Soliloquy and Revenge in Hamlet The soliloquy is a literary device that is employed to unconsciously reveal an actor's thoughts to the audience. In William Shakespeare's, Hamlet, Hamlet's soliloquy in Act II, ii, (576-634) depicts his arrival at a state of vengeful behaviour through an internal process. Hamlet moves through states of depression and procrastination as he is caught up in the aftermath of the murder of his father and the marriage of his mother to his uncle. The soliloquy serves to effectively illustrate the inner nature of Hamlet's character and develop the theme of revenge. In the soliloquy, Hamlet's depression, due to his "dear father['s]" (612) murder and the incestuous family relationship, is revealed as he compares his situation to that of King Priam and Hecuba. The pain that the player feels, acting as the mythological King Priam symbolizes the loss that Hamlet experiences. Hamlet feels that he has enough cause to "drown the stage in tears." (589) Arising from Hamlet's depression comes a paralysis to act. By not acting upon the...
the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan like as to put to
Facing troubling times, many adolescence can contest to debating the value of facing their struggles in life and the tempting unknown of death. Facing the murder of his father and his mother’s hasty marriage to the murder, young Hamlet releases his inner struggles in his famous soliloquy. Through the use of contrasting diction, vivid imagery, and repetitive syntax Shakespeare portrays Hamlet’s conflicting thoughts and relatively unstable state of mind.
Hamlet’s soliloquy in Act II, scene 2 lines 563-622 shows his thoughts about himself. Hamlet is feeling self-loathing and full of anger. His use of analogies throughout the soliloquy conveys his thoughts and emotions of himself. His analogies are used in the themes of comparisons, uncertainties, and vengeance. His thoughts on himself allows the reader to view and feel what he is feeling.
Shakespeare uses soliloquies in his play as a means of communicating the thoughts of a character without revealing them to the other characters. I will investigate soliloquies because they are commonly found in literature, but not in every day speech; therefore, I want to have a better understanding of how a soliloquy can benefit the play’s plot rather than the use of conversation between two or more characters. The three plays that we can see the effect of Shakespeare’s soliloquies on the plot are Jacques in As You Like it, Hamlet in Hamlet, and Macbeth in Macbeth. In each of these plays, the subtopics that I will discuss are: how a specific soliloquy reveals the character’s inner thought, how these lines differ from the views society has
Storming into the palace and throwing accusations at Claudius, Laertes reveals he is impulsive. Laertes anger is due to the dishonor that has been inflicted on his family by Polonius’s murder. Claudius takes advantage of the sudden appearance of Laertes, by provoking Laertes into assisting him in plotting Hamlet’s murder. Shakespeare uses Laertes not only as a catalyst in the story, but as a contrast to the pensive Hamlet.
The soliloquies expressed by many characters throughout the play, signify a critical point within the plot or change of tone. For example, Hamlet’s monologue in (II.ii.563-622), he is justifying his actions, reaffirming himself that what he is planning to do to seek revenge for his father’s death, is the best thing to do. In this speech, Hamlet states, “Is it not monstrous that this player here,/ But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,/ Could force his soul so to his own conceit/That, from her working, all his visage wanned.(II.ii.565-568)” These lines can be inferred as Hamlet is questioning his own state of mind and validity of his plan. Hamlet is questioning how can a player, who acts out false emotions, can truly “catch the conscience of the King”(II.ii.622). However, he believes that the creativity exuded from the soul(II.ii,568), can effectively allow a player to perform as if they are real emotions. Hamlet’s only concern is seeking revenge for his father’s death done at the hands of his uncle, Claudius, who now has the throne. The plot of the play to parallel to the real death of King Hamlet, allowing Hamlet to make Claudius feel uncomfortable and guilty(II.ii.578). Also, in this monologue, Hamlet states that the ghost of his father may have actua...
