The Function of Soliloquies

1283 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Hamlet theme of betrayal

Shakespeare relies heavily on soliloquies to help the reader understand Prince Hamlet. Hamlet is often speaking out loud when he is by himself. This lets the reader know what Hamlet is actually thinking despite what he is telling others around him (Mittelstaedt 126-27). The majority of the soliloquies are moments when Hamlet is overwhelmed by emotion at his situation and deeply upset. Hamlet’s sadness is what the play revolves around. In the play, Hamlet is dealt hand after hand of misfortune by Lady Luck. If Hamlet were not upset, the story would not make sense (Bradley 107). Another aspect of Hamlet’s personality that powers the play is his mind. He is a deep thinker surrounded by shallow individuals, and his “extraordinary mind” lets him react differently to situations than the people around him (Soellner 176). In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the soliloquies offer a deeper look into Hamlet’s state of mind throughout the play.

Before the first soliloquy, Hamlet has come home from college to attend his father’s funeral and his mother, Gertrude’s, wedding. However, Gertrude has married the king’s brother Claudius, which was considered morally deplorable. He wishes that “…the Everlasting had not fixed/ His cannon ‘gainst self-slaughter” (1.2.135-36). Hamlet is overwrought by the situation. He used to admire his mother for how much she loved King Hamlet, but now he just sees her as a wanton woman in an incestuous marriage with a vile man that he despises. Above all else, Hamlet is shocked at his mother’s prompt remarriage, and he is disappointed that she would sink to such a low level (Bradley 104). In Hamlet’s opinion “…a beast that wants discourse of reason/ Would have mourned longer” (1.2. 155-56). Even though it is not considered mu...

... middle of paper ...

... order to keep his plan a secret. However, the reader still knows who he is. Hamlet’s innermost workings and true character are brought to the stage through the soliloquies.

Works Cited

Bloom, Harold, ed. "Key Passages in Hamlet." Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 20 Mar. 2014

Boklund, Gunnar, “Judgement in Hamlet.” Essays on Shakespeare. Binghamton: Vail-Ballou Press, 1965. 116-37. Print.

Bradley, A.C. “Hamlet’s Melancholy.” Reading on the Tragedies of William Shakespeare. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. 100-08. Print.

Mittelstaedt, Walt. A Student’s Guide to William Shakespeare. Berkely Heights: Enslow Publishers, 2005. Print.

Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. New York: Washington Square, 1992. Print.

Soellner, Rolf. Shakespeare’s Patterns of Self-Knowledge. Ohio State UP: Ohio State University Press, 1972. Print.

Show More
Related

  • The Characters of Hamlet and Holden

    1442 Words  | 3 Pages

    After demolishing the theories of other critics, Bradley concluded that the essence of Hamlet’s character is contained in a three-fold analysis of it. First, that rather than being melancholy by temperament, in the usual sense of “profoundly sad,” he is a person of unusual nervous instability, one liable to extreme and profound alterations of mood, a potential manic-depressive type. Romantic, we might say. Second, this Hamlet is also a person of “exquisite moral sensibility, “ hypersensitive to goodness, a m...

    Read More

  • To Be or Not To Be Loved

    1398 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shakespeare, William. "Hamlet." Madden, Frank. Exploring Literature. 4th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009. Print 539-663

    Read More

  • The Importance of Fear in Hamlet

    1064 Words  | 3 Pages

    Bloom, Harold. "Introduction." Modern Critical Interpretations: Hamlet. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York City: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. 1-10.

    Read More

  • Hamlet, by William Shakespeare

    1427 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hamlet’s soliloquy is surely one of the great dramatic monologues in world literature. It is as well known as any in the Shakespearean canon and a favorite selection for memorization. The Prince’s meditation transcends the personal. Much of what he says is applicable to all mankind. The speech, coming as it does at the midpoint of the entire action, poses many critical problems. In view of the widely contrasting interpretations of this speech, it would be naïve to ignore the difficulties of interpretation.

    Read More

  • Socrates and Epicurus - Live Life Without Fear of Death

    2744 Words  | 6 Pages

    Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. 2nd ed. Vol. C. Ed. Sarah Lawall. New York: Norton, 2005. Print.

    Read More

  • “Literary Techniques Used in Hamlet”, by William Shakespeare

    1059 Words  | 3 Pages

    Soliloquies are one of the most important techniques used within “Hamlet”. Soliloquies give the audience a deeper insight into the emotions and mental state of the character. Shakespeare uses soliloquies to allow the audience to feel the depth of emotion in Hamlets character. In Hamlets perhaps most famous soliloquy he cries out, “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 (Act III, I, 56).” This quote furthermore reveals a part of the story that would be otherwise hidden to the reader, for example, his state of mind and also his desire to commit suicide in order to escape the pain of his life. The reader’s response, in result, is altered as it is made clear that Hamlet is obviously struggling to come to ter...

