Why Is Hamlet's First Soliloquy

Shakespeare often has his characters speak in soliloquies during the course of his plays. In his work, Hamlet, Shakespeare’s title character is shown to speak in seven soliloquies, four of which has a major impact on the reader’s perspective. Each soliloquy advances the plot, reveals Hamlet’s inner thoughts to the audience and helps to create an atmosphere in the play. Hamlet is the prince of Denmark. He is abroad, studying in Germany, when his father, the king, dies. He is summoned back to Denmark in order to attend his father's funeral. Already drowning in grief, Hamlet becomes even more upset by the fact that his mother has married his uncle; the brother of her recently departed husband. Hamlet does not think she mourned his father for

Hamlet speaks out about his depression and anger and thinks suicide seems like a desirable alternative to life in a painful world, but Hamlet feels that the option of suicide is closed to him because it is forbidden by his religion. Hamlet then goes on to describe the causes of his pain, specifically his intense disgust at his mother’s marriage to Claudius. Hamlet says “O, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew, Or that the Everlasting had not fixed...” (I.ii. 133- 164). This soliloquy shows the readers Hamlets affection and loyalty toward his father, but also his hate towards Claudius and

Hamlet starts his speech off by saying “To be or not to be- that is the question: Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer…” (III. i. 64-98). Hamlet's dilemma is whether it is worth it to exist, and he weighs life's worth against the nothingness of nonexistence as he toys with the idea of suicide. He wonders which is more appropriate given his desperate situation: to die and end his suffering or to put up a fight against the misfortunes of life. Hamlet considers the consequences of death and afterlife, he begins to examine the other option: life. He questions whether death is in fact an end to all his