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According to the Collins’ Dictionary, a soliloquy is “a speech in a play in which the actor or actress speaks to himself or herself and to the audience, rather than to another actor”. By using this dramatic device, the reader is able to pinpoint specific reasons towards Hamlet’s actions, and compare them to their own personal actions. Shakespeare uses soliloquies to unveil bits and pieces of Hamlet’s mind, due to the controversial events surrounding his life. His soliloquies in the first three acts intertwine, unfolding a dramatic build-up to the ‘explosion of action’ in Act 3.
In the first soliloquy, Hamlet says, “O that this too too sullied flesh would melt, / Thaw, and resolve into a dew, / Or that the Everlasting had not fixed / His canon gainst self-slaughter” (I.ii.129-132), permitting the reader to come into conclusion that Hamlet is suicidal. His father, the former King of Denmark, had just died, and his mother married his father’s brother, King Claudius, right after the funeral. Everyone who is anyone in Denmark is feasting, and Hamlet is the only one who still truly mourning. If it were anyone in his situation, they’d feel alone in being the only one not rejoicing in the marriage. When one is in a state of loneliness, their thoughts become very fragile because they are not in the right state of mind. Everyone begins to look fake in Hamlet’s eyes, and because of this, Hamlet subconsciously pulls himself away from their world, and ceases to compare to them. When one argues with another, or highly opposes one’s actions, there is a tendency to stray from that person. They may not speak to each other until the problem is solved, but sometimes, the conflict is never solved, and the two people continue to stray from one another. In Hamlet’s case, the conflict becomes worse when his father’s ghost reveals that he did not die a normal death; he was poisoned and murdered by his own brother, King Claudius.
Hamlet is now faced with a task: to avenge his father’s death. In the second soliloquy, given at the end of Act 2, Hamlet exposes his scheme, “Make mad the guilty and apal the free” (II.ii.529), to strip King Claudius of his mental barriers, aiming for a public omission. A public omission is when a person inadvertently reacts a certain way, or says something that cannot be taken back. Hamlet asks the players to act out the murder of his father and incorporate it into ‘The Murder of Gonzago’, which is to be presented to Denmark. When one is put under pressure, they eventually burst, admitting to their mistake, or admitting to the facts, revealing that they find a relation to the facts (or topic) within their lives. For example, during an interrogation, a criminal can only remain silent for a long while, but eventually, with the proper tactics, investigators can make the criminal admit to their crime. If King Claudius watches his brother’s murder performed right before his eyes, Hamlet hopes that guilt will boil in his heart, and cause a public omission. He hopes that through this, someone might recognize that the King reacted that certain way because he is guilty of something, leaving suspicions within Denmark. This way, he’d have a reason to kill King Claudius, avenge his father’s death, and take the crown. However, Hamlet is still pretty young, carrying a conscience that continuously prevents him from killing the king when the moment is there.
Hamlet’s outpour of his profoundly personal thoughts is presented to the reader in his third soliloquy, found in Act 3, Scene 1 (lines 56-89). In this soliloquy, his conscience kicks in and makes him question his existence. He takes no joy in what life has set upon his hands, but he knows he cannot turn back; he cannot fight time. He refers to life a mortal coil: we are trapped in our own world; our own lives, and there’s no escape to it. Everything goes according to time, and there is no chance that one can fight and win against time. The one thing that is keeping him from committing suicide is the fact that he does not know what lies after death; fear of death. Hamlet constantly debates on his existence instead of debating on his action: to kill King Claudius. This is similar to one’s regular life situations. There are so many moments where one finds themselves questioning their existence, and why they are till living. There are many more times when one finds themselves just wanting to give up, but cannot. Sometimes, things just get so bad; you start realizing that you’re losing a vast amount of things in your life, and it becomes harder to persevere through each day; through each breath. Despite all this, you still hold on to every living breath, careful not to entice death into your thoughts out of fear. Like Hamlet, we would all love to just do what we want to do anytime; any day, and get whatever we want; whenever, but we cannot. The reason behind it is simple: it is not that we cannot do it, but because we fear failure. Fear is what we always find ourselves running from, but cannot. This is why Hamlet cannot just simply kill King Claudius.
The three soliloquies each illustrate the main conflicts in Hamlet’s mind, which build up to his plot to kill his 'uncle-father', King Claudius. At the same time, they illustrate why it has become a human hurdle in his race. Nonetheless, one can concur that nothing is ever easy, and the things that we want most in life will always be the hardest.
Soliloquies are the deepest, most inner thoughts and feelings of a character that is expressed out loud to the audience. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet performs three amazing soliloquies all within acts one through three. In the soliloquies Hamlet’s thoughts and feelings guide him to choices that eventually lead to his choice of action. Within every soliloquy Hamlet’s anger and frustration continues to grow towards his uncle. This is evident through his choice of words and tone. In act one through three, explosion of action is found through Hamlet’s true feelings towards his uncle, his plans of revenge and his decision to follow his filial obligations.
Hamlets feelings for Claudius are filled with pure hatred because he takes his place as king and marries his mother. Hamlet is angry and upset that Claudius is trying to replace his father and proclaims “So excellent a king that was to this,/ Hyperion to a satyr, so loving to my mother/ […] Would have mourned longer- married with my uncle,/ My father’s brother, but no more like my father/ Then I to Hercules” (1.2.139-140, 150-153). Hamlet explains how his father and his uncle are completely different and he compares his father to a Son God and his uncle as half goat, half human. This first soliloquy in the play announces a problem that will arise to more problems in Hamlets next two soliloquies.
Hamlet is outraged at the fact that his uncle is the murderer of his father. His purpose in life now is to seek revenge for his father’s sake but keeps procrastinating because truly deep down he is scared to kill. As Hamlet’s anger increases he proclaims “Bloody, bawdy villain! / Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindness villain! / O, vengeance! / […] Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, / […] I’ll have grounds/ More relative than this / The play’s the thing/ Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king” (2.2. 546-548, 551,570-572). He always changes his mind and never goes through with his plans. He is frustrated and evidently tries to find excuses in order to postpone his revenge. His lack of actions creates dramatic tension which collects and makes future events even more exciting to uncover. This eventually leads him to his filial obligation.
Hamlet’s soliloquy in act three represents the heartache that revenge can cause. He continues to procrastinate and instead of seeking revenge he is having thoughts of suicide. However, Hamlet discovers that death is not always the best choice. He explains “To grunt and sweat under a weary life,/ But that the dread of something after death,/ The undiscovered country, from whose bourn/ No traveler returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have” (3.1.77-81). Hamlet explains how it is better knowing where you are rather then going to a place that you have never been to before. His choice of seeking revenge gets him a step closer to the explosion of action.
In act one through three, explosion of action is found through Hamlet’s true feelings toward his uncle, his plans of revenge and his decision to follow his filial obligations. In Hamlet’s first soliloquy he explains his feelings towards Claudius. In Hamlet’s second soliloquy he begins to seek revenge. In the third soliloquy Hamlet chooses not to commit suicide and continues to follow his filial obligations. Therefore Hamlet’s soliloquies lead him towards his explosion of action.
In many works of literature there are many ways an author can build to an explosion of action in the book or play. In William Shakespeare’s Classic Hamlet soliloquies are a major component that builds up to the Explosion of action which in Hamlet is Act 3. Soliloquies help to reveal a characters true personality because it lets them express themselves when they are alone in the play. The one character in Hamlet that does many soliloquies throughout the first three scenes is the main character Hamlet. The soliloquies help the audience to see Hamlets true feelings to the world around him which then gives the reader the chance to relate the story to their own experiences and think about the world around them. Shakespeare does a good job in using this literary element to slowly release Hamlets character and lead to the exploding action of the play.
In the first act of the play Hamlet, the main character Hamlet gives his first soliloquy Hamlet says “ O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason would have mourned longer- married with my uncle, my father’s brother, but no more like my father than I to Hercules. Within a month”(1.2.150-153). From this qote the audience is able to see how Hamlet feels about his mother Gertrude’s marriage to his uncle Claudius. Hamlet does not like the idea that his mother married his uncle so soon after his fathers passing and she has just moved on so quickly when he is still mourning. Hamlet also tells what he thinks about his uncle when he says that he is no more like his father than Hamlet is to Hercules. Hamlet also shows that he is not very strong and that he is weak as opposed to Hercules who is strong and powerful. Hamlet believes that his mother has betrayed his father and he dislikes his uncle for taking away his rightful position as King of Denmark. When one loses someone close to them they are emotionally hurt and they mourn for a long time. When everyone else has moved on in only a short period of time it feels like they had no respect for the deceased loved one. Hamlet begins to resent his uncle and even starts to dislike his own mother for what she did. His dislike and hate will be one of the main forces that will drive him to do what he does and that will build up to the explosion of action inn the play.
In the next act Hamlet is visited by the ghost of his father and he tells Hamlet about how he got murdered by his uncle Claudius. The Ghost then gives Hamlet a mission to go and avenge his death and murder his uncle for his father. In the soliloquy in act 2 Hamlet says “Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed the faculty of eyes and ears”(2.2.530-531). In this soliloquy Hamlet exposes his plan to try to get King Claudius to confess his murder and make him feel guilty to attack him emotionally. Hamlet decides to have a play called Murder of Gonzago. In this play the storyline is exactly similar to how Claudius murdered King Hamlet . Hamlet hopes that when Claudius sees the play he would feel his guilty conscience shave a mental outburst in front of the entire court. When one carries a guilty conscience inside them for a long period of time seeing anything that reminds them of their crime causes them to have outbursts and lose control of themselves.
The final soliloquy of leading to the explosion of action is probably the most famous of all Soliloquies in Shakespeare work. This soliloquy is found in act 3, scene 1 lines 59-90. In this soliloquy Hamlet begins to question his very existence when he says “To be or not to b-That is the question ” (3.1.56) .This can be translated into to live or not to live or any other variation because in general this quote is a question that questions existence. Hamlet begins to question his existence on Earth when he realizes the task that fate has put on him and he knows he can not change anything about it. When one questions his or her existence they begin to think the same thing Hamlet is thinking. Many people wonder why their lives are the way they are and will it ever change. We start to question our very purpose on the earth and whether we should find out what it is or just wait until our lives are over.
Each soliloquy shows how Hamlets mind is becoming more and more fragile with each and every single day that goes by in the play that leads to the massive explosion of action in act 3. William Shakespeare has done a fantastic job of showing how a human mind is intern very fragile and he does it amazingly in all the soliloquies and it helps us realize that life is not always a bed of roses and that it can be difficult a lot of the time.
A soliloquy is a part of a play when a character is alone and the audience has the chance to hear the character’s interior thoughts. While reading Hamlet, one will come across three important soliloquies that occur from Acts 1 through 3. These soliloquies are a necessity to the development leading to the explosion of action in Act 3 which is Hamlet’s sudden recognition that time is always trying to hurt you and influences his immediate choice to murder Polonius.
