Hamlet Soliloquy Essay: This essay describes William Shakespeares Hamlet soliloquies.

Essay by mahayaCollege, UndergraduateA+, March 2003

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Hamlet Soliloquy Essay

Shakespeare's Hamlet revolves around the complex character, Hamlet, and his duty to take revenge for his father's murder. This leads Hamlet, a philosopher not a killer, to search deep within himself for the solution to his plight. Shakespeare utilizes soliloquies in order to show the audience the true feelings of Hamlet. His lengthy soliloquies put forth the raw emotions and thoughts of Hamlet, allowing the audience to further understand his character. Each soliloquy, each slightly different, proclaim Hamlet's inner conflicts and his reasons for delaying his task.

Hamlet's first soliloquy reveals his thoughts and feelings that are the basis of his actions later on. His inner conflicts concerning his hatred for his mother's incestuous marriage to his uncle, his depressive mood, and his great reverence for his father are revealed in this speech. Each aspect of this soliloquy shows the central and conflicting part in Hamlet's task.

While he hates Claudius and immensely idolizes his father, Hamlet will be plagued by his moral and ethical logic, thus taking no action. In the beginning lines of this soliloquy Hamlet is already considering suicide.

O that this too too solid flesh would melt...

Or that the Everlasting had not fixed

His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God!

How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable

Seem to me all the uses of this world (I, ii, 129-134).

Through these lines it is obvious that Hamlet is in the midst of a deep depression. He has no control over the "uses of the world." Hamlet compares Denmark to an "unweeded garden" to symbolize the corruption within his country that is seeded within Claudius and his incestuous marriage to Gertrude. Hamlet goes on to compare his father to Claudius and comment on the relationship between King Hamlet and Gertrude. "So excellent a...