How can Hamlet lead his country and honor his father's death when such a malicious buffoon sits on the throne? He feels depressed, suicidal, fearful, regretful, grief-stricken, angry, disgusted, betrayed, frustrated, confused and impotent. His thoughts are of death and decay.
This speech indicates the level of negativity to which Hamlet has fallen. He is haunted by his father's death, tormented by his mother's marriage to Claudius, and infuriated by his inability to change either event. Now I am alone. O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I! Is it not monstrous that this player here, But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, Could force his soul so to his own conceit That from her working all his visage wann'd, Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect, A broken voice, and his whole function suiting With forms to his conceit?
For Hecuba! What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, That he should weep for her? What would he do, Had he the motive and the cue for passion That I have? He would drown the stage with tears And cleave the general ear with horrid speech, Make mad the guilty and appal the free, Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I, A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak, Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause, And can say nothing; no, not for a king, Upon whose property and most dear life A damn'd defeat was made.
Am I a coward? Who calls me villain? Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face? Tweaks me by the nose? Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain! O, vengeance! Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave, That I, the son of a dear father murder'd, Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words, And fall a-cursing, like a very drab, A scullion! Fie upon't! About, my brain! I have heard That guilty creatures sitting at a play Have by the very cunning of the scene Been struck so to the soul that presently They have proclaim'd their malefactions; For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak With most miraculous organ.
I'll have these players Play something like the murder of my father Before mine uncle: I'll observe his looks; I'll tent him to the quick: if he but blench, I know my course. The spirit that I have seen May be the devil: and the devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps Out of my weakness and my melancholy, As he is very potent with such spirits, Abuses me to damn me: I'll have grounds More relative than this: the play 's the thing Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.
This soliloquy illustrates Hamlet's continued inability to do anything of consequence. He lacks the knowledge of how to remedy the pain caused by his present circumstances, so he wonders how an actor would portray him, saying, '[he would] drown the stage with tears'.
One has to assume that this is what Hamlet wants to do, and what he feels his father's death deserves, yet he is unable to respond in this way. He wonders if he is a coward, since he does not 'cleave the general ear with horrid speech' or 'make mad the guilty and appal the free'.
He asks, 'who calls me villain? At this point, he is accusing himself of villainy for not speaking on behalf of his dear, recently-deceased, father. He believes that he must be a 'pigeon-liver'd' coward, lacking 'gall', because he does not do anything about the 'bloody, bawdy villain', Claudius.
He wants revenge on his 'remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless', uncle, but he can only complain to himself and accomplish nothing. However, his feelings settle some when Hamlet remembers that a play, reflecting the murder of Old Hamlet, by Claudius, might cause the latter to react in such a way as to prove his guilt. He needs this evidence because he worries that the ghost that he has spoken with could turn out to be 'a devil', luring him, in his weak and melancholy state, to commit a sin against his possibly innocent uncle.
The play, which he plans with the acting troupe, will give him the answers that he requires. Hamlet still feels grief-stricken, frustrated and angry, but his impotent and confused cowardice is being overcome by a belief that he can do something about his situation. To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them?
To die: to sleep; No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause: there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment With this regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action. Hamlet's third soliloquy is the famous 'to be, or not to be' speech. Once again Hamlet is confused and contemplating death.
He is wondering whether life or death is preferable; whether it is better to allow himself to be tormented by all the wrongs that he considers 'outrageous fortune' bestowed on him, or to arm himself and fight against them, bringing them to an end. If he were to die, he feels that his troubles, his 'heart-ache', would end. Death is still something that he finds appealing, 'tis a consummation devoutly to be wished'. Yet, even death troubles him, as to die might mean to dream and he worries about the dreams he might have to endure, 'in that sleep of death what dreams may come'.
He is still contemplating suicide and considers how, by taking one's own life, with 'a bare bodkin', or dagger, one might avoid 'whips and scorns' and other hard-to-bear wrongs. However, he refers to death as 'the dread of something' in the 'undiscover'd country', and this shows that he worried about how his soul might be treated in the afterlife.
He decides that fears concerning the puzzling and 'dreadful' afterlife, together with the conscience, cause people to bear the wrongs inflicted during their life on earth, rather than commit suicide and risk offending God. The fear of arriving somewhere unknown and frightening—possibly the torments of hell—is proof that 'conscience does make cowards of us all'.
