He makes it clear that his father has died and that his mother has married his uncle with
“most wicked speed” (1.2.156). This also shows the relationships in the play and
introduces the main characters. Hamlet suggests in more detail his own opinions of these
people and how he feels towards them. He thinks his father was “so excellent a king”
(1.2.139), noble and righteous. Hamlet exaggerates Claudius’s incompetence and
compares him to his father as “Hyperion [his father] to a satyr[Claudius].” He says his
“father’s brother, but no more like my father than I to Hercules,” meaning the two brothers
were not at all alike. Again using Greek mythology, he compares his mother to Niobe and
claims a beast without the ability to reason would have mourned the King’s death for longer.
So by the end of the soliloquy the audience has been told of Hamlet’s grief for his father and
his anger at his mother for having married his uncle, who he doesn’t seem to get along with
very well.
This soliloquy is also cataphoric as it looks ahead and suggests that something will
happen and that “it cannot come to good.”(1.2.158). It also accounts for, and predicts,
Hamlet’s later actions. For example “break, my heart” could be a premonition of his death
in the future. Due to this hinting about the future, the soliloquy also increases the tension
because the audience has already seen the friction between the characters and know that
something will happen. In addition, the last line suggests that Hamlet’s anger is bottled in
because he “must hold my [Hamlet’s] tongue” (1.2.169) when his friends enter. In this way,
a mysterious and eerie atmosphere has been created in the soliloquy.
Hamlet begins his next soliloquy in anger at himself for not taking any action against
his uncle. He relates to the actors and says that they can act even if they have no real motive
or connection to the play and yet he himself cannot act to take revenge of his father’s
murder. He abuses himself and calls himself “a rogue and peasant slave” (2.2.547), meaning
a cheat and a spiritless coward. However, in the second part of his soliloquy the audience is
shown his intelligence and cunning in devising a plan to satisfy himself that the ghost spoke
the truth and was not a devil in “a pleasing shape.” This suggests Hamlet is a cautious man
who is not prepared to take risks on the appearance of a ghost and that he is a thoughtful
planner.
In addition, the soliloquy also moves the play forward when Hamlet has his idea of
playing the ‘Mousetrap’ to trap the King. It increases tension and suspense as the audience
wants to see what happens when he does it and whether it will work or not. It also leads to
one of the occasions of dramatic irony in the play, since none of the other characters know
the purpose behind ‘The Mousetrap’ whereas the audience now does. The soliloquy
continues Shakespeare’s theme of appearance and reality by mentioning the devil in a
pleasing shape and the nature of the play within the main play, which to the King will seem
like a nightmare.
After a very short period of time, Hamlet appears depressed and suicidal in his next
soliloquy, which reveals his state of mind. It seems strange that he should be contemplating
suicide having had such a good idea in the last scene which he hasn’t yet carried out, but this
soliloquy may be part of his “antic disposition” which is to be said in front of the King and
Polonius. If this is not the case, the soliloquy shows his mental instability by changing so fast
from cheerful to depressed. Although the audience learns about Hamlet’s philosophy of the
futility of life, he doesn’t really want to die, since he seems scared of the “dread of something
after death” (3.1.78). Instead he wants to simply not exist in order that he doesn’t have any
responsibilities. Hamlet also suggests that the ghost he saw wasn’t real by saying that “no
traveller returns” from death, which supports his idea to test if the ghost was real by ‘The
Mousetrap’. Hamlet further resolves to avenge his father’s murder at the end, rather like the
end of the second soliloquy.
The Christian views on suicide of the time are shown. In the Elizabethan era, people
believed suicide was wrong, which adds to the conflict between Hamlet’s problems and his
religion. This partially explains Hamlet’s hesitation in taking revenge.
This soliloquy confuses the audience since Hamlet has changed his mood so soon.
This increases tension and the feeling that something is going to happen, which is heightened
if the play shows that Hamlet is being spied upon. The theme of appearance and reality is
once again shown by this interpretation of the soliloquy, and the theme of death and revenge
is carried on.
In his fourth soliloquy, the audience listens to Hamlet’s immediate thoughts of the
moment, signalled by the “Now” which is repeated three times in order to emphasize this.
