Hamlet Essay DRAFT

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Hamlet Essay DRAFT

        Examine the function of the main soliloquies in the play. Comment on their impact on the audience, how they reveal the character of hamlet and how they are involved in the structure of the play.

        “Hamlet” is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare in around 1601 when Queen Elizabeth the first was on the throne. In the play we see the royal court of Denmark becoming more and more corrupt with ghosts, murder, madness and incest, culminating in the highest death toll in any of Shakespeare’s plays. The lead character of Hamlet is an intellectual whose aim in the play is to avenge his father’s death by killing his uncle, the king. However his tendency to think too much and inability to carry out his actions gets in the way of him bringing the king to justice, and this hesitancy is a major recurring theme in the play. At the time of Hamlet first being performed, the royal family of England would have been similar to the celebrities of today, and the public of the time would have loved any scandals or gossip involving royalty. This made Hamlet very popular with the audience watching the plays, and even though this particular royal family was that of Denmark, the public would have loved to imagine that the same sort of scandal and excitement could happen amongst the royalty of this country.

        This Essay will be focusing on Hamlet’s soliloquies, which are a main feature of the play. A soliloquy is a section of dialogue that is spoken by an actor that is alone on the stage. This not only reveals the characters thoughts and feelings and keeps the audience involved, it also moves the plot on and re-caps on what has happened. Soliloquies also add to the dramatic impact of Hamlet’s character, and are essential to the plot of the play.

        The first of Hamlet’s soliloquies is placed early in the play, and contributes towards explaining the plot. Hamlet’s father has suddenly died, his mother has then re-married in a matter of months to her brother in law, and Hamlet is in despair about the situation. To top it all off there are rumours that a ghostly vision is appearing nightly on the castle battlements. Leading up to his first soliloquy, hamlets mother is trying to tell Hamlet to stop grieving for his father. This only angers Hamlet further, until he explains his feelings of anger and despair to the audience in his soliloquy.

        The soliloquy starts by using imagery to describe Hamlet’s feelings towards the situation. Language such as “flat and unprofitable” is used when describing Hamlet’s world, telling the audience that he feels hopeless and in despair. The imagery of “an unweeded garden” conjures images of a nasty, messy situation in the royal court, and when he mentions “things rank and gross in nature” the audience would start to realise that the court is corrupt in Hamlet’s eyes.

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        It becomes clear in the middle of the soliloquy that Hamlet blames this corrupt situation on the hasty marriage of his mother to Claudius. In the passage, Hamlet likens his deceased father to Hyperion, who was a Titan God in Greek mythology. Then Hamlet likens the new king, Claudius, to a “satyr” which was in those days used to describe a grotesque half-man half-goat. Hamlet's reference to his dead father as Hyperion and to his uncle Claudius as a satyr illustrates Hamlet's contempt for Claudius. His father is godlike while his uncle is bestial.

        In this soliloquy Hamlet also ...

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