Wolsey's Soliloquy Analysis

When something bad happens, it’s easy to get angry, to point fingers; however, it eventually gets difficult to silence the sneaky voice in our heads whispering that it was all our own fault, that we deserved it. In this soliloquy, Wolsey is coming to terms with his own downfall, and he flies through this myriad of emotions. Shakespeare evokes the elements of allusion, figurative language, and tone to depict the full scope of Wolsey’s complicated, divided reaction to being removed from his job.

Within the very first few lines of Wolsey’s soliloquy, Shakespeare immediately establishes the tone of the passage. Angry at his dismissal, angry at the world for betraying him, Wolsey cries out “Farewell? a long farewell to all my greatness!” One can imagine him screaming this, wrecked by his demotion. Within moments, the audience/reader understands the situation and his pain. Rather than beginning with figurative language or deep

Between lines 3 and 9, Wolsey paints a picture of a man’s “tender leaves of hope” being destroyed by “a killing frost.” These leaves, he says, are the promises of “to-morrow’s blossoms,” and they offer great “honors thick upon” the man. Just as the man’s “greatness is a-ripening,” the plant’s “root” is “nip[ped].” This metaphor is referring to Wolsey himself, a man whose pride and hope have been dashed by an unexpected adversary. By saying that it’s the “frost” that destroyed the plant, Wolsey acknowledges that his destroyer was part of the natural order, part of the cycle. However, the man in the metaphor thought that he could overcome this and ignore nature’s wrath. This depicts Wolsey’s mindset: his dismissal was inevitable and partly his own fault. This striking metaphor, where Wolsey subtly reflects on his own mistakes while still blaming others, happens early on in the passage, so it plants the seed for his final allusion to Lucifer, where he takes responsibility for his