    Read More

  • The Conveying of Hamlet's Thoughts

    592 Words  | 2 Pages

    William Shakespeare’s Hamlet gives the readers insight into Hamlet’s state of mind as his world comes crashing down with the knowledge of his father’s murder. In the well-known soliloquy from Act III, scene i, Hamlet concisely invokes his thoughts and feelings through the extended use of diction, imagery, and syntax. Hamlet’s powerful word choice conveys his deeply unresolved problems as he considers life’s cycle.

    Read More

  • Contrasting Fortinbras and Laertes with Hamlet

    1951 Words  | 4 Pages

    Mack, Maynard. "The World of Hamlet." Yale Review. vol. 41 (1952) p. 502-23. Rpt. in Shakespeare: Modern Essays in Criticism. Rev. ed. Ed. Leonard F. Dean. New York: Oxford University P., 1967.

    Read More

  • A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

    1266 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shakespeare, William. “Hamlet.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. Ed. Kelly J. Mays. 11th ed. New York: Norton, 2013.1709-1804. Print.

    Read More

  • Fathers and Sons in Hamlet

    1192 Words  | 3 Pages

    Boklund, Gunnar. "Hamlet." Essays on Shakespeare. Ed. Gerald Chapman. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1965.

    Read More

  • Ways in Which Hamlet's Behavior Was Influenced by Other Characters in Shakespeare's Work

    1380 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the beginning of the book, Hamlet behaves as any normal person would when he mourns the untimely death of his father, the King. He is dreary and depressed and also contemplates suicide. On the other hand, Gertrude behaves as though her husband’s death did not even occur, not in such a way that she is denying it happened, but as if it was insignificant and trivial. She marries her husband’s brother a month after his death. She continues to live on in a blissful world, while Hamlet is repulsed by his mother’s decision to remarry so quickly. Hamlet refers to it as an incestuous marriage. “She married:--O most wicked speed, to post With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!” (Act 1, Scene 2, lines 156-157, page 33). He appears to be the only one in the entire kingdom affected by the death of his father and it makes him feel more alone.

    Read More

  • The Purpose of Soliloquies in Shakespeare's Hamlet

    909 Words  | 2 Pages

    First, soliloquies help to reveal many vital character emotions key to the plot of the play Hamlet. They help the audience achieve a better understanding of the character’s emotions, feelings, attitudes and thoughts. If soliloquies did not exist, the audience would likely not be able to discover a character’s mindset. This is true for many of Hamlet’s soliloquies. For example, in Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy, Hamlet reveals his deep thoughts concerning suicide (III, i, 56-89). In the actual, “To be or not to be” quote he questions whether to exist or not to exist; essentially, he is contemplating suicide (III, i, 56). He contemplates suicide by saying that dying is really only sleeping which ends heartaches and shocks that life gives, “And by a sleep to say we end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks” (III, i, 63-64). The soliloquy also showed the audience his thoughts concerning his father’s death and mother’s remarriage to Claudius. In addition, it further discusses Hamlet’s feelings about revenging his father’s death and how “the law’s delay” (III, i, 72). By Hamlet saying “the law’s delay”, he is essentially t...

    Read More

  • Condemned: Hamlet’s Moral Dilemma

    1663 Words  | 4 Pages

    Hamlet is one of the most often-performed and studied plays in the English language. The story might have been merely a melodramatic play about murder and revenge, butWilliam Shakespeare imbued his drama with a sensitivity and reflectivity that still fascinates audiences four hundred years after it was first performed. Hamlet is no ordinary young man, raging at the death of his father and the hasty marriage of his mother and his uncle. Hamlet is cursed with an introspective nature; he cannot decide whether to turn his anger outward or in on himself. The audience sees a young man who would be happiest back at his university, contemplating remote philosophical matters of life and death. Instead, Hamlet is forced to engage death on a visceral level, as an unwelcome and unfathomable figure in his life. He cannot ignore thoughts of death, nor can he grieve and get on with his life, as most people do. He is a melancholy man, and he can see only darkness in his future—if, indeed, he is to have a future at all. Throughout the play, and particularly in his two most famous soliloquies, Hamlet struggles with the competing compulsions to avenge his father’s death or to embrace his own. Hamlet is a man caught in a moral dilemma, and his inability to reach a resolution condemns himself and nearly everyone close to him.

    Read More

  • Inconsistency in The Character of Hamlet

    1079 Words  | 3 Pages

    The perfection of Hamlet’s character has been called in question - perhaps by those who do not understand it. The character of Hamlet stands by itself. It is not a character marked by strength of will or even of passion, but by refinement of thought and sentiment. Hamlet is as little of the hero as a man can be.  He is a young and princely novice, full of high enthusiasm and quick sensibility - the sport of circumstances, questioning with fortune and refining on his own feelings, and forced from his natural disposition by the strangeness of his situation.

    Read More

  • Hamlet – A Psychological Drama

    1933 Words  | 4 Pages

    The psychological aspect of Hamlet which is most prominently displayed is his melancholy. This condition is rooted in the psyche and the emotions, the former causing the latter to go awry. Lily B. Campbell in “Grief That Leads to Tragedy” emphasizes ...

    Read More

More about The Function of Soliloquies

Open Document