Once in a while, an individual reaches a certain point of there life that stresses them out because they believe everything is happening too fast. Hamlet demonstrates this feeling that he has lost control of time when he delivers his first soliloquy in Act One. During this soliloquy, he refers to how his mother has moved on from his father’s death much too soon and this signifies this loss of time. “A little month, or ere those shoes were old/ With which she followed my poor father’s body” (I.ii.147-48). This line indicates that Hamlet feels as though the Queen could have worn the same pair of shoes to his father’s funeral and his mother’s wedding. By saying this, Hamlet is clearly implying that Gertrude did not wait long enough to get over her husband’s death before replacing him which Hamlet believes is wrong. He also touches upon the idea that Gertrude did not wait long enough when he says, “Within a month, / Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears/ Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, / She married” (I.ii.153-56). This line can be associated with how Hamlet believes Gertrude rushed into her marriage with Claudius because he is saying that Gertrude’s eyes were still red from mourning over King Hamlet while standing at the alter getting married to Claudius. Even though it was a month between both of these major events in Hamlet’s life, it is evident that Hamlet’s lack of ability to control these occurrences in such little time is what stressed Hamlet out. He could not process everything that was happening.
As time goes on, the longer you wait to deal with your internal flaws the more they will start to affect your everyday life. When Hamlet says his second soliloquy it is clear that his issues with his new father have only gotten worse opposed to improving. After learning that Claudius was the one who killed King Hamlet, it is only fair that Hamlet has bitter feelings towards Claudius. This is clarified during his second soliloquy when he says, “Bloody, bawdy villain! /Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!” (II.ii.546-47). When this is said, the reader can now be confident that Hamlet is simply furious with Claudius’ actions and will find a way to get the revenge his father deserves. This recognition of his hatred towards Claudius is another interesting aspect of a soliloquy. At some point throughout a soliloquy the character will identify a certain situation and towards the end of the soliloquy the character will also identify the perfect solution. When Hamlet makes the plan to force Claudius to have a public omission this also can be related back to Hamlet’s idea that time is always against you. “I’ll observe his looks. /I’ll tent him to the quick. If he do blench, /I know my course” (II.ii.563-64). The plan to request the players to reenact the way Claudius kills King Hamlet forces him to experience a public omission and say things that he will not be able to take back. Hamlet feels this will be the best way to engage his payback to Claudius for killing his father. The only flaw to this plan is that Hamlet will have to wait for the play to happen and this is what fuels Hamlet’s internal hatred towards Claudius even more. After this soliloquy Hamlet is now fighting time for more than one reason.
After reflecting on recent dramatic events in your life, it is very common to come to a conclusion that leads you to a state of melancholy and results in you seeing life in a much broader perspective than what you had thought before. Hamlet’s third soliloquy is a good example of this new state of mind and how it can affect your outlook on life. He opens with a bold question that leads the audience to believe that he has become rather depressed and somewhat lost in all his emotions. “To be or not to be – that is the question” (III.i.56). This question can be seen as Hamlet’s major flaw because he is unsure on whether life is currently worth living which leads him to be curious to learn what the purpose of life is. He slowly comes to the conclusion that there must be some meaning or else life and death would not be such a big deal. Although he does not find the true meaning of life in this soliloquy, he does create an image to represent the struggles in life and how one should deal with all the issues they run into. “Or take arms against a sea of troubles, / And by opposing end them” (III.i.59-60). The image he creates is that an individual can try and stop all the waves in a sea. The waves represent problems that happen in life and the sea is life. The waves will just keep coming so there is no sense in trying to stop them as it makes more sense to just cope with them. This also helps him form a belief that time is always hurting you and you just have to be able to deal with the pain sometimes, “For who would bear the whips and scorns of time” (III.i.70). It is clear that everything Hamlet reveals to the audience through his third soliloquy helps him form a better understanding of life. However keeping all this information in instead of expressing it to someone that can help him is what leads to the explosion of action in Act 3.
After a series of meaningful events occur, it is not out of the ordinary for an even larger episode of events to follow. In Hamlet, once King Hamlet is murdered and Gertrude remarries it is clear that nothing good will come of these events. Hamlet personally feels as though he is running out of time to get the revenge for his dead father, against his new ‘uncle-father’, which slowly adds up to create a belief that time is against him and he has a sense of urgency. This sense of urgency is what makes Hamlet murder Polonius in Gertrude’s bedroom. “How now? A rat? Dead for a ducat, dead!” (III.iv.25). The Ghost encourages Hamlet to stop delaying his plans to kill Claudius and this is what the result is. Hamlet makes an irrational decision to kill whomever he believes is behind the curtain listening to him and his mother’s conversation. He is only hoping that it will be Claudius when in the end it is not. To Hamlet, this is no big deal because he realizes he still has to deal with Claudius, but what he does not realize is that this is what will make Claudius decide to send Hamlet off to England. All in all, it is clear that Hamlet’s soliloquies are a key part in the development to the explosion of action in Act 3 because it is through soliloquies that the audience is able to hear the character’s thoughts and plans of action.
How Hamlet’s Soliloquies Enhance his Act 3 Action
Action is exciting, made even more so when things like dramatic tension and foreshadowing precede it. Alone, action is just action, but when these literary elements are used with it, action becomes a great release of tension and the answer to the audience’s questions. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, dramatic tension is created through Hamlet’s soliloquies, in which the outlined plan to avenge his father is inaction. This is the trend up until the end of the third act, when Hamlet finally does something, blindly killing Polonius, hoping it is Claudius. It is ironic how Hamlet builds up anxiety by thinking without acting and then finally acting, but without thinking. It shows the duality that is present in every human being. Also used in Hamlet’s soliloquies is foreshadowing, where Hamlet realizes that he needs to act, hinting that he will do so in the future. What he does not hint at is how and when he will do so, creating a question for the audience that is answered by the action. The three soliloquies in the first three scenes of Hamlet build towards the explosion of action in Act 3 through the constant accumulation of dramatic tension and foreshadowing.
As with cartoon TNT, with the long fuse slowly burning towards the explosion, Hamlet delays as long as possible when he should be trying to solve his problems, creating dramatic tension for the audience. Hamlet often finds inaction to be the best course of action which effectively makes the audience waiting for him to make a move very anxious. In the first soliloquy, even before the ghost of Hamlet’s father tells him that Claudius murdered him, Hamlet already dislikes Claudius and the marriage he has with his mother, “[…] married with my uncle, / My father’s brother, but no more like my father / Than I to Hercules […] It is not nor it cannot come to good. / But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.” (1.2.151-159). Hamlet compares Claudius to his father as Hamlet is to Hercules; they are nothing like each other. Earlier in the soliloquy, Hamlet uses another analogy to contrast his father to Claudius, calling them “Hyperion to a satyr” (1.2.140), a god to a beast. Even though Hamlet has such distaste towards Claudius and his marriage to his mother, he decides to say nothing, a course of inaction. Hamlet lets the plot advance itself rather than advance it himself, as a result creating tension for the restless audience. In the second soliloquy, Hamlet sets up a plan to “[…] catch the conscience of the king” (2.2.592) through a play, “The Murder of Gonzago”, “I’ll have these players / Play something like the murder of my father / Before mine uncle. I’ll observe his looks […] If he but blench, / I know my course.” (2.2.581-585). Hamlet wants to judge Claudius’ reaction to seeing the murder he committed displayed before him. The purpose of the plan is not to kill Claudius, but to determine Claudius’ guilt, which has already been confirmed by the ghost of Hamlet’s father. Again, Hamlet’s plan of action is to just wait and see what happens, creating great anxiety. Hamlet delays yet again at the beginning of the third soliloquy, where instead of plotting the murder of his uncle, which earlier in the play he promises himself will be the only thing on his mind, he questions the nature of being, “To be, or not to be: that is the question. / Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, / And by opposing end them?” (3.1.56-60). When the audience is dying to see Hamlet kill Claudius, he is contemplating life instead, whether it is better to be passive against a world of troubles or to take arms and fight against those troubles. To the audience it seems obvious that he needs to fight against his problems, and it keeps piling and piling more suspense because he still is not doing anything and the play is nearly half done. Thus, the build-up of dramatic tension created in the first three soliloquies becomes unbearable, making the explosion of action, Hamlet’s murder of Polonius, extremely climactic.
Hamlet’s constant realization that he needs to act is a kind of foreshadowing, raising the questions “How and when is Hamlet going to do something to solve his problems?” The second soliloquy is where Hamlet first realizes he is not trying his hardest to avenge his father, “This is most brave, / That I, the son of a dear father murder’d, / Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, / Must, like a whore unpack my heart with words, / And fall a-cursing like a very drab, A scullion!” (2.2.328-331). Hamlet sarcastically says that he’s been doing a great job of things; forces from beyond the grave tell Hamlet to avenge his father, and instead of doing that, he is just talking about all his problems. He realizes he is wasting time, but at this point, he does not do anything about it, raising those how and when questions. In the third soliloquy, when Hamlet is contemplating the idea that its better to give up and die than to face his problems, he comes to a conclusion, “[…] But that the dread of something after death, / The undiscovered country from whose bourn / No traveller returns, puzzles the will / And makes us rather bear those ills we have, / Than fly to others that we know not of?” (3.1.78-82). Hamlet concludes that it is better to face ones earthly problems rather than kill oneself and have to face the fearsome unknown that is death. He is foreshadowing that he must and will deal with his problems. This statement brings Hamlet back to his observation from the second soliloquy, “[…] And thus the native hue of resolution / Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought, / And enterprises of great pith and moment / With this regard their currents turn awry, / And lose the name of action.” (3.1.84-88). He again realizes that he has lost his purpose, forgotten that he must avenge his father and kill Claudius. This remembrance makes Hamlet more inclined to act, and that is what he does at the end of Act 3, when he blindly stabs into an arras, hoping the person spying on him is Claudius, when in fact, it is Polonius. In conclusion, foreshadowing creates the questions for the audience, “How and when is Hamlet going to act?” and those questions are answered through his rash action in Act 3.
The amassing of dramatic tension and foreshadowing within Hamlet’s first three soliloquies lead to the explosion of action that is Act 3 of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Throughout the three soliloquies, Hamlet is building anticipation with his plans of waiting and thinking, really preparing the audience for a big release of tension through his misplaced action, the murder of Polonius. Foreshadowing is also used by Hamlet when he comes back to the fact that he has forgotten his ultimate purpose, hinting that in the very near future, he must do something to pull himself back towards his goal. Halfway through the play, he finally answers the questions how and when by attempting to kill Claudius, only to find out that his poorly planned action has killed Polonius instead. The build up using these two literary elements makes a stimulating event even more powerful; adding a release of tension as well as the answer to questions implied with foreshadowing. This makes the experience of the play more satisfying for the audience. Action without meaning is meaningless; it needs thought and motive behind it to evolve into something that can be processed and analyzed by the mind.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2003.
Leading to the Explosion of Action
The use of soliloquies in literature is an effective way of revealing a main character’s most inner thoughts. They unfold to the audience the detailed emotions and future ploys of that character. In the Shakespearean play Hamlet, there are three significant soliloquies in the first acts that lead to the explosion of action. The explosion of action in Act 3 is gradually built through Hamlet’s three soliloquies. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the three soliloquies that lead to the explosion of action in Act 3 are linked to Gertrude’s marriage, Hamlet’s helplessness and the world’s imperfection.
