These lines show suicidal tendencies but the next few lines, ‘His cannon ‘gainst self- slaughter. O God, O God’ show that Hamlet’s religious views play strongly on his mind. This sentence contains enjambment which makes it sound poetic and regal, which underlines the importance God has to Hamlet, it also has iambic pentameter to grab the attention of the audience.
Hamlet has an obvious objection to Claudius, his uncle and metaphorically describes his relationship with Gertrude as ‘an unweeded garden…rank, and gross…’ When talking about their relationship, Hamlet’s sentences become disjointed and he uses alliteration with ‘n’, which is a harsh sound showing Hamlets anger and disgust.
Hamlet compares his Father to Claudius as ‘Hyperion to a satyr’ Using this imagery of Hyperion, a powerful sun god in contrast to a Satyr, a half-man creature Hamlet shows how strongly superior he feels his father was to Claudius. This emotive comparison shows Hamlets obvious mourning for his dead father, which is playing strongly on his mind as his mother is showing such little bereavement.
Hamlets self-loathing is also apparent from the second and third soliloquies showing that this is playing on Hamlets mind through out the play. In the second soliloquy he describes himself as ‘coward… pigeon-livered… lacking gall.’ He blames himself for being so cowardly not being able to seek revenge for his father, in this speech Hamlet gets angry with himself, asking rhetorical questions such as ‘why, what an ass am I?’ From this second soliloquy it is apparent that Hamlet is very troubled by his incapability and self-loathing, he talks of actors on the stage and says ‘Had he the motive and the cue for passion that I have? He would drown the stage with tears…make mad the guilty…’ Going through Hamlet’s mind is such strong hatred for Claudius and disgust for Gertrude because of their flippant and inappropriate behaviour after the death of Polonius, he can’t understand how these actors who have no real feelings for the plays which they have to act out can do so with such realistic cause; When he is finding it so hard to act upon the feelings in his head even though they are prominent in his mind, he describes himself as ‘unpregnant of my cause…’
Hamlets antipathy for life is also shown by his homicidal anger in soliloquy two towards Claudius when he’s considering if his father had indeed been murdered, even though Hamlet can’t act upon the feelings he curses Claudius, ‘…offal bloody, bawdy villain, Remorseless, treacherous…villain! O vengeance’
Hamlets melancholy and depressive state are also added to by the actions of his mother Gertrude, in the first soliloquy Hamlet uses sibilance which makes him sound like he is spitting the words ‘such…incestuous…sheets…’ disgust. Hamlet is infuriated by her new love affair with Polonius’s brother Claudius, but most of all by the ease and speed that it has happened so soon after his death. He says, ‘Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears…’ this line shows his bitterness against him, claiming even her minimal tears that were shed were false.
In the third soliloquy Hamlets self-loathing and anger is growing, he starts his speech with ‘to be or not to be that is the question’ he is really questioning the idea’s of suicide again, which he spoke of in the first soliloquy maybe here with more vigour, as his religious righteousness is not mentioned. The rhetorical question he asks himself followed by metaphoric images of life and death as ‘a sea of troubles [life]…and end of heartache [death]’ are showing his thoughts of being stuck between coping with life being melancholy but too cowardly to perform upon these feelings or death, which possibly would end these hardships.
Studying Hamlets soliloquies reveals key understanding to the intriguing and complex mind of Hamlet, through them the main themes of the play are unravelled, for it is within the soliloquies that Hamlets motives for his later actions in the play, such as murdering Claudius are confirmed.
