. Hamlet displays disjointed outbursts of grief, sorrow, and contempt. These outbursts reveal what he is really struggling with: figuring out what it means to be an ideal human. Striking uses of juxtaposition and imagery are displayed, indicating the distraught Hamlet’s views of the contemptibility of human existence. Hamlet’s contempt, and anger is illuminated by descriptive comparisons and gloomy imagery.

“To be, or not to be: that is the question,” said by Hamlet at the beginning of his soliloquy, and it has become a quite well known phrase since Shakespeare 's time. Even though the phrase is well known, the meaning behind it isn’t always fully interrupted or considered. The phrase can also be known as a representation of the Hamlet play itself, but the phrase is actually the words of someone whom is truly depressed and questioning life all together. “To be, or not to be,” in other words to live or to die, and at this time for Hamlet that is the ultimate question. However, is Hamlet truly depressed and crazed, or is he merely trying to fool everyone around him by playing the part? That will be the true question throughout this essay, and the following will question and explore Hamlet and his questioned sanity. I will do so by exploring events that lead up to Hamlet’s questioning of suicide, a close reading and reasoning behind Hamlet’s soliloquy, events resulting from Hamlet and his feelings, and how this passage of Hamlet reflects upon William Shakespeare himself.

When analyzing Shakespeare's Hamlet through the deconstructionist lens various elements of the play come into sharper focus. Hamlet's beliefs about himself and his crisis over indecision are expounded upon by the binary oppositions created in his soliloquies.

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 Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, doubt is one of the most important themes. In fact, the whole play is based on the story of a ghost who claims to be Hamlet’s father, and nobody can be sure if what he says is the truth. In this essay, I am going to focus on the theme of doubt throughout the play. I will first speak about the opening scene, and then I will talk about the ghost, which is a supernatural element used by Shakespeare to create doubt in the play. I will also analyse the passage in which Hamlet declares his love to Ophelia. Finally, I will briefly discuss Hamlet’s sanity.

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.

In the sixth soliloquy of Hamlet, written by Shakespeare, Hamlet finally begins to realize his procrastination. In this soliloquy we discover how Hamlet is purely a follower; he needs to compare himself to another person in order to realize his own flaws. This constitutes his madness as he is seemingly an intelligent man, as suggested by some of his previous soliloquies, but yet is unable to see his own wrongdoings until after it becomes too late. In his sudden realization, he confesses his procrastination and it all becomes clear that he was aware of it the whole time. It thus can be concluded that Hamlet has been fooling us, as all of his wise choices seem to come after some unusual circumstances and not solely from his intellect.

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

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.

Hamlet’s third soliloquy occurs in Act II, scene II. Throughout Act II, Hamlet acts insane whenever he is accompanied by others. Hamlet finds himself alone in his room after Hamlet orders Polonius to escort the players to their rooms. After his soliloquy, Gertrude and Clauidus discuss Hamlets behavior, still unsure of what has caused his madness. This soliloquy shows Hamlet’s troubled and conflicted mind as he debates his future actions to seek his revenge. Hamlet’s fear blinds him, making him unwilling to follow the ghost’s commands.