Hamlet's soliloquy in Act 1 reveals the disappointment Hamlet holds towards Gertrude, which explodes during his encounter with Ophelia in Act 3. In the first act of Hamlet, the first soliloquy reveals to the audience that Gertrude has upset Hamlet by marrying Claudius. Hamlet is ashamed because his mother hastily marries his uncle. He utters that his mother should “have mourned longer – married with my uncle, my father’s brother, but no more like my father than I to Hercules” (1.2.151). Due to Gertrude’s marriage to Claudius, Hamlet thinks that all women are weak and frail, and he expresses all these feelings in his inner thoughts as “frailty, thy name is women”(1.2.146). Hamlet’s thoughts and emotions about women that are revealed in his first soliloquy tell the audience that Hamlet is disgusted by them, since he views them as weak and frail. Furthermore, since Hamlet’s attitude towards women starts as negative, it leads to the explosion of action in Act 3 where he intensifies his attack on women through Ophelia. He tells Ophelia to go “To a nunnery, go” (3.1.146), so she does not become the “breeder of sinners” (3.1.122). He is enraged and disgusted by women, and his thoughts reach the extreme. He expresses that women are hypocrites who appear to be more beautiful than they really are, and expresses his want to end all marriages. Hamlet’s soliloquy in Act 1 show that he is heart broken by what his mother has done, and his despair explodes during his encounter with Ophelia in Act 3.
Hamlet's soliloquy in Act 2 explains and denounces the helpless state he is at, which is a state that drives his actions in planning the "dumbshow" of Act 3. Hamlet’s soliloquy in Act 2 reveals that Hamlet feels that he has only been complaining like a little child and has been incapable of doing anything, like a “peasant slave” (2.2.515). He realizes that what he has been doing for days and nights is just cursing and being hard headed. His thoughts show his strong desire to avenge his father’s murder. Hamlet’s patience and anger build up his temper, and drive him to plan the play that happens in Act 3. Moreover, Hamlet’s idea is to set up a play, based on the idea of murder by poison, where “the plays the thing, wherein ill catch the conscience of the king” (2.2.571-572). During the play, Hamlet catches his uncle off guard. Hamlet’s charge in planning and presenting the play reveals to his uncle his knowledge of the murder. His uncle becomes aware of Hamlet’s motives and cries “give me some light. Away!” (3.2.251). Hamlet’s soliloquy in Act 2 expressed his desire to act, and this desire exploded in Act 3 with the play.
Hamlet's resounding soliloquy in Act 3 illustrates the state of deep thinking and reflection that Hamlet has reached as a result of the accumulation of previous events. In the last act, Hamlet contemplates whether to choose to live by acting out and facing his problems or to die without solving anything. In Hamlet’s soliloquy in Act 3, he discusses the imperfection of the world by asking himself whether “to be or not to be, that is the question” (3.1.56), which means to exist or not to exist. Hamlet discusses that death is a place that makes us paralyzed and “that in the dread of something after death, the undiscovered country, from whose bourn. No traveler returns, puzzles the will” (3.1.78). This tells the audience that Hamlet is willing to face his own problems and to show what he is really capable of doing by being patient and avenging King Hamlet. All the events that preceded the point of “to be or not to be” stand as building blocks to the accumulation of action and the explosion of action that initiated with the soliloquies and Hamlet’s inner thoughts that made his passiveness lift.
In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Gertrude’s marriage, Hamlet’s helplessness, and the world’s imperfection all link to the three soliloquies that build on the explosion of action in Act 3. After all the events that happened before Act 3, Hamlet becomes a man of his word and gets his public omission of guilt by not giving up. Everyone has the right to chose, and everyone makes mistakes in life. However, no one can take away a privilege to choose right or wrong. In the end, it is up to the person to choose whether to act or to remain passive. It is the person’s responsibility to make sure that change happens by taking that extra step towards fulfilling his goal.
Work cited:
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Edited by: Alice S. Landy, Dave Martin. Lesly College: Vancouver school board
The Explosion of Action Built by Hamlet’s First Soliloquies
A soliloquy is a character speaking on stage alone; it is their internal monologue and therefore it is impossible to lie in it unless the character is crazy. A soliloquy starts with the character’s problem, followed by them thinking of ways to solve the problem, and at the end the character comes up with a solution. In plays, soliloquies are used to give the audience an insight to the speaking character’s mind frame and their current problems. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Shakespeare effectively uses this literary form to convey Hamlet’s feelings in a way that it invokes feelings in the audience. The three soliloquies build towards a sudden “explosion of action” in the third act, due to Hamlet’s hate, over thinking, and inaction.
The first soliloquy Hamlet delivers to the audience makes known his hatred towards the circumstances he’s in. The audience is informed of his own opinion on the most recent slew of events, like his mother remarrying his uncle and Hamlet still being prince. Hamlet is depressed and frustrated that he cannot take the easy way out of his current situation in life by committing suicide, as it is against God’s rule. He expresses that he wishes to escape his rotten life, “[…]this too too solid flesh would melt/[…]Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d/ His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter![…]/ How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable/ Seem to me all the uses of this world./[…] ‘tis an unweeded garden,/ That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature/ Possess it merely”(1.2.129, 131-132, 133-136). Hamlet is dejected with life and finds it now meaningless, tiring, and boring. This also is stated in his soliloquy in Act 3 with his eagerness to be rid of it. He yearns for his life to change. Hamlet is both appalled and enraged by how quickly his mom married his uncle after his father’s death. He conveys his disbelief towards his mother’s attitude, “A little month; or ere those shoes were old/ With which she follow’d my poor father’s body, / […] O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,/ Would have mourn’d longer,―married with mine uncle,/[…] She married. O! most wicked speed, to post/ With such dexterity to incestuous sheets” (1.2. 147-148, 150-151, 156-157). Hamlet cannot wrap his mind around the concept of his mother remarrying so quickly after her husband died, and to his uncle no less. In comparison, Hamlet is still mourning the loss of his father and is being overwhelmed by how quick everyone close to his father has moved on. Hamlet is also vexed by the fact he can not speak his opinions on the current state of affairs or even do anything about it. He agonises that, “It is not nor it cannot come to good; / But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue”(1.2.158-159), he cannot speak against the marriage as doing so would be treason to the king, and everyone else in Denmark is happy with this union. For this reason, the first soliloquy of Hamlet’s frustration and resentment foreshadows the sudden action that occurs in Act 3.
Hamlet raises the tension for action with his second soliloquy in debating on whether to act or not, and what is stopping him. Hamlet acknowledges that he is wasting time by not doing anything to exact revenge for his father. Hamlet reflects on his non-action, “A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak, / Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause, / And can say nothing; no, not for a king, / Upon whose property and most dear life/ A damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward?”(2.2. 571-575). Hamlet realises that he is procrastinating. Furthermore Hamlet realises that by letting Claudius continue living, he is not fulfilling his filial obligation to his father. Hamlet lists all the reasons that he should just act and kill his uncle. He expresses his mixed feelings, “Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain! / […] Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell” (2.2. 585, 589), he knows even heaven and hell want him to just kill Claudius. Yet he still hesitates and stops himself for reasons unknown to the audience, raising the tension. Afterward, Hamlet decides to wait some more before acting. He elaborates on this plan, “I’ll have these players/ Play something like the murder of my father/ Before mine uncle: I'll observe his looks; / I'll tent him to the quick: if he but blench, / I know my course…” (2.2. 599-603). Hamlet decides to get more proof before deciding whether or not to kill Claudius. This proves to be a mistake as he reverts back to being nihilistic and absurd in his soliloquy in Act 3.Hamlet’s soliloquy in Act 2 helps build to a burst of action in the third act by Hamlet over thinking his actions and waiting too much. It gives the audience a hope that he will start acting only to destroy the notion by Hamlet then deciding to postpone acting till a later date.
The third soliloquy Hamlet delivers to the audience leads to the outbreak in action in Act 3 due to Hamlet reverting back to being absurd (life has no meaning) and contemplative. Hamlet is feeling something similar to the combination of his two previous soliloquies. Hamlet questions what it means to be human and whether he should commit suicide as he contemplated in his first soliloquy. He ponders, “To be, or not to be: that is the question…” [3.1.56], Hamlet cannot decide whether living to get revenge for his father is worth all the trouble he is going through. He is depressed that he hasn’t had any progress as of yet and curses his existence. Hamlet ponders on whether he should act or not like in his second soliloquy. Hamlet realises he cannot stop life’s troubles, “Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer/ The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, / And by opposing end them?”(3.1.57-60). Hamlet tries to decide whether he should fight his troubles or brace himself for them. He completely goes off on a tangent of the meaning of life and does not focus on the fact he should be plotting revenge. Hamlet equates killing himself with action, “When he himself might his quietus make/ With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear, / […] Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, / And enterprises of great pith and moment/ With this regard their currents turn awry, / And lose the name of action.”(3.1. 75-76, 85-88). Hamlet is procrastinating even though he knows the importance of fulfilling the revenge cycle. Hamlet’s third soliloquy helps foreshadow the abrupt burst of action in Act 3 by giving the audience absolutely no development with Hamlet’s plan to kill Claudius.
As a result of Hamlet’s resentment, over thinking, and lack of action, the first three soliloquies Hamlet delivers in the play build towards a sudden “explosion of action”, after two acts lacking action. One watching the play begins to feel irritated about Hamlet’s inaction and wants him to act already. Shakespeare brilliantly predicts his audience’s emotional response to Hamlet’s soliloquies and has Hamlet act impulsively in Act 3. Soliloquies are just one of the many tools to show a character’s thoughts and to emotionally move the audience.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. New Jersey: Wiley Publishing Inc., 2006
Hamlet’s Soliloquies and the Explosion of Action
For every action, there is a reaction, not only in the world of science, but in life as well. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, he uses Hamlet’s soliloquies to obtain a certain reaction from the audience. The “explosion of action” in Act Three does not necessarily refer to the plot, rather the audience’s reaction to Hamlet’s sudden decisions. Shakespeare uses the first two soliloquies to lead to a third, more detailed one, causing the restlessness of his audience.
In Act One, Scene Two, Hamlet delivers the first of many brilliant soliloquies in the play. He mentions how life is useless, “O God, God, / How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable / Seem to me all the uses of this world!” (1.2.132-134), and considers suicide as a desirable alternative to living through the pains of life. This is the first time the audience witnesses Hamlet seriously consider this choice. However he dismisses the notion of suicide, “Or that the Everlasting had not fixed / His canon gainst self-slaughter” (1.2.131-132), as it would be an action against God. This mental debate of life and death is brought up in Hamlet’s third soliloquy as well. Shakespeare makes it clear that Hamlet is contemplating suicide, and reassures his audience of this in Act Three, “To be or not to be – that is the question: / Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles / And by opposing end them” (3.1.56-60). When Hamlet mentions this a second time, two full acts later, the audience becomes restless, craving a decision by the young prince. Ironically, when Hamlet does make a decision in killing Polonius, the audience has a completely opposite reaction, questioning Hamlet’s decision. This reaction is a direct result of Hamlet’s soliloquy in Act Three. The fact that he still has not gotten any further in deciding to kill Claudius angers the audience, resulting in a more dramatic, explosive turn of events in Act Three.
The second soliloquy, in Act Two, Scene Two, takes place after Hamlet meets with the actors or players, as they are referred to in Shakespeare’s time. The dilemma Hamlet is faced with here is his inability to take action, “Yet I, / A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak / Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause, / And can say nothing, no, not for a king, / Upon whose property and most dear life / A damned defeat was made” (2.2.532-537). Hamlet is frustrated with himself due to his inaction and wonders if he is a coward. Shakespeare reassures the idea of inaction in Hamlet’s third soliloquy in Act Three. Hamlet questions why people do not take action by putting an end to their suffering and comes to the conclusion, “Thus conscience does make cowards of us all” (3.1.83), and that the limited knowledge of the afterlife is what keeps them from doing so. Likewise in Act One, the idea of taking action presented in Act Two and Three aggravates the audience, causing them to long for a result. However, unlike in Hamlet’s first soliloquy, he directly refers to taking action which is exactly what the audience desires, causing them to crave it even more. When Hamlet finally does act however, he leaves the audience puzzled and confused, wondering what just happened and why it did. This is a brilliant maneuver, as Shakespeare fools his audience into demanding action, and when he provides it, they are not satisfied.
