Shakespeare's Depiction of Hamlet's State of Mind in the Soliloquies

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Shakespeare's Depiction of Hamlet's State of Mind in the Soliloquies In answering this question I understand Hamlet's state of mind to be his true moods thoughts and feelings. I understand the context to mean what is happening at that point in the play. I will consider how a contemporary audience might react to Hamlets honest thoughts. I will also examine the language Shakespeare uses for Hamlet to portray his emotions of the particular moment. I have chosen to write individually about each of the six soliloquies, for the reason that I am unable to generalize the answers on such complex writings. I will briefly discuss what I believe his state of mind is in order to match his use of language with his emotions. In the first soliloquy the context is that he has discovered his mother's betrayal to his dead father. He is intensely depressed, suicidal and morbid. "O, that this too too solid flesh would melt" this is vivid imagery showing he wants to fade away. He is very agitated, distressed, and his anger is mixed with disgust and grief. "O, God! A beast, that wants discourse of reason, would have mourn'd longer" To him life has no meaning. "How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable, seems to me all the uses of this world!" He is particularly upset by the short time elapsing between the death of his father and marriage of his mother and uncle. The language he uses reveals fixation with the time factor being such a painful part of his grief. He constantly repeats about the lack of time between the death and marriage. "But two months dead (140)" "yet within a month (147)" "A little month (149)" "most wicked speed (158)" "suc... ... middle of paper ... ...ught which quarter'd hath but one part wisdom, and three parts coward (45)" I think the audience would now expect him to go mad with so much deliberation. At this point I think they have given up believing that Hamlet will ever kill anybody. In conclusion this Elizabethan revenge tragedy does follow the tradition of the Greek plays but with a delayed revenge. Hamlet's ghost of his father wants him to kill his uncle and send him to hell, but by killing someone himself just as his uncle has done this could send him to hell, which could be a reason for his enormous amount of delays. Hamlet has a mental conflict as he is unsure of murder because he is not sure if there is an after life or not BUT all his thoughts and actions are the result of a conversation with his father's ghost which is evidence of an afterlife!

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