Hamlet continues his soliloquy by expressing his disgust at how the people around him could brush off the death of his father so easily and forget him completely after only two months being dead.
He praises his father-
'So excellent a king, that was to this,
Hyperion to satyr, sol loving to my mother,
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven,
Visit her face too roughly-heaven and earth,'
Hamlet compares his father to Hyperion who was an ancient sun god. He describes the new king however as satyr which is a grotesque half-man half-goat type creature. This shows how differently he thinks of Claudius to his father, his father is godlike while Claudius is like a beast. He tells of how his father used to treat Gertrude so kind and gently and wouldn't even let a rough wind hit her face. He knew that his mother also loved Old Hamlet in the same way, which is why Hamlet is so shocked and appalled that Gertrude has remarried and appeared to have forgotten about Old Hamlet.
'…A beast that wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourned longer'
Here Hamlet is saying that a beast that is incapable of thinking would have mourned longer than Gertrude did for Hamlets father. He continues by explaining how different Claudius is to his father.
'My fathers brother, but no more like my father,
Than I to Hercules'.
Here Hamlet is saying how unlike his father Claudius is. He says that his father was as much like Claudius as Hamlet is to Hercules. Hamlet is clearly nothing like Hercules so Claudius is obviously nothing like his father. He already explains how highly he regards his father and therefore believes the opposite of that for Claudius thinking him to be far inferior.
Hamlet's feelings for his mother are now that of disbelief for her marrying Claudius despite his obvious differences with Old Hamlet, contempt for how little she mourned his fathers death and betrayal for how she forgot about Old Hamlet and married Claudius so soon after the death.
'…Oh most wicked speed, to post,
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets.'
This sums up how Hamlet feels about the rapid marriage of Gertrude. But he also knows that he can't tell Gertrude about what he thinks -
'But break my heart for I must hold my tongue.'
This soliloquy tells us that Hamlet is unsure if what he has to do. He is clearly very unhappy with his life and would happily end it if god hadn't made it a sin for suicide. He is not only unhappy with the world but also the people which are in his life like Gertrude and her rapid re-marriage, the death of his father, his disgust for Claudius and all the other people who were close to the king when he died but who have now disregarded his death after less than two months.
Act three Scene one Lines 56-89
Hamlet begins this soliloquy in very much the same way which he started the first - contemplating suicide.
'To be or not to be, that is the question'
Here he means to live or not to live, so he is wondering whether it would be better for him to live or die. He continues -
'Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer,
The Slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take up arms against a seas of troubles,
And by opposing end them.'
He is asking himself whether it would be better (more noble) to suffer the world and all its evils with an 'outrageous' future and live it out. Or if you cannot cope with the 'slings and arrows of outrageous fortune' then you have nothing else to do but suicide. Hamlet already knows the consequences of what might happen if you were to commit suicide and asks himself if it is because of fear of what may happen in the after life why people put up with the world.
'…To die, to sleep,
To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,'
If sleep is metaphorical for death then the dreams must mean what happens to you once you are dead. So it is the fear of what you may dream in the eternal sleep which is death. This is clearly what is troubling Hamlet the question of whether to live out his life through all the hard times which face him or to end it now and chance what may happen in the afterlife. He therefore believes that everyone would end their life if they believe that there was nothing bad which may happen to them if they kill themselves.
'For who would bear the whips and scorns of time'
'…But that the dread of something after death.'
Because everyone is not killing themselves he believes they have been made cowards by their conscience:
'Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,'
He now leaves the subject of life and death and talks about ophelia who he just heard praying nearby. He knows that she is praying and asks her to remember him in her prayer.
'The fair Ophelia. - Nymph, in thy orisons,
Be all my sins remembered.'
In this soliloquy Hamlet thinks mainly on man as a whole and does not think of it as his own situation. He asks why people would put up with life if it weren't for what may happen to them in the afterlife. He is clearly very worried about the afterlife and doesn't want to chance suicide, but It also shows us how he feels towards the other characters and the death of his father.
Act Five Scene One Lines 156-164
In this conversation with Horatio Hamlet is saddened by the news that the old jester for the king - Yorick had died. He begins by explaining to Horatio what kind of a character Yorick was and is clearly very upset to be holding his skull in his hand. He explains how Yorick was once so full of character and joyful. 'A fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy, he hath bourne me on his back a thousand times' He is reminiscing about times when he was younger and when he used to play with the jester and was obviously much happier in life than he is now. Hamlet may also start to feel that everything in his life at the moment is going wrong for him and this has just added an extra worry to his mind.
Hamlet finally realises (to his disgust) in this speech that when you die you become nothing more than a pile of bones. But he has finally decided to accept it and get on with it. He tells of how women make themselves up to look like what they are not but in the end underneath all of the makeup and false faces that they put on there is nothing more than a skull like everyone else's underneath. 'Not get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come,'
Hamlet seems to find it hard to believe that someone he loved so much could now be nothing more than a skull. Hamlet has finally come to terms with death and is no longer contemplating suicide because he knows his death is coming. He has also realised that no matter who you are in life, in death you are the same as every one else in that you will end up as just a pile of bones in the end.
Throughout the play Hamlets mind has been constantly obsessed with the idea of death and of what happens to you after you die. In the first soliloquy Hamlet is contemplating suicide but knows that if he were to do it god would damn him. In the second soliloquy Hamlet thinks about man as a whole and less about himself he believes that people only put up with life and don’t kill themselves is for fear of what may happen to them in the afterlife. In the final speech to Horatio Hamlet has finally come to terms with the idea of death and has given up on the idea of suicide because he knows that his death will come, he will not look forward to it nor will he be scared of it. These three speeches/soliloquy's help you to understand how Hamlets state of mind changes as the play progresses and as he becomes more and more accustomed to the idea of death but still it never leaves his mind.
Chris Peabody 10c
