In scene five, Hamlet is faced with the ghost of his father and hastily commits himself to get revenge on Claudius, determined to please his father. Horatio, Hamlet’s closest friend and an educated, wise scholar, fears for Hamlet’s safety and sanity and when Hamlet asks him to swear to keep the ghost’s appearance a secret he says ‘These are but wild and whirling words, my lord’. This shows that if his closest companion is not convinced that Hamlet can stay sane and out of trouble. However Hamlet appears to be in a rational and intelligible state of mind when he warns his friends not to be disturbed by his future, mad behaviour, as it will only be part of his plan to get revenge on Claudius.
In act two, scene two, Ophelia enters in a terrified manner, claiming Hamlet to have acted ‘as if he has been loosed out of hell’. This may confuse the other characters in the play, but the audience can see that this is only part of Hamlet’s strategy. When courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive at the castle, the king asks if they ‘have heard of Hamlet’s transformation’ and Gertrude refers to him as her ‘too-much-changed son’. Later on, Polonius tells the king and queen, ‘your noble son is mad’. Comments like these made by other characters are to help the audience to follow Hamlet’s state of mind throughout the play, alongside his own soliloquies. During Hamlet’s conversation with Polonius he pretends to believe that Polonius is a fishmonger, and then responds to the question of what he is reading, by saying ‘words, words, words’. This could possibly lead the audience to join Horatio in fearing for Hamlet’s sanity, and believing he is becoming insane or it can show them that he is simply carrying out his game plan in a logical manner. This conversation recalls Hamlet’s exchanges with Claudius in act one, scene two; it sounds like nonsense but has a thread of bitter satire running through it. Also in this episode, Hamlet tells Polonius that he ‘cannot take from him any thing that he will more willingly part withal-except his life’. This is another sign that Hamlet is contemplating suicide. The audience can see Hamlet’s sanity when he finds out that players have arrived at the castle, and he immediately is set on a train of thought, thinking up a plan - ‘He that plays the king shall be welcome’.
This scene also comprises of Hamlet’s second major soliloquy. After watching a dramatic scene acted out by one of the players, Hamlet is impressed by the stimulated passion of the actor, how he engages emotionally with the story he is telling even though it is only an imaginative recreation. This motivates Hamlet to feel inadequate, guilty and ashamed of his delay in getting revenge. He asks himself ‘What would he do had he the motive and the cue for passion that I have?’ The soliloquy contains several self-accusations and Hamlet scolds himself greatly. This is shown by phrases such as ‘O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!’ and ‘Yet I, a dull and muddy mettled rascal, peak, like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause..’ He even asks himself whether he is a coward, for not having acted already. This soliloquy acts to chart the developing and changing thoughts of Hamlet that we would not find out otherwise. The speech begins in a controlled form but loses shape as it is dominated by self-disgust. It is clear that Hamlet’s mind is at its most distracted when he thinks of himself and his procrastination. This soliloquy also reveals Hamlet’s plan of revenge to the audience. Hamlet tells us ‘the plays the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king’. He also says ‘I have been prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell’, showing his uncertainty about the ghost of his father. He does not know whether it is honest or not, and tells us that he wants more evidence before he kills his uncle. Is this Hamlet being sensible and reasonable or is he cowardly and just procrastinating?
Act three, scene 1 accommodates Hamlets third and most famous soliloquy. It begins with Hamlet posing the problem of whether to commit suicide as a logical question: "To be, or not to be," that is, to live or not to live. He then weighs the moral ramifications of living and dying. Is it nobler to suffer life, ‘the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,’ passively or to actively seek to end one's suffering? He compares death to sleep and thinks of the end to suffering, pain, and uncertainty it might bring. The purpose of this soliloquy is to establish Hamlet as characteristically detached, reflective, analytic, thinking and moral. There is a dejected uniformity of tone and tempo and no passionate agitation of someone wrestling with complex and confused feelings, is present. The speech is calmer and more reflective than Hamlet’s previous soliloquies, as it is thinking through a problem without being distracted into exclamation of fury or disgust. Hamlet presents a clear cut argument and a logical conclusion, and he makes it apparent that he is not afraid of death itself, but of the life after it.
The next episode is a dramatic contrast. Hamlet spies Ophelia and when they begin to speak, Ophelia talks in a forced, formal and self conscious manner and Hamlet is puzzled and frustrated at her behaviour. He grows to be suspicious and contemptuous. He soon figures out that they are being watched and asks Ophelia, ‘are you fair?’ and ‘are you honest?’ He begins to desperately detach himself from her by ordering ‘get thee to a nunnery’, several times. Is Hamlet genuinely hurt and betrayed by her or his wild behaviour all part of his plan? When Ophelia lies to Hamlet about where her father is, he explodes with fury and continues to insult her.
In act three, scene two, the play that will ‘catch the conscience of the king’ takes place. Before it begins, Hamlet makes his plan known to his trusted friend, and the representation of the audience, Horatio. This conversation, in which he asks Horatio to assist him, gives the audience a further insight to Hamlet’s plan and we can follow his state of mind. The play itself sees Hamlet consistently making comments and taunts throughout it. This is to provoke a reaction in the supposedly guilty Claudius, and it also keeps the rest of the characters believing he is really mad. I believe that Hamlet uses this play as an excuse to give him more time to prepare for revenge, and it highlights his prolonged procrastination. Once the play has ended, Hamlet claims he will ‘take the ghost’s word for a thousand pound’ and this shows his eagerness and determination to seek revenge on Claudius and to please his father.
Scene three contains a minor soliloquy, made when Hamlet sees Claudius engrossed in prayer and confession. Hamlet convinces himself that if he kills Claudius now, he will go to heaven and this would not please his father, therefore, he passes on this opportunity for murder and instead delays it further. Is this another sign of corwardness in Hamlet or does he only want to do the right thing, and send Claudius straight to hell?
Scene four sees Gertrude and Hamlet forming a new found mother-son relationship and a crucial shift of allegiance. It is set in the intimacy of Gertrude’s closest and the audience see Hamlet revealing his true feelings to his mother. All the anger that has been building up inside him is now released. Gertrude now hears things that only the audience have heard him say in soliloquies too. The killing of Polonius completely contradicts Hamlet’s previous procrastination, but shows that Hamlet truly is willing to kill Claudius, and indeed is capable of the act. When the ghost of the king appears ‘in his habit as he lived’, it shows that Hamlet is desperate for a secure and loving family as he is drawn towards the ghost.
In conclusion, I believe that statement is true in the sense that the soliloquies do help the audience enormously to keep track of Hamlet’s state of mind throughout the play. They reveal thoughts and feelings to us that we could not have found out otherwise. However, it is possible to learn of Hamlet’s state of mind in several other ways, as I have shown, such as the way his fellow characters talk about him, his actions, and through his conversations with other characters. Without the soliloquies in this play, it is possible to follow the story but the audience would not fully comprehend why Hamlet is acting in certain ways and doing certain things. However I think that the soliloquies in this play are extremely important and are very helpful to the audience. They reveal Hamlet’s deepest thoughts and feelings and so we can have extended knowledge of Hamlet’s state of mind throughout the play.
