Hamlet Soliloquy Essay

Throughout the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet delivers many soliloquies that provide insight on his innermost thoughts. Hamlet reveals the effects of the ghost of his father, the former king, who has returned to command Hamlet to avenge his death by killing his uncle, the current king. He shows his contradicting thoughts on the ghosts request, causing him to question his morals and his trust for the people around him. Within Hamlet 's soliloquies he reveals moral conflict, his inability to take action, and his mental instability.

Hamlet believes in good morals and high education. Due to his religious beliefs, he also believes that the soul does not return after death, so when he discovers that the ghost of his father has retuned

In "Hamlet 's Dramatic Soliloquies" by Richard Levin, he says "Moreover, the reference to 'The undiscover 'd country, from whose bourn / No traveller returns ' has been directly contradicted by his meeting with the Ghost; and the conclusion that people refrain from suicide because they are 'cowards ' is very different from his acknowledgment in the first soliloquy that God has 'fix 'd / His canon 'gainst self-slaughter. '" (Levin 2). Here he explains one of the changes in Hamlet 's character from two soliloquies by comparing Hamlet 's changing opinion of suicide and death. The changes that can be seen in Hamlet shows the change in his mental state from sane to unstable. The way he goes from saying "For in sleep of death what dreams may come, / When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, / Must give us pause" (3.1.73-75), meaning that he is unsure of what comes after death, to "Thus conscience does make cowards of us all" (3.1.90), meaning the only thing keeping him from committing suicide is his morals, and the eternal guilt he would feel. He also continues to refer to himself as a coward which could be a product of his indecisiveness and his lack of action toward his

He compares himself to Fortenbras when he says "Led by a delicate and tender prince, / Whose spirit with divine ambition puff 'd, / Makes mouths at the invisible event, / Exposing what is mortal and unsure / To all that fortune, death, and danger dare, / Even for an eggshell." (4.4.50-55). He says that Fortenbras has ambition to do great things while he is putting off all action toward his goal. Here he takes a step back and examines himself. He says "How I stand I then, / That have a father kill 'd, a mother stain 'd, / Excitements of my reason and my blood, / And let all sleep, while to my shame see / The imminent death of twenty thousand men" (4.4.59-62), acknowledging the impact that Fortenbras has had on twenty thousand men, while he has not done anything for his father who was killed, and his mother who he does not respect as much after she married his uncle two months after his fathers death. He realizes that his plans have not worked out the way he wanted them to. In his article Levin says "And his decision in this soliloquy to delay his revenge until Claudius is 'about some act / That has no relish of salvation in 't ' does not lead to any action. It is proleptic in the sense that Hamlet finally does take his revenge, at the end of the play, just when Claudius is engaged in a damnable 'act ' of this kind causes the deaths of Gertrude, Laertes,