People, he concludes, tend to think things over, lack resolve and do nothing. When Hamlet is remarking on such people, he is actually talking about himself. He believes that his uncle is wicked and deserves to die.
He believes that it is he who should end his uncle's life. But he is afraid of going to purgatory, as the spirit claiming to be his father has done. This reveals that Hamlet is in fact not as mad as he appears. In this soliloquy, Hamlet's language is stamped with relentless change in tone, the peaks of rage inter-cut with short moments of profound depression or of incredulous questioning. Hamlet comments on the way the actor seemed moved by his lines, whereas he, with a very real cause for grief, can say nothing.
Hamlet blames himself for not yet having taken revenge for his father's murder. He calls himself a coward for making use of words, not deeds: "Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words.
In conclusion, the soliloquies reveal Hamlet's true state of mind. Throughout these soliloquies the audience relates to Hamlet and we believe we are witnessing Hamlet's true feelings.
When Hamlet is left alone, he expresses a variety of attitudes to death and at different times in the play his moods range from intense fear of the unknown to seeing death as a welcome release from the agonies and injustices of life.
Also, during these soliloquies we learn about Hamlet's mood of despair and frustration at avenging his father's death. We also see his thoughts on the conscience, which prolongs him in killing his father's murderer, although his desire to never fades.
Through the soliloquies we form a rapport with Hamlet and discover his true state of mind. Get Full Access Now or Learn more. See related essays. In addition, this over explanation dramatises these two characters.
Also this makes King Hamlet almost seem like a God, and as for Claudius well he is seen as a servant compared to his father. This suggests that King Hamlet will always be superior to Claudius, even in death. We, the audience, can also see that these are Hamlets true. Claudius acted like Brutus by betraying someone very close to him in order to gain more power. But in the end, Brutus is punished for what he did and also is Claudius.
She is totally different from the other characters. That would be scanned: A villain kills my father; and for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send To heaven I, i, My mother stays, This physic but prolongs thy sickly days I, iv, If he had killed his uncle at his prayer, he would have gotten rid of Claudius, but he would know that his uncle was not suffering, which is what he wants for Claudius.
These aspects of the soliloquy reveal his mental instability and evilness. These soliloquies allow Hamlet to become a well-rounded character; otherwise, his character would have been rather flat. According to E. The soliloquies set the mood, tone, and foreshadow that the ending of Hamlet will be tragic. Overall, the reader learns that Hamlet has changing characteristics throughout Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. The loss of faith in one woman extends to the loss of faith in all women and the loss of faith in all mankind.
Hamlet can be seen as an ordinary man in pursuit of revenge. Who calls me a Villain? Breaks my pate across? Hamlets soliloquy is stimulated with emotions. He uses imagery of lust. The ghost has given him a suggestion of revenge.
He personified murder to have human organs and the basic quality of speaking. The suggestion of death occurs throughout Hamlets soliloquy and the cruelty of life is victimized by fortune. He is trying to escape from the problems and promises that await him.
Hamlet summarizes his problems once again in this soliloquy, refreshing the audience memory. Over here we see his perspective of life. This shows that too much thought has drained him off the energy to act. Shakespeare has captured Hamlets feelings and indirectly states that he cannot take revenge.
The tone is of helplessness and confusion. We realize Hamlets perplexity and how disheartened he is through his soliloques. The question resounds in his mind should he kill Claudius when he stands a fair chance to go to heaven. If Hamlet had acted then, many tragedies would have been averted. He talks about the preparations of the next world.
He supposes that Claudius is in a state of repentance, and so his death at this moment will, quite literally, enable him to go to heaven. He reasons that killing Claudius while he is praying will earn him divine mercy and send his soul straight to heaven. Paradoxically, the play, however, would have lost its high sense of tragedy, and Hamlet would have been less a tragic hero by attacking Claudius from behind as he knelt in prayer.
At this point many critics feel that Hamlet is merely putting off revenge. He fails to understand the true identity of a man. As a prince, he fears making any decisions that involves the Kingdom. It deals with not only different family relationships, but also with other formal relationships.
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