He thinks about killing the King there on the spot, but he doesn’t actually get close to doing
it. The “might” indicates that he was not definitely going to do it. He thinks about the
situation (“That would be scanned” 3.3.75) and reflects that it would not be revenge if he
killed the King now, which shows him to be thoughtful philosophic and not at all rash,
although it could be seen that he was looking for an excuse not to kill the King.
The fact that the two enemies (the King and Hamlet) are on the stage together
increases tension when Hamlet enters unexpectedly. However, once Hamlet doesn’t take
revenge, the tension drops and instead the suspense rises as he talks about when he will kill
the King, although the audience doesn’t know when exactly it will happen. Hamlet’s
soliloquy is interposed between the King’s soliloquy, so both of them are deep in thought
and can’t hear each other. This provides dramatic irony, as the King doesn’t know how
close he was to being killed or that Hamlet will do it later, and Hamlet does not realize that
the King couldn’t actually pray. Once again, the theme of death and revenge appears, as
does appearance and reality, since the King appears to be praying when really he can't.
Added to this is the idea of religion and heaven which Hamlet thinks about in this soliloquy.
Just as the players made Hamlet think before, the armies of Fortinbras make him
reflect on his inability to act. He wonders why the soldiers are prepared to fight, kill and die
for a small piece of useless land from which they will not benefit whereas he cannot even kill
Claudius who is the murderer of his father. He thinks that he is failing to act because he is
“thinking too precisely on th’event” (4.4.41) and that the more he thinks about it, the more
he is unable to act. In the end however, Hamlet makes a final resolution to take revenge,
and this change from hesitation to action increases suspense and tension in the audience.
The fact that Hamlet is the only character left on stage after a whole army has just marched
across also increases the temsion and changes the atmosphere from greatness to loneliness.
This soliloquy is like Hamlet’s second one (“O what a rogue and peasant slave am
I”) for a number of reasons. To start with, he reproves himself for his inaction and debases
himself as a beast. He then compares the seriousness of his need to act to the inferior
motives of the actors and soldiers and ends with a renewed determination to act. This
similarity makes the audience think Hamlet will form another plan to kill the King ,although in
this soliloquy he doesn’t.
So in these five soliloquies the audience will have built up a picture of Hamlet’s
character, know his opinions of other characters, know the background to his father’s death
and the events which followed, the reasons behind his actions and his thought processes.
These are very useful to an audience and refer to the actual words themselves, which means
someone reading the script would also find out all this information. The other purposes of
the soliloquies in Hamlet refer to the way the words are said and acted and depend on how
the play directors choose to perform it. The “Now might I do it pat” soliloquy, for example,
has higher tension if both the King and Hamlet are on stage, but some performances may
allow Hamlet to get closer to killing the King, thereby creating more tension, whereas other
performances may have the two characters at opposite ends of the stage.
There are different ways a soliloquy can be presented to the audience. Firstly, the
character can talk to himself with the audience overhearing him, as in an act of self-
communion. This gives an impression of his stream of consciousness which the audience is
listening to and presents the character’s innermost feelings. In a film, this can be presented
as a voice over, such as in the Kenneth Brannagh film where Hamlet is seen pacing up and
down a room on his own, talking to himself. On the other hand, a character can deliver the
soliloquy directly to the audience, which implies that he is trying to convince or persuade
people to see his point of view, or he is explaining the reasons for his actions. This is like the
Stephen Daldry production of An Inspector Calls in which Sheila addresses the audience
directly when she is confessing to what she did.
The way in which the soliloquies are presented emphasize different aspects of it and
how the audience will react to it. Each soliloquy reveals something new to the audience, so
they are all individually important. Put together however, the soliloquies are very useful
dramatic devices which inform the audience of simple things such as information about the
characters and also more complex aspects of the play such as tension and dramatic irony.
The many different purposes of soliloquies makes them very significant in all plays, especially
Hamlet since this play would not be able to be so complicated without the many soliloquies
in it.
Harshil Shah 11C
Examine the Dramatic Importance of the Five Major Soliloquies From Hamlet
Harshil Shah 1 2/15/2006
