Hamlet soliloquy Act 1 Scene 2 The play opens with the two guards witnessing the ghost of the late king one night on the castle wall in Elsinore

"Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd

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

Hamlet is expressing here that he wants to kill himself and he wishes that god had not said that it was against his word, so that he can kill himself but as he is a Christian he cannot.

"How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,

Seem to me all the uses of this world!"

Hamlet is saying here that he feels the world is boring and that nothing in the world interests him any more he feels there is nothing left for him to live for, Shakespeare is showing here that hamlet has took the death of his father very bad and is deeply depressed.

"Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,

That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature

Possess it merely. That it should come to this!"

Hamlet is saying that the whole of Denmark is corrupt and bad and that if these weeds are not dug up they will go to seed and spread more corruption around Denmark. Throughout the play Shakespeare has a gardening theme written into it this reinforces the idea that Denmark is an unweeded garden.

"But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two:

So excellent a king; that was, to this,

Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother"

Hamlet really loves his father he is his idol and hero and Shakespeare shows this in this part of the soliloquy. He compares his father to Hyperion the Titan, the son of Gaea and Uranus and the father of Helios of Greek mythology. He also says that his father a hyperion compared to satyr so he is even better than a satyr.

"That he might not beteem the winds of heaven

Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!

Must I remember? why, she would hang on him,"

He says that his father would not hurt a fly and that he would not even let the winds of heaven pass her face to roughly. He also says why should he remember why his mother should hold on to his father like why should he remember his mother loveing his father.

"As if increase of appetite had grown

By what it fed on: and yet, within a month--

Let me not think on't--Frailty, thy name is woman!"

The Oedipus complex is a theory formed by Sigmund Freud, stating that individuals have a repressed desire for sexual involvement with the parent of the opposite sex while feeling rivalry with the parent of the same sex. There is much evidence in the play that suggests Hamlet is a victim of the Oedipus complex. In this part of the soliloquy he tells of his disgust of his mother for

He does not want to remember how his mother hung on his father, as if to satisfy some great appetite, a need for his love. This is a typical example of the Oedipus complex and shows how he hates the way his mother was deeply in love with his father and maybe not with him.

"A little month, or ere those shoes were old

With which she follow'd my poor father's body,

Like Niobe, all tears:--why she, even she-"

Here Hamlet talks about how his mother followed his fathers coffin all full of tears like niobe (The daughter of Tantalus who, after boasting that she had more children than Leto, suffered the killing of her own children by Artemis and Apollo, and turned to stone while bewailing their loss) and then she is fine and recovered from the death of hamlets father she is not even mourning as hamlet is. Here is another mention of Greek mythology by Shakespeare.

"O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,

Would have mourn'd longer--married with my uncle,"

He is saying that not even a monster that wanted somebody to persuade them not to do it would have waited longer after mourning the death of Hamlets father, to marry his uncle. This could be another example of the Oedipus complex as Shakespeare is showing that hamlet is angry with his mother, maybe because his mother his uncle and did not take any notice at him. Another reason could be that he absolutely despises his uncle.

"My father's brother, but no more like my father

Than I to Hercules"

Hamlet tells how his father and uncle were totally different and compares himself to Hercules; here again is another mention of Greek mythology by Shakespeare.

"within a month:

Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears

Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,"

Hamlet describes how within a month his mother was over the death of his father and the salt from her tears had left her tainted eyes, tainted as he thinks that she was crying fake tears and that if she really loved him she would still be mourning the death of Hamlets father.

"She married. O, most wicked speed, to post

With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!"

Hamlet tells how his mother and his uncle married so quickly from the death of his father and moved with such speed and grace to the incestuous sheets that they sleep together in. There are many references to Hamlet's disgust in his uncle throughout the play. He seems to be strangely preoccupied with the sheets and bed to which his mother shares with his uncle. Hamlet's hatred is increased by the thought of his mother sleeping with his uncle, This is another example of the Oedipus complex.

"It is not nor it cannot come to good:

But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue."

Hamlet says that no good can come of this as they are committing incest and also because maybe because he loves his mother even though Hamlet must keep quiet about his feelings and it tears him apart inside.

By

Craig Thompson 10TRM