For every action, there is a reaction. The same can be said for Shakespeare’s Hamlet. He uses Hamlet’s first two soliloquies as perhaps a preview of the third one, containing some of the most famous lines in the English language. Shakespeare uses the thoughts of Hamlet to build toward an “explosion of action” in Act Three. The explosion refers to how the audience reacts to Hamlet’s decisions and actions, and how it contributes to add drama and tension in the play. The amount of tension and drama in a certain situation is a direct result anyone who is involved, and what their reaction happens to be.
Work Cited
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. D.C. Heath and Company, Lexington, Massachusetts, 1980.
A soliloquy is a dramatic form of dialogue in which the character reveals his or her inner, most private thoughts to the audience without acknowledging them. Soliloquies often happen when a central character is involved in conflict and shows the audience what they are going to do about it. In the first 3 acts of Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet delivers 3 soliloquies that build up the tension and make act 3 “explosive”. In Hamlet’s first 3 soliloquies, Hamlet shows his thoughts about his mother and uncle, his internal struggle with the obligation to his dead father and his tactics for revenge.
Many children are unhappy with their parents getting remarried, but Hamlet’s situation makes him truly disgusted. In Hamlet is revolted about the fact that his uncle married his mother and also took his place as King of Denmark. Hamlet shows his uncle no respect and rejects his as a father because he doesn’t think that Claudius measures up to his dead father. He also is enraged that his mother was able to get over the death of the man she that loved so quickly. In his first soliloquy, Hamlet’s first thoughts are to tell his mother and new father what he thinks of the situation that was forced upon him, without his approval. This makes his life feel useless and unworthy because to Hamlet, his father was a warrior and a role model and his uncle is an unworthy fool. When he sees his mother flip from a God-like man to the scum of the universe, he loses all hope in women, “Frailty, thy name is woman.” (1.2.146). This shows that his mother is weak and therefore he loses all hope and respect for women, even his girlfriend. This eventually leads to an explosion in act 3 when he has an emotional outburst at his girlfriend and tells her to leave and never come back. The result of the first soliloquy is that Hamlet decides to hold his tongue and hold off on action for the first time.
Hamlet’s father is very important to him and when Hamlet is asked to do something for him, he is obligated to take action. The ghost of King Hamlet revealed the true cause of his death and asks his son, Hamlet to avenge his death by killing his uncle, who is also the King of Denmark. This proves to be a harder task than Hamlet thought it would be because he realizes how hard it is to take action. In the second soliloquy, Hamlet’s problem is that he doesn’t know if he will be able to fulfill his dead father’s wishes. Hamlet realizes that he is his own worst enemy because he does not want to kill anyone, “Yet I/ a dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak/ like a John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause/ and can say nothing.” (2.2.532-535). Hamlet realizes that no matter how much he wants to act, he is unable to because of his own ambitions in life. Hamlet decides once again to put off any action and make his uncle publicly declare his guilt. The fact that Hamlet put off his actions once again results in an explosion of action in act 3.
In the third act of Hamlet, Shakespeare is able to use Hamlet’s 3 soliloquies to make and explosion of action. Hamlet’s third soliloquy forces him to debate once again whether or not he should take action and kill the king. During his internal speech, he wonders what is stopping him from killing himself and realizes that it is the dread of the afterlife, “And makes us bear those ills we have/ than fly to others we know not of?” (3.1.81-82). This proves that Hamlet would rather be somewhere that he knows even if it is unbearable for him, then be dead where fate is a mystery. He also decides that he will wait until he has further proof before killing Claudius. After this speech Hamlet is finally forced to take action when the King finally has a public omission while watching the play that Hamlet had the actors perform. When he has his proof and talks with his mother, she finally understands how marrying Claudius has upset him. Then after waiting for 3 acts for Hamlet to take action, he finally does but in the wrong way. He kills Polonius- the Lord Chamberlain of Denmark and his girlfriend’s father because he thought it was the King. In the end Hamlet realizes that he will have to kill his uncle, but only when he is sure that Claudius will not go to heaven.
In conclusion, Hamlet’s 3 soliloquies make the third act an exploding one because he verbally assaults the only girl he really loved; he is able to finally take action because he realizes that his father’s ghost was telling him the truth and he makes the plan to kill Claudius when he is sinning.
With multiple intertwining plots constructed and explored throughout the first two acts of Hamlet, Act three proves to be an ‘explosion of action’ between these plots. Aiding in triggering this explosion are Hamlet’s first three soliloquies of the play, one in each of the first three acts. A soliloquy is defined by New World Dictionary as “lines in a drama in which a character reveals his thoughts to the audience, but not to the other characters, by speaking as if to himself”. Because soliloquies display the innermost thoughts and feelings of a character, it is impossible not to be entirely truthful.
Hamlet’s first soliloquy falls in scene two of act one. Consequent to King Claudius’ insulting speech criticizing Hamlet’s grief and announcing the embarrassingly hasty wedding between himself and Hamlet’s mother, the soliloquy exemplifies Hamlet’s suicidal thoughts. Hamlet declares, “Or that the Everlasting had not fixed / His canon gainst self-slaughter. O God, God, / How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable / Seem to me all the uses in this world!” (1.2 131-134), stating how he wishes God had not made a law against suicide, for living seems entirely pointless to him now. Hamlet then addresses his resentment for the marriage, and his distaste for his mother’s lack of emotion towards his father’s death, “She married. O, most wicked speed, to post / With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!” (1.2 156-157). Concluding the first soliloquy, and displaying foresight to future events of the play, Hamlet says, “It is not nor it cannot come to good. / But break my heart, for I must hold my tongue” (1.2 158-159). These two short lines begin to build up anticipation to events that occur in act three, simply by stating that no good can come of the marriage.
The second soliloquy of the play, in act two, scene two, focuses more on foresight. Throughout the first half of the speech, Hamlet belittles himself for his incapability to express emotions even partially as well as the actor, whose emotions are make-believe, “What’s Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, / That he should weep for her? What would he do / Had he the motive and the cue for passion / That I have? He would drown the stage with tears.” (2.2 524-527). By this point in the play, Hamlet has sworn to avenge the murderous death of his father, but has yet to act on it. It is clear that not even Hamlet knows the reason for his procrastination. The second half of the soliloquy brings about a slightly different train of thought. “I have heard that guilty creatures sitting at a play / Have by the very cunning of the scene / Been struck so to the soul that presently / They have proclaimed their malefactions” (2.2 556-559), Hamlet recalls, a plot against his uncle quickly forming in his thoughts. “I’ll have these players / Play something like the murder of my father / Before mine uncle. I’ll observe his looks / (…) The play’s the thing / Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king” (2.2 561-563, 571-573), Hamlet decides to sabotage the play, The Murder of Gonzago, in order to prompt his uncle to admit to murdering King Hamlet, once again building anticipation amongst readers, and allowing some foresight as to what is to come.
Easily the most recognizable, eloquent Shakespearean quote is encased within the first line of Hamlet’s third soliloquy. The “To be or not to be” soliloquy is short in comparison to the soliloquy from act two, but its content is not compromised by the length. Positioned directly before the explosion of action in act three, the entirety of the speech is focused less on what is to come, and more on Hamlet’s questioning thoughts about existence. “To die, to sleep- / No more—and by a sleep to say we end / The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks / That flesh is heir to” (3.1 60-63), Hamlet speculates, questioning whether it is really worth enduring life’s hardships. For Hamlet, who has been through so much in such a short period of time, ending his life must seem simpler than dealing with the calamity. As distraught though Hamlet may be in dealing with the dilemma of “To be or not to be”, he chooses to embrace the challenge rather than end his life. He goes on to explain, “But that the dread of something after death, The undiscovered country, from whose bourn / No traveler returns, puzzles the will, / And makes us rather bear those ills we have / Than fly to others that we know not of?” (3.1 78-82), proving that it is human nature to fear the unknown. Without knowledge of what comes next, what comes after death, deciding whether one is better off struggling through the obstacles of life or ending it finitely, is impossible. Concluding the soliloquy, Hamlet addresses his procrastination once again. Hamlet realizes he is spending an incredulous amount of time thinking about acting against Claudius, and literally no time at all actually following through. “Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought, / And enterprises of great pitch and moment / With this regard their currents turn awry / And lose the name of action.” (3.1 85-88), explains how, because of his fear of the unknown, Hamlet resides in his thoughts, failing to initiate the action needed to avenge his father. Perhaps this soliloquy does foresee future events in the play, or rather, the lack thereof. If Hamlet is unable to withdraw himself from his thoughts, King Hamlet’s death may not be avenged.
Hamlet dwells in his thoughts, overanalyzing and scrutinizing ideas and situations. As important as it is to think things through, Hamlet exceeds this, ultimately dissuading himself from action. Through his first three soliloquies, readers are able to witness, firsthand, Hamlet’s incredible ability to talk himself out of almost any situation. That being said, Hamlet’s task at hand is easier said than done, and although Hamlet is often criticized for his delay, his thoughts and procrastination are, in fact, realistic.
Work Cited
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. D.C. Heath and Company, Lexington, Massachusetts, 1980.
Guralnik, David B. New World Dictionary, Cleveland, Ohio, 1976
Through soliloquies one can read a character’s mood, plans or attitudes. Soliloquies are giving by a character who is totally alone and therefore is not afraid to express his or her inner thoughts. Hamlet gives three soliloquies before the “explosion of action” in Act 3.
Each of this soliloquies gives the reader an understanding of Hamlet’s actions and decisions throughout the play. Without this inner talks, one could not even have a minimum idea of what Hamlet is really facing and how disturb is he with the world around him-- this same frustration is what really pushes Hamlet to take unthinkable actions.
The first soliloquy in Act I Scene II reveals Hamlet’s melancholia and the reasons for his bitterness, sorrow, and grief. Hamlet feels like everything in his life is mournful and miserable. In one hand he feels grieved because of his father’s death, much so that he too wishes to die. He even says he would commit suicide if this was not considered a sin, “Or that the Everlasting had not fixed/ His cannon gainst self-slaughter” (1.2 131-132), so even though he feels so miserable that he would rather kill himself than continue living his life, he will not do it because then God would stop him from going to heaven. Saddened not only by his father’s death, Hamlet is also outraged by the quick marriage between Gertrude and Claudius, and the falseness of her sorrow towards her dead husband, “Within a month,/ Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears/ had left the blushing in her galled eyes,/ She married” (1.2 153- 155). This soliloquy about Hamlet’s broken feelings and thoughts, gives the audience an understanding about each of Hamlet’s decisions later on the play.