Revenge has caused the downfall of many a person. Its consuming nature causes one to act recklessly through anger rather than reason. Revenge is an emotion easily rationalized; one turn deserves another. However, this is a very dangerous theory to live by. Throughout Hamlet, revenge is a dominant theme. Fortinbras, Laertes, and Hamlet all seek to avenge the deaths of their fathers. But in so doing, all three rely more on emotion than thought, and take a very big gamble, a gamble which eventually leads to the downfall and death of all but one of them. King Fortinbras was slain by King Hamlet in a sword battle. This entitled King Hamlet to the land that was possessed by Fortinbras because it was written in a seal'd compact. "…our valiant Hamlet-for so this side of our known world esteem'd him-did slay this Fortinbras." Young Fortinbras was enraged by his father’s murder and sought revenge against Denmark. He wanted to reclaim the land that had been lost to Denmark when his father was killed. "…Now sir, young Fortinbras…as it doth well appear unto our state-but to recover of us, by strong hand and terms compulsative, those foresaid lands so by his father lost…" Claudius becomes aware of Fortinbras’ plans, and in an evasive move, sends a message to the new King of Norway, Fortinbras’ uncle.
It is the idea of revenge that sends a cool shiver down the spines of justly men when they begin to question as to why someone would stoop to such a level. But yet it is still more than an idea for revenge has been carried out in various forms along all the eras of history side-by-side of that of novels and tragedies. Even so, revenge is still a dark scheme; an evil plague of the mind per se. It is such a plague that will turn even the greatest persons of the brightest, optimistically capable of minds into lowly, as well as lonely, individuals. Thus, revenge will, and can, only end in despair and agony of the mind. Therefore, provided that all that has been said is true, revenge would appear quite unseemly to the observant onlooker. However, taking an in-depth insight into revenge you can uncover quite a compelling feature, which is best summed up into one word. Pride. Pride is the one clear motivational proprietor needed to push a protagonist into the downward spiral of personal vendetta. Without pride, revenge is no more than a mindless massacre of flesh and bone ending in the obliteration of any hope for reconciliation.
The interpretation of Hamlet’s, To Be or Not to Be soliloquy, from the Shakespearean classic of the same name, is an important part of the way that the audience understands an interpretation of the play. Although the words are the same, the scene is presented by the actors who portray Hamlet can vary between versions of the play. These differences no matter how seemingly miniscule affect the way in which someone watching the play connects with the title character.
Hamlet’s first soliloquy takes place in Act 1 scene 2. In his first soliloquy Hamlet lets out all of his inner feelings revealing his true self for the first time. Hamlet’s true self is full of distaste, anger, revenge, and is very much different from the artificial persona that he pretends to be anytime else. Overall, Hamlet’s first soliloquy serves to highlight and reveal Hamlet’s melancholy as well as his reasons for feeling such anguish. This revelation in Hamlet’s persona lays the groundwork for establishing the many themes in the play--suicide, revenge, incest, madness, corruption, and mortality.
During the first act of William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, Shakespeare uses metaphors, imagery, and allusion in Hamlet’s first soliloquy to express his internal thoughts on the corruption of the state and family. Hamlet’s internal ideas are significant to the tragedy as they are the driving and opposing forces for his avenging duties; in this case providing a driving cause for revenge, but also a second-thought due to moral issues.
Through previous years, philosopher’s have tested numerous theories that help us in defining the nature of our being, often these are stalled by the nuanced thought behind our heart and mind. Philosophers often believed that we were slaves to our passions despite our reasoning, even now this could be proven by acts of love, but more than often proven it can be seen through our desire for revenge. Unlike it’s counterpart [avenge], revenge is both a verb and a noun that can be not only acted upon but attained. Revenge is what one seeks after being wronged and often an action never thought through by reason, but a fight of a person’s passions towards a self declared justice. Portrayed in a copious amount of movies, songs, and art, the theme of revenge has been held iconically within Shakespeare's most famous play, Hamlet. Centered around corruption of the mind, body and soul, Hamlet is seen by many as the embodiment of revenge through it’s characters (Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras); it is within their actions and development that each character portrays the dichotomy of their passion and reason to prove that we are slaves to our passions until reason catches up.
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.
Authors and playwrights often use many literary elements to help aid the audience in a further understanding of their play. An element used frequently in the play Hamlet is the soliloquy. Soliloquies hold a significant role in any play. A soliloquy can be defined when a character speaks to themselves, essentially the audience, revealing their thoughts. The function and purpose of these soliloquies in the play Hamlet is for the audience to develop a further understanding of a character’s thoughts, to advance the storyline and create a general mood for the play.
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 readers response, in result, is altered as it is made clear that Hamlet is obviously struggling to come to ter...