Hamlet’s second soliloquy, “O what a rogue and peasant slave am I!” (2.2 515), comes directly after he has seen the performance of a speech by the First Player. Hamlet compares himself to this actor, and finds himself wanting to know how this player is capable of doing such a good work without even having the extreme passion that Hamlet has for revenge. This actor has produced such an effective performance, with only a pretended cause for emotion, for as Hamlet says, “What’s Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,/ That he should weep for her?” (2.2 524- 525), so that Hamlet can not understand what has stopped him from acting. This comparison makes Hamlet explode with frustration from the fact that after everything, all he has done is talk, “Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,/ Must like a whore unpack my heart with words” (2.2 551- 552). This soliloquy definitely makes Hamlet’s hunger for action increase considerably, and so that at the end of his thoughts he resolves to make a play about his father’s murder so he can once in for all proof or disproof his uncle’s innocence. This advances the plot and builds towards the explosion of action.
The first two soliloquies created a mood of darkness and total frustration. The audience realized how Hamlet is far more than depressed: he just does not know how to deal with his life and his situation any more. In “To be, or not to be-- that is the question” (3.1 56) Shakespeare reveals a much more poetic side of Hamlet which questions the existence and purpose of life. In this soliloquy Hamlet reveals many questions that people in general wonder but can not admit the answer to, “The undiscovered country, from whose bourn/ No traveller returns, puzzles the will,/ And makes us rather bear those ills we have/ Than fly to others that we know not of?” (3.1 79- 82), he portrays that the only reason for fear is ignorance. When one does not understand what, when or why, and the reason of living is unclear or the direction in life is unknown, the mistakes one makes are bigger. That simple explanation helps the audience see that Hamlet’s existence is out of fear and so his actions in the play will be done out of fear and with no real direction, since he himself has no real direction in life. The way Hamlet reasons his life, shows the reader why Hamlet takes no action and likewise, it shows why he takes actions when he should not have not done anything. From this soliloquies it is clear that the frustration within Hamlet has accumulated, and this bomb of emotions will explode soon enough that it will give place to the all the happenings in Act III.
In the back of everyone’s mind is the conscience that will never go away. Many events have so far occurred in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, but it was all to prepare the reader for what was yet to come. By Act 3, Hamlet has performed 3 main soliloquies, which is when a character is alone on stage expressing his/her inner thoughts to the audience. It is what keeps the readers connected to the character and wanting more out of the play.
In Act 2 Scene 2, Hamlet has his second soliloquy. In this soliloquy Hamlet is expressing his soul, he is beginning to realize he is himself. When Hamlet talks to the players, who are going to be performing a pay he asks them to change the play around a bit, which he will use to get a confession. “The play’s the thing/ Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.” (2.2.571-572) Hamlet is going to change the play around to show how his father was killed by Claudius , in hopes that Claudius will admit or at least enough to prove him guilty, of murdering King Hamlet. Hamlet will do this in order to verify the fact. Also the players play a part in the scene, because they are there to sooth Hamlets conscience, the players make him realize he needs to do something. In Hamlets soliloquy he also discusses and expresses that he has a problem with women.
Hamlets next soliloquy is in Act 3 Scene 1. It is the to be or not to be soliloquy. It is about life and death. It is him questioning himself about the meaning of life and what is stopping him from killing himself. This soliloquy is about Hamlet and contemplating to commit suicide but he doesn’t , because something is stopping him, it is the fear of not knowing what to expect after you die. Hamlet talks about love and loving someone and them not loving you back. Hamlet’s behavior towards Ophelia, is in some way having revenge on his mother. Hamlet bashes Ophelia to be like his mother, saying she is not virtuous. “ I have heard of your paintings too, well enough. God/ Hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another.”(3.1.140-141) Hamlet compares Ophelia to be like all other women, one way before and one way now. Hamlet says that women want it all which makes them ignorant. God made you who you are and just because you might not like it you change it. Hamlet believes women are all like his mother, can be in love with one man the first second, then the next second another man.
All these actions builds the tension for what is about to yet happen. It is in some way intriguing because it involves the audience. All of these events are mostly about feelings and inner thoughts and not much action, so there is of course the need for more. The readers want to see action and want to see what will happen next, and what could possibly happen in the end. It is a lot like people today, people no longer want to talk about feelings , they act out on their actions. It could be a possible reason why this play is so easy to connect to, because the way things were 400 years ago is still the same way they are today.
In the first 3 acts of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, he delivers 3 very brilliant soliloquies that are full of pathos. These soliloquies give you an in depth look at Hamlet, his emotions, and his mental state. The reader comes to understand Hamlet and his motivation (otherwise his actions would make him appear to be crazy in the eyes of the reader.) They build to the explosion of action by taking his thoughts a step further each time: In his first soliloquy Hamlet is demonstrating despair; in his second soliloquy, Hamlet ponders revenge upon his uncle; and in the third soliloquy Hamlet is conflicted about why he should continue living, each of these build up to the climax in Act 3. His mental state is key to the explosion of action.
Hamlet is distraught and grief-stricken over his father’s death and his mother’s re-marriage. He delivers his first soliloquy in which he ponders his view of life and death and scorns his mothers rush into marriage with his uncle. “O that this too too sullied flesh would melt, thaw, and resolve itself into a dew, his canon gainst self-slaughter” (1.2.129-132). Hamlet is sad, depressed, and unsure of the reason to live. In this early soliloquy while Hamlet is unhappy, he is unaware of the events leading up to his father’s death.
In the second act, Hamlet learns that his uncle Claudius is responsible for the death of his father. Hamlet has an encounter with an actor and he begins to reflect upon the actor’s ability to believably show emotion and he ponders his inability to outwardly show grief and sorrow. His mind starts to work and he starts to think about the guilt that someone must feel after committing terrible crimes, and decides to employ the use of actors in a play that is going to be shown at the castle to see if he can cause his uncle to display the guilt that he thinks he should feel. Hamlet delivers his second soliloquy – “Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave, that I, the son of a dear father murdered, prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,” (2.2.549-551). He wants revenge, and to avenge his fathers death. This facilitates the explosion of action.
Hamlet delivers the key soliloquy in Act 3, and speaks one of the most famous lines ever written in Shakespeare’s plays. “To be, or not to be – that is the question:” (3.1. 56). In this soliloquy Hamlet is discussing whether or not there is any reason for him to continue to live, and whether he can continue to endure the pain, and wonders what death really is. Is it the unknown which causes people to be afraid of death? Hamlet feels that he has reached a cross-road in his life and needs to make a decision whether or not to go on. He clearly sees no happiness or value in the life process; he questions why man would want to put up with the pain, the injuries, the rudeness, and the hardship that every adversary and bureaucrat would inflict when it is possible to quickly end it all with a simple knife or dagger. Hamlet summarises these thoughts by speculating that the fear of the unknown existence after death is what prevents men from ending their unhappy existence. Hamlet is dealing with so many different emotions at once. This is the point in which the explosion of action begins, when he realises he has too much to handle.
All in all the explosion of action was developed through the soliloquies because of Hamlet’s emotion. By the time Hamlet delivers his third soliloquy he is a man who no longer cares about his own life, which causes him to behave recklessly. He has nothing to lose, and the most dangerous man is a man who has nothing to lose.
In Shakespeare’s plays, a soliloquy is used for a character to express their innermost thoughts and feelings. The character is alone on stage and speaks only to the audience. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, he uses three of Hamlet’s soliloquies to build toward the “explosion if action” in Act 3. During the three soliloquies, Hamlet questions existence, complains about his filial obligation, and complains about women before the action is played out during Act 3.
All the soliloquies have Hamlet questioning existence. He does not know why he continues to live when he is continually approached by negativities in life. In the beginning of his first soliloquy he says “O, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt,/ Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,/ Or that the Everlasting had not fixed/ His cannon ‘gainst self-slaughter! O God, God,/ How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable/ Seem to me all the uses in this world!”(1.2.133-138). Hamlet says that he wishes he could kill himself but suicide is going against God. Also, he complains about his life, that it is useless. He questions whether or not he should stay alive. Throughout Hamlet’s third soliloquy, he profoundly questions the purpose of life. In the first line, “To be or not to be—that is the question,” (3.1.64), he questions whether or not it is in his favour to stay alive. Hamlet wonders what is keeping him from committing suicide. He realizes that he would rather live in the world of what he knows than die and move to a world of unknowns. “And makes us rather bear those ills we have/ Than fly to others we know not of?” (3.1.89-90). Mankind is constantly questioning the purpose of life, and attempting to put the pieces of the unknowns after death together. Therefore, existence is constantly being questioned in the mind of Hamlet and it is shown through his soliloquies.
The second concern of Hamlet is his filial obligation. He complains about the situations he is in due to his status in his family. In his second soliloquy, he says, “O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!’ (2.2.577). Hamlet considers himself pathetic because he cannot do the one thing his father asks of him, kill Claudius for what he has done. He would not be in that situation if he was not the son of the former king of Denmark, King Hamlet. Hamlet also says in his second soliloquy, “Why what an ass am I! This is most brave,/ That I, the son of a dear father murdered,/ Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,” (2.2.611-613), he has not killed Claudius yet but he told his father that he would. Hamlet’s pondering about the action he needs to do leads to other actions such as the death of Polonius which occur in Act 3. In everyday life, people over think different actions, yet the action could be very straight forward. Hamlet’s filial obligation to kill his uncle is making his thoughts overpower his actions.
Lastly, the three soliloquies which lead to the action in Act 3 include references to different women in Hamlet’s life. He was very disturbed by his mother’s marriage to Claudius so close after the death of his father, “Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears/ Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,/ She married. O, most wicked speed to post/ With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!” (1.1.159-161). Hamlet has a hard time getting over the marriage, resulting in him having a hard time with his mother. This leads to actions in Act 3 when Hamlet does not treat his mother with respect. In life today, when one is unhappy about somebody’s actions, they tend to respond to those actions in a negative way. Another woman Hamlet refers to in his soliloquies is Ophelia. He says, “And loses the name of action—Soft you know,/ The fair Ophelia—Nymph in thy orisons/ Be all my sins remembered,” (3.1.96-98). Her decision to stop seeing Hamlet leads to Hamlet making unnecessary comments toward her in Act 3. In Hamlet’s life his relationships with women do not go very well.
The thoughts which go through Hamlet’s mind are expressed only to the audience or the reader through his soliloquies. These thoughts are later expressed to both the audience/reader and the characters in Act 3. In conclusion, Hamlet’s innermost thoughts during his first three soliloquies build towards what happens in Act 3.
“A dramatic monologue that represents a series of unspoken reflections”, the soliloquy is a literary device often used by William Shakespeare and other playwrights to reflect the innermost thoughts and feelings of the characters. In Hamlet the audience is presented with three soliloquies from Hamlet in the first three acts. These soliloquies help build towards the action, which takes part in Act 3.
The first two soliloquies by Hamlet are where the protagonist is revealed to the audience, who are shown how he feels about his environment and how he thinks about the situation with which he is faced. These two factors help build up the action that is predestined. In the first soliloquy, Hamlet’s feelings about his father and uncle are revealed, allowing the audience to witness the admiration Hamlet has for his deceased father, whom he feels was “So excellent a king” (1.2.139 This awe Hamlet has for his father is strongly opposed to the disgust and hatred he feels for his usurping uncle. Hamlet compares these two characters on two separate instances, first comparing his father to Claudius, as a “Hyperion to a satyr”(1.2.140), he later compares them more clearly as he states, “My father’s brother, but no more like my father/Than I to Hercules.”(1.2.152-153), firmly asserting their opposite characters. Hamlet’s allegiances set up the basis for the revenge triangle, thus creating a base upon which the rest of the plot is built. In the second soliloquy Hamlet questions himself about whether he is able to complete the task of revenge that he is assigned to, as he calls himself, “the son of a dear father murdered, /Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, /Must like a whore unpack my heart with words” (2.2.550-552). There is truth in what he says, and when he ponders about acting, there is greater anticipation among the audience for Hamlet to finally take action. There is some compensation for the audience, when he finally takes a step towards completing the task. Hamlet does this by having “players/Play something like the murder of my father/Before mine uncle” (2.2.561-563), so that he can “catch the conscience of the king.”(2.2.571), and verify his guilt. This act leaves the audience with a craving for the action that is to come in the following act.
Though Hamlet’s third soliloquy is not very long, it is very important, and occurs just before the play. From the beginning of the soliloquy, Hamlet questions the purpose of his life, as he asks the question of “To be, or not to be”(3.1.56), this throws one off, as last time one saw Hamlet, he seemed like he was going to finally act, and now the action might be ending his own life. The questioning continues as he wonders what happens once “we have shuffled off this mortal coil” (3.1.67), and towards the end of the soliloquy he asks the questions whether he should “grunt and sweat under a weary life” (3.1.77) and “rather bear those ills we have/Than fly to others that we know not of?”(3.1.81-82), to only be answered by “the dread of something after death/The undiscovered country, from whose bourn/No traveler returns, puzzles the will”(3.1.78-80) and the feeling that “conscience does make cowards of us all”(3.1.83), this pondering makes one wonder if Hamlet is waiting for the courage to commit suicide, rather than to murder his uncle. The soliloquy adds a lot of tension and uncertainty to what Hamlet is planning to do, and what his destiny is. However one gets the feeling that he is to murder his uncle, as he has “enterprises of great pitch and moment”(3.1.87), at which times he loses “the name of action”(3.1.88), so the audience feels he is talking about the murder of the king, but there is still that tension of uncertainty that remains.
The three soliloquies builds toward the action that occurs in act three. The soliloquies leave the audience in suspense and anticipation as they wait for the formulation of Hamlet’s revenge. The soliloquies also makes us ponder whether Hamlet will perform the deed of murdering Claudius, as we find out who he is, and he leaves us with the thought that the action he might take will not be ending Claudius’ life but his own. The soliloquies leaves us longing for the play, as we get the impression that Claudius’ reaction to it will decide whether he murders Claudius, or himself. The soliloquies are an essential and vital part of Hamlet in the first three acts, and they construct towards the action that is to take place in act three, and allow the audience into the troubled and disturbed mind of the protagonist.
Catalysts Leading to the Explosion of Action in Act 3 of Hamlet
As soon as the play started, so did the time bomb. All the events leading up to act three were catalysts, raising the intensity of Hamlet's thoughts and actions. What happened in first three acts that could lead to such confusion, disloyalty, and murder? Why did Hamlet react the way he did? And when will Hamlet finally finish what he first set out to do?
In act one, Hamlet allows the audience to enter his mind when he delivers his initial soliloquy. The first few lines emit a strong melancholic tone: "O that this too too sullied flesh would melt, / thaw, and resolve itself into a dew, / or that the Everlasting had not fixed / his canon gainst self-slaughter. O God, God, / how weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable / seem to me all the uses of the world!" (1.2.129-134). This statement makes it clear that Hamlet would easily choose death if it were not opposed by the Heavens. He feels that he has nothing to lose, and whatever he has to gain is not worth the suffering that is life.
The soliloquy continues with Hamlet praising his deceased father and comparing him to the villain that murdered him. He contrasts King Claudius' attributes with his father, to that of him with a Greek god, "my father's brother, but no more like my father / that I to Hercules," (1.2.162-153). Hamlet feels that he lacks what Hercules possesses. This is striking because he is involuntarily comparing himself to King Claudius.
Hamlet concludes his first soliloquy by declaring, "it is not nor it cannot come to good. / But break my heart, for I must hold my tongue," (1.2.157-158). Ever since his father's death, nothing has been going right. Within him are feelings of despair, sadness, and mourning, all of which he cannot express. Thus begins his journey of entrapment.
The next event is significantly responsible for the 'explosion of action' in act three. Hamlet's friends have just introduced him to a familiar theatre-group. One of the players delivers a speech that greatly affects Polonius. Hamlet notices that "this player here, / [...] in a dream of passion, / could force his soul so to his own conceit," (2.2.516-518). Witnessing this performance assures Hamlet that drama is effective in revealing deep emotion. He decides to alter a play in order to expose King Claudius.
The audience is reminded, during Hamlet's second soliloquy, just how troubled the young prince is. He questions, "what would he [the Player] do / had he the motive and the cue for passion / that I have?" (2.2.525-527). Hamlet is convinced that his recent misfortunes would allow him to deliver that same speech, tenfold. However, moments later, he says "Yet I, / [...] unpregnant of my cause, / and can say nothing," (2.2.532-535). This is important because it solidifies the characteristic that Hamlet is more prone to thinking instead of acting.
Hamlet begins his third soliloquy with an innocent approach to the eldest question of existence, "to be, or not to be - that is the question," (3.1.56). For a moment, it sounds as if there may still be hope for young Hamlet, as he ponders his being. He then returns to his melancholic outlook by stating "by a sleep to say we end / the heartache, and the thousand natural shocks / that flesh is heir to," (3.1.61-63). He probes that after death, humans are no longer forced to face the inevitable anguish and uncertainties of life. He feels that human suffering has no purpose or eternal compensation. Instead, he believes man is born to die and then feasted upon by maggots. At this point, the audience is summing up that Hamlet is, indeed, a morose character that deeply seeks liberation from his world. The audience also knows that Hamlet will not follow through with suicide for a number of reasons. For one, he is a thinker, not a man of action. Two, he is bound to existence before God. Three, he is bound by filial obligation. And finally, he would rather be familiar with the "ills man is faced to bear," (3.1.81) than learning the workings of the devil, or, experience the hell that is purgatory.
The rest of act three is an 'explosion of action'. The key moments include King Claudius's public omission, Hamlet's fight with his childhood friends, a missed chance to kill King Claudius, Hamlet's fight with his mother, and the death of Polonius. Hamlet's emotions veer from satisfaction, to anger, to hesitation, to anger and sadness, and finally to comedic. It's as if his plan to act insane had worked better than expected...
Near the end of act three, scene four, Hamlet and his mother are at the end of their wits. Hamlet bares all to his mother and she responds to his outburst with "O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain," (3.4.157). Instead of seeking comfort, Hamlet decides to hurt his mother the way she hurt him. He leaves having revealed the true Queen to herself, and is relieved to have finally revealed a part of his true self to another.
I believe that the reason Hamlet is so troubled is because he decides to keep his feelings within. It is awfully apparent that Hamlet is suffering, what with his father's death, his mother's detachment, and his filial responsibility. Why doesn't he confide in his loyal friend, Horatio? Why doesn't he just finish what he is set to do? Why does he keep asking questions he already knows the answers to?
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2003.
Sometimes we ask ourselves, what is our purpose in life? Who are we supposed to be? And why do we live to hurt and then die? There are several internal thoughts which are questions that are looking for answers; sometimes these answers that we contemplate on only arrive when life moves on. The first three acts in shakespeare’s Hamlet include 3 soliloquies delivered by Hamlet. The three soliloquies build towards the “explosion of action” by the understanding of Hamlets mentality which is expressed in all.
The first soliloquy helps to understand 3 important aspects of the play, first Hamlets state of mind, second, who people are such as his mother Gertrude, who is the Queen of Denmark and his Uncle Claudius and third, Hamlets ultimate passion which is his father (King Hamlet). Hamlets state of mind is very down and depressing because of the death of his father King Hamlet. “Two months dead, nay, not so much, not two, so excellent a king, that was to this/ Hyperion” (1.2.138-139). Hamlet’s emotions are carried away by the death of his father; his state of mind is also wishing that suicide was not a sin. “Thaw, and resolve itself into dew/or that the everlasting had not fixed/ His Canon gainst self slaughter” (1.2.130-132). Hamlet is not very happy, and another thing that triggers the emotions of Hamlet is the lack of mourning from his mother Gertrude, and how fast she moved on from her husband to his own brother, Claudius. “Let me not think on’t ; frailty, thy name is woman-/ a little month, or ere those shoes were old/with which she followed my father’s body/ […] O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason/would have mourned longer- married with my uncle” ( 1.2 145-147 150-152). Hamlet is showing how his mother is wrong for how she had moved on so quickly, that she even wore the same shoes to her husbands’ funeral and then to her own wedding with Claudius. Now Claudius has become Hamlets “new” father-uncle, which puts Hamlet into an ironic and uncomfortable situation. Since Hamlets passion is his Father (King Hamlet), the death and the marriage put a hold on Hamlet. It also leads to Hamlet disliking his uncle-father, who then takes the thrown as King of Denmark .However; Hamlet could never compare Claudius to his real father. “My father’s brother, but no more like my father/ Than I to Hercules” (1.2. 153-154). Hamlet is comparing himself to Hercules indicating that he himself is weak, little, and not a man of action and as for Hercules he is strong, bold, and a man of action, he is indicating that they are opposite. The comparison also helps identify the difference between his father a strong and brave warrior and Claudius who is weak and a modest man. Hamlet really admires his father, and his adoration for him is what he holds onto throughout the play. Nevertheless, the first soliloquy is a great introduction to the play, and covers what problems are arising and how Hamlet is stuck in between them.
In the Second soliloquy Hamlet becomes more aware of his mental state, “Out of my weakness and my melancholy” (2.2.567), and starts to realize that it is himself that is preventing himself to do something. He realizes that his father was a man of action and he is not. Hamlet also comprehends that he needs to come up with a plan of action, for King Claudius to confess that he had murdered King Hamlet. Hamlet wants to hear a public omission, and he knows how it will be achievable, “I have heard that guilty creatures sitting at a play/ Have by the very cunning of the scene/ Been struck so to the soul that presently/ They have proclaimed their malefactions” (2.2.555-558), by having King Claudius feeling so guilty and then forced to confess his actions. Hamlet decides his plan of action will be tweaking the play, so King Claudius will see the murder that he did to King Hamlet and then confess, “I’ll have these players play something like the murder of my father/Before mine uncle […] The play’s the thing/ wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King” (2.2. 570-571). Hamlets plan of action is recognized, and for Hamlet he is becoming a man of action, who will get what he desires. Hamlet knows that all he needs is public omission from King Claudius, and then he will proceed to kill him. Therefore, the second soliloquy puts Hamlet into a stronger, and determined man, he knows what he has to do to get his public omission from King Claudius. He is preventing himself to be the barrier of what he must achieve, which is the thrown and to kill King Claudius.
The two soliloquies bring together the third soliloquy in Act three, that leads to the “Explosion of Action”. The third soliloquy is Hamlet contemplating lives purpose. “To be, or not to be- that is the question” (3.1.56), he is asking about our existence as people, and what is the meaning of life. He is also questioning why he is alive? Hamlet questioning life makes him more understanding towards bad luck, and life’s problems. He realizes that he cannot stop life’s problems,” The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune/ or to take arms against a sea of troubles/ and by opposing end them” (3.1.56-59), and no matter how big or small they are, he nor you can prevent them from coming. Hamlet realizes that he is his own barrier, and his weakness is his own self, “With regard their currents turn awry/ and lose the name of action” (3.1.87-88), Hamlet knows his own weakness is his lack of action, and even though he wants to do something, his weakness is preventing himself too. Instead of debating his actions, he is debating his existence, “Whether’ tis nobler in the mind to suffer” (3.1.57). Hamlet knows things go wrong, and not everything can go our way, “Th’ oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely/ the pangs of despised love, the law’s delay “(3.1 71-72). Hamlet’s change of mind and thoughts about life modifies his actions that he further on makes in Act 3. Into Act 3, Hamlet receives the public omission from King Claudius after watching the play, “The king rises. / What frighted with false fire? / How fares my lord? / Give o’er the play. / Give me some light. Away! (3.2 46-50), Hamlet now has proof from King Claudius that he had killed his father. Throughout the play, we wait for Hamlet to prove that he is wrong and will then become a man of action, all that is left is killing Claudius. However because of Hamlets state of mind and by him questioning himself and even becoming more understanding and reasonable about life’s problems, he uses that as a way to back out of what he truly wants. Hamlet’s opportunity to kill King Claudius is shown when King Claudius kneels down and tries to pray because of his killing of his own brother. Hamlet then witness’s this act from his father -uncle, and is ready to kill him, however being so close to it, “ Now might I do it pat, now ‘a is a-praying, / And now I’ll do’t. And so ‘a goes to heaven, / And so am I revenged” (3.3.73-74), Hamlet than creates an excuse for himself not kill King Claudius, “No. / Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent. / When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, / Or in th’ incestuous pleasure of his bed […] Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven, / And that his soul may be damned and black” (3.3. 87-90 93-94). His reasoning is not very specific, but clearly there is something in his mind that is preventing himself too. It is very ironic because of Hamlets hatred for his father-uncle, you would expect him to take any chance he got to kill the killer of his father, but what is holding Hamlet back? That Is a question that makes you ask why? What is he holding back from? That is the “explosion of action”, him not acting but realizing his existence, because he did not kill King Claudius at the perfect moment, it all contradicts the plan that Hamlet had, which was recognized in Act 2’s soliloquy.
To conclude, the three soliloquies help build towards the “explosion of action”, which in this case is Hamlet’s mental state. He uses his own self as a barrier, and even though he knows he prevents himself from doing something, he still does it. It is like asking questions you already know the answer to, you keep asking the same questions but you still get the same answers to them. Sometimes in life, we all question our existence and what our purpose is, Hamlet is no different from you or I, but because Hamlet is not a man of action, he doesn’t change to be someone he isn’t. The questioning of his existence is for him to know who he is, and because of his insecurities he prevents himself to kill King Claudius.
A soliloquy can be seen as a dramatic device which allows a character to reveal their inner thoughts, and feelings to the audience. In William Shakespeare’s, Hamlet The Prince of Denmark, Hamlet reveals his inner thoughts in three main soliloquies that lead to the climax of the play. The commonality between the three soliloquies is that Hamlet is faced with a dilemma that he must come to a conclusion, in regards to the actions he will take to solve said dilemma. Within each soliloquy Hamlet wraps his mind around one aspect, that aspect is known as filial obligation. The three soliloquies delivered by Hamlet, lead to the explosion of action in Act three, Hamlets tone and feeling towards Claudius is first expressed, Hamlet then arrives at an action he must take, the consequences to these actions are then contemplated by Hamlet.
In act one of Hamlet, Hamlet delivers a soliloquy in which William Shakespeare adds of sense of tone to Hamlets feelings towards Claudius. Hamlet harnesses anger towards his uncle Claudius due to the fact that he murdered his father and married his mother. Hamlet’s feeling towards Claudius are demoting due to the fact that Hamlet believes King Claudius could not measure up to his father. “So excellent a king, that was to this Hyperion to a sattyr, so loving my mother that he might not beteem the winds of heaven visit her roughly (1.2.39-42)”. Hamlets comparison of his uncle to his father is immeasurable. Hamlet sees his father as the glorious and magnificent sun god Hyperion, whereas he then compares his uncle to a miserable, deceitful, and evil satyr. Hamlet feels that King Claudius could never fulfill the duties of king as his father did. From this quote ones is able to grasp there are detestable feelings Hamlet has towards his uncle. These feelings further enrage Hamlet and lead him to contemplating an action he feels he must take. Though the comparison Hamlet makes is quite strong and hateful towards his uncle, he makes it clear once more that he truly detests his uncle Claudius. “Married with my uncle, my father’s brother, but no more like my father than I to Hercules (1.2.151-152)”. Once again there is a comparison between the two brothers that Hamlet establishes. He further portrays his hatred towards his uncle by saying that Claudius can never be considered his father because that description does not fit him, just as the description of Hercules to Hamlet. This quote is a testament to how Hamlet feels Claudius is not his father and never will be. This quote is important due to the fact that it prepares the reader for the contemplations of actions to follow. Hamlet does not consider Claudius his father therefore his feelings towards Claudius will further promote his decisions, without Hamlet’s conscience getting involved.
Following the soliloquy in act one comes the soliloquy once again delivered by hamlet is act two. In this soliloquy Hamlet contemplates his actions towards Claudius, the basis that drives Hamlet to this contemplation is his filial obligation towards his father Hamlet. Hamlet arrives at the idea of revenge towards his uncle for the murder of the his father, but in order for him to act on these ideas he contemplates how he will further prove the kings guilt. Hamlets first idea that he contemplates is whether to get revenge on his uncle Claudius. “This is most brave, that I, the son of a dear father murdered, prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell (2.2.549-551)”. Hamlet is driven by filial obligation to avenge his father by seeking revenge on his uncle. Hamlet is trapped within this situation, he is must follow his filial obligation but he must do so in a manner that will not have a negative affect on him. To Hamlet this filial obligation was bestowed on him at birth by his father, therefore as King Hamlets son he must go through with the murder of his uncle king Claudius. Hamlet also states that his revenge is prompted by heaven or hell, meaning that Hamlet can either go through with his revenge in a good manner or in a manner that may lead him to hell. This thought of heaven and hell is once again mentioned in the climax of act three. Hamlet has a reason to kill his uncle but as any intellectual individual, he needs proof. Hamlet prologues his actions by making himself believe that he needs proof when the truth is very evident. “I’ll have grounds more relative than this. The play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king (2.2.570-572)”. Instead of rushing to the action of killing his uncle Hamlet devises a plan in which he can gather more evidence against Claudius. One can argue that Hamlet is prolonging the time in which he must take action, or that Hamlet wants further proof in order to be sure of the decision he will make. Once Hamlet acquires his evidence against Claudius he then has a reason to go through with his action along with proof to support it. Knowing this information and what events are laid out in act three, one can argue that Hamlet is delaying in order to find another option that he can take.
Act three of Hamlet, can be seen as the climax of the play, due to the decisions hamlet makes. All parts of the play come together and Hamlets view of life come into perspective. As mentioned before one can argue that in this part of the play there is textual proof that hamlet is delaying for fear of what consequences there will be to his actions. In the soliloquy of act three William Shakespeare has Hamlet pondering the meaning of life, and the other options he may take in order to relive himself from his impossible task. In the first quotation Hamlet ponders the idea of facing his troubles and going through with his plans but he also contradicts himself and ponders the idea of giving it all up. “Whether’ tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea and by opposing them end them (3.1.58-60)”. Hamlet ponders the two ideas of facing his troubles which can be compared to a endless sea, or to give up on the what seems to be pointless life to Hamlet. Hamlet has discovered a option that he feels may be prevalent to the other one, that action is suicide. Referring back to act two Hamlet was not only gathering proof against his uncle Claudius but he was stalling in order to contemplate another easier option. The conundrum Hamlet is faced with in this soliloquy is the decision to choose from either option. In Hamlets mind it is evident that for every action there is a reaction, this theory is what prolongs his decision to go through with either decision. It is the fear of the unknown that pushes hamlet away from the theory of suicide. “To grunt and sweat under a weary life, but that the dread of something after death,…and makes us rather bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of (3.1.78-82)”? In this quote the reader obtains textual proof that Hamlet is scared of the unknown, and that is what causes him to withdraw from the idea of suicide. Hamlet feels that it is better to choose the problems you are aware of than to take a risk and to choose the problems that you are unaware of. Hamlet has a fear for the unknown, he would rather complete his impossible task than to face an unknown situation. Therefore from this quote we know what option Hamlet is going to take, he has reviewed all options and comes to the conclusion that he must go through with the murder of his uncle king Claudius. This can be seen as the explosion of action due to the fact that the reader is drawn through Hamlets contemplations and options in which he finally comes to a conclusion. That conclusion that the reader’s tension is built over is whether or not Hamlet is going to kill king Claudius. From this final quote it is evident that hamlet will go through with the murder of king Claudius.
In conclusion, the three soliloquies delivered by Hamlet, lead to the explosion of action in Act three, Hamlets tone and feeling towards Claudius is first expressed, Hamlet then arrives at an action he must take, the consequences to these actions are then contemplated by Hamlet. It is as if the reader has opened Hamlets subconscious and is able to conclude that Hamlet has chosen to go through with the decision to kill his uncle. Hamlet is now bound to that decision, once his actions are put into place there is no turning back for Hamlet. The questions that the reader may be debating are, how will Hamlet put his actions into play? What consequences will these actions have on Hamlet? As well as who else may become a victim of Hamlets actions other than himself and king Claudius?
“A talking to oneself; a speech or discourse, esp. In a play, uttered to oneself, a monologue.” This is the definition of soliloquy given by the Cassell’s New English Dictionary. This dramatic device is used to express the most inner thoughts of a character expressed to the audience while alone on stage. Soliloquies are used to express what the character is thinking, and how they are feeling at that point in the play. It shows what conflict has presented; the character questions aspects of themselves and their lives, and then creates a solution to the problem. In the play Hamlet, the character Hamlet has three soliloquies in the first three acts, which lead to the ‘explosion of action’ in Act 3.
Hamlets first soliloquy of the play starts by him saying, “O that is too too sullied flesh would melt, / Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew, / Or that the Everlasting had not fixed / His cannon gainst self-slaughter. O God, God, / How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable / seem to me all the uses of this world!” (I.II.129-134) Hamlet is given the view that he is suicidal. He doesn’t want suicide to be a sin, and wishes he could kill himself. Through this soliloquy Hamlet expresses how he sees everything in this world is disgusting. The problem that is causing these feelings is how the marriage of his mother and his uncle took place so quickly after his father’s death, without taking anytime to grieve. “O God a beast that wants discourse of reason / Would have mourned longer—married with my uncle” (I.II.150-151) This situation is made worse due to the hatred and shallow thoughts that Hamlet feels towards Claudius.”My father’s brother, but no more like my father / Than I to Hercules.” (I.II.152-153) Hamlet compares Claudius to his father by saying Claudius to his father is like him to Hercules, there is no comparison, one is clearly greater then the other.
Hamlet’s second soliloquy takes place after he has spoken with the ghost of his father. The ghost tells him that he was murdered by his own brother, Claudius. Now that Hamlet knows he is bound by filial obligation to avenge his father’s death. “Yea, from the table of my memory / I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records, / All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past / That youth and observation copied there, / And thy commandment all alone shall live” (I.V.98-102) Hamlet vows to erase his entire mind of everything he has learned and seen, and replace it with only the thought of revenge. He needs to do something to make Claudius give a public omission of guilt in order for him to have reason to kill the King.
In Hamlets third soliloquy of the play, he expresses his most introverted view of life to the audience. Through the lines of this monologue, Shakespeare questions the worthiness of human life. Hamlet questions the meaning to exist, and what it means to be human. He doesn’t know if he should stand by and slave the problems that are coming, or if he should head to where luck and fortune await him. He knows that there is no way to stop life’s problems from taking place, we were born to suffer, hurt and die, that no matter what we do life is going to come back and burn us. “To be, or not to be—that is the question: / Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles [...] To sleep—perchance to dream: ay there’s the rub,” (III.I .56-65) The only thing that keeps people from killing themselves is the fear of the unknown after death. This in turn ends up being for the reason of weakness in man. He refers to life as a mortal coil; we are trapped with no escape. This mortal coil is controlled by the power of time; time is the master of man and there is no way to fight it. “When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, [...] For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, “(III.I.67-70)
Hamlet knows that it is our conscience that makes us think before we act, and that this turns people into cowards. Yet Hamlet is always thinking about doing, but never acting on his thoughts. He always debates his thoughts, and never his actions. These three soliloquies prove this, he is constantly thinking about the plot of his uncle’s death, but never doing anything about it, to put it into motion. This trait builds a suspension for the audience, and so when Hamlet finally acts by killing Polonius, he creates an ‘explosion of action.’
Works cited
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. D.C. Heath and Company, Lexington, Massachusetts, 1980.
A soliloquy is a character speaking to himself to reveal his inner most thoughts to the audience. In Hamlet there are 3 soliloquies from the first act to the third act, that lead to the explosion of action in act 3. Time is always moving forward and the time for Hamlet to think is over, he needs to act.
Everyone responds differently to new changes in their lives it can affect them positively and negatively. In the first of his soliloquies Hamlet says, “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, (1.2.138-140), Hamlet is having a hard time grasping the idea that his mother has moved on and remarried his uncle. He compares his father to his uncle, with his dad being a man of action and one who is very strong like a god, and his uncle being very ugly like a half man half goat. Hamlet cannot believe that his mother is not grieving over the loss of his father, but instead of grieving she remarried and is very happy. This illustrates that time is already against Hamlet, everyone has moved on from his father’s death and they are all pleased with their new king Claudius. Another line where Hamlet compares his uncle to his father, “My father's brother, but no more like my father/Than I to Hercules:” (1.2.152-153), again Hamlet is saying that his uncle is nothing like his father, he is very skinny like Hamlet. So in away Hamlet is more like his uncle than his father because Hamlet is a thinker just like Claudius. The differences between Claudius and King Hamlet are vast in will lead to more flourishing problems in the later two soliloquies.
After learning the truth about what his uncle did to his father, Hamlet’s problems with his uncle progressively get worse and worse. In his second Soliloquy things begin to get more interesting as he talks about his uncle and what he is going to do. Hamlet says, “With this slave's offal: bloody, bawdy villain!/Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!/O, vengeance!” (2.2.546-548), Hamlet wants vengeance because he knows Claudius killed his father. He calls him all sorts of names because he can’t believe that someone could kill their own brother, who happens to be the king which is treason, which gives Hamlet the right to kill his uncle. As well as Claudius married his mother, only 2 months after his father’s death. He plans to kill his uncle to set things right to put everything back in order. Later in his soliloquy Hamlet says, “I'll have these players/Play something like the murder of my father/Before mine uncle” (2.2.561-563), before he kills his uncle Hamlet plans to get an omission of guilt so that everyone will know why he had to kill Claudius. Without it Hamlet would be killed immediately for treason, so he needs his uncle’s guilt to come out through his altered play.
We often ask questions about life, existence and what our purpose is in life. In Hamlet’s third soliloquy he asks the very same questions we do. Hamlet says, “To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end/The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks/That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation/Devoutly to be wish'd.”(3.1.60-63), Hamlet is his father’s heir therefore he inherits his father’s revenge, which causes a lot of pain to those around Hamlet, as well as himself. He wants to end the pain that the revenge is causing him because it is a lot more complicated than it seems. He needs have a reason to kill Claudius, he can’t just go on the reason that it’s what the ghost told him. So he delays it. Hamlet talks about his life when he says, “For in that sleep of death what dreams may come/When we have shuffled off this mortal coil” (3.1.66-67), He believes the answer top his problems is to kill himself because of all that has happened. But he can’t kill himself because he doesn’t know what will happen after he performs the deed. The filial obligation also prevents him from doing so he owes it to his father to get revenge, so now it is time for Hamlet to start to act.
When something goes wrong in life that is unnatural, order needs to be restored. Which is Hamlets goal through filial obligation as well as he is the rightful heir to the throne of Denmark. The soliloquies that lead up to the explosion of action in act 3 all have Hamlet thinking about executing his action but he acts on those thoughts. Once he plots to get the proof of Claudius’ unjust and treacherous act he can finally carry out his action and avenge his father. Hamlet realizes that life never goes the way you want it too and everything in life is unexpected.
An explosion of action in a play is usually preceded by a rising momentum in events whereby the protagonists’ intentions and provocations are defined, conflict-triggering events are outlined, and characters’ initial contemplative stages of action progress to actual plans which are later executed. In Act III of Shakespear’s Hamlet, the explosion of action refers to Hamlet’s volatile confrontations with his mother and Ophelia, his murder of Polonius and the success of his scheme in proving Claudius’ guilt of killing the king of Denmark; setting the stage for development of the play’s main plot—that of maddening revenge. Though the actual ‘explosion of action’ was accomplished mostly through the characters’ direct actions and dialogues in Act III, the build up to these events was achieved via Hamlet’s first three soliloquies, where the audience becomes aware of Hamlet’s intimate inner struggles, the roots of his despair, the reasons for his actions and finally, the details and, ultimately, the execution of his plans.
Hamlet’s first two soliloquies build on the action in Act III by revealing not only the premise of Hamlet’s anguish and despondency, the reasons for his initial resentment and, later, his rage at his uncle, but also the rationale behind his scheme to prove Claudius’ guilt. Depressed after his father’s untimely death, he contemplates suicide, though hesitates because of his religious beliefs, but regardless, surrounds himself with hopeless doom, “Thaw and resolve itself into dew…/how weary stale and unprofitable seem all the uses of this world” 91.2.130-135). Hamlet describes himself as a desperate, emotionless man, who later in Act III is ready to commit crime irrespective of consequences; such as killing Polonius. Tormented by his mothers’ lack of grief and her hastily marriage to his uncle, Hamlet expresses his resentment towards her, “Within a month:/Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears/Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,/She married./O wicked speed!” (1.2.155-157). Later in Act III, his initial grudge culminates in a volatile confrontation with his Queen mother, where he aggressively reproaches the fickleness of her love towards her previous husband, and forces her to hear many obscenities about her current husband. In his second soliloquy, Hamlet describes his resent towards his uncle’s unfair cease of the throne, which rightfully belonged to Hamlet, himself. His initial bitterness towards Claudius, however, soon becomes defined hatred, as Hamlet becomes aware of the possible, but not yet proven, Claudius’ involvement of his father’s murder, “bloody, bawdy villain! Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain! O, vengeance!” (2.2.565-567). To verify a ghost’s claim that Claudius indeed murdered his father, in his second soliloquy, Hamlet describes his scheme and intent to test his uncle by reenacting the murder of his father with the production of The Murder of Gonzago. Claudius would reveal his guilt, if he is disturbed by the play, “The play's the thing/Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king” (2.2.591-592). The outlined plan leads to the actual play in Act III, where Claudius indeed, uncovers his guilt and establishes legitimacy to Hamlet’s rage and will for vengeance; setting up the play’s major conflict between Hamlet and his murderous uncle, thus adding to the development of actions in the remainder of the play.
Hamlet’s third soliloquy is the most important soliloquies in building up for the outburst of action in Act III, because during this speech, he finally resolves his suicidal ideation, puts aside his inner-conflicts, and decides to focus on actively avenging his father’s death. Hamlet starts initially debating his existence and whether there is any point in living, “to be or not to be, that is the question” (3.1.56). However, for fear of the afterlife, “But that the dread of something after death, – /The undiscover’d country, from whose bourn/No traveller returns,—puzzles the will,/And makes us rather bear those ills we have/Than fly to others that we know not of” (3.1.78-83), he instead decides to “take arms against sea of troubles” (3.1.59). His intent, described during his third soliloquy, sets up the central actions of Act III, where Hamlet actively contemplates killing of Claudius. During his confrontation with his mother, he inadvertently kills Polonius, initially assuming it was Claudius who was spying behind the curtains. However, just as the explosion of action occurs in Act III, and the audience is prepared, mainly by Hamlet’s intentions outlined in his soliloquies, for his objective to kill of his uncle at any first chance offered to him, an unexpected twist to the plot happens. Although Hamlet has the opportunity to kill Claudius, unattended in his chamber, he decides to defer his action because Claudius is praying; and murdering a praying Claudius would open gates for his uncle to actually reach the doors of heaven "fit and season’d for his passage" (3.3.86). Hamlet would not be avenging his father’s death properly by allowing his murderer to be pardoned in the afterlife. This delay in killing Claudius sets up additional complexity in the plot, and essentially prolongs the timing of the climax of the play.
The build up to the explosion of action in act three was achieved through the three soliloquies that Hamlet delivered, in which the reader becomes aware of Hamlet’s inner struggles, the reasons for his actions, and his intricate scheme to expose Claudius. In general, conflict and actions in life begin with realization of internal problems and inner conflict, which often triggers and individual to first contemplate actions, later develop plans, and finally execute them in the future. More often than not, it is an individual’s depression and drive towards despair and acceptance of hopelessness which resolves in tragedy, such as Hamlet’s destruction of relationship with his mother, the inadvertent killing of Polonius, and the ultimate damnation of his soul.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2003.
A Soliloquy is dramatic or literary form of discourse in which a character talks to himself, and reveals his inner taught. The character completely undresses themselves to the audience, to the point where we can, feel their emotions, think their taughts and we feel as if the character has really escaped the book and entered reality or vice versa. Ultimately the purpose of soliloquies is to bring the audience closer to the character and helps to put the audience in the characters position. In the Shakespearean play Hamlet, there are three significant soliloquies in the first three acts that lead to the explosion of action. In these three soliloquies we really enter Hamlets head, we observe his inner taught, also we can see the blueprints of his plots to come. The explosion of action in Act 3 is gradually built through Hamlet’s three soliloquies.
The first soliloquy is in Act 1, Scene 2. In this soliloquy Hamlet really reveals himself to the audience. He expresses a lot of anger towards various things which all ultimately lead and have an arrow pointing towards Claudius. He also contemplates about the meaning of life, and for the first time the audience witnesses Hamlet seriously consider suicide. “His cannon giants self-slaughter. O Go, God, / How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable. /seem to me all the uses of the world” (1.2.131-133). However Hamlet does not commit suicide, as it would be an action against God. This is something to take to note, as Hamlet finds himself questioning the meaning/purpose of life in further occasions, such as the soliloquy in Act 3. In this soliloquy we also see that he is very angry at his mother for getting married to his uncle, especially so fast after his fathers’ death. He says women are very week, “Let me not think on’t; frailty, thy name is woman” (1.2.145), and this is also something that will, tell to be very vital as he has problems with women, his mother and his girlfriend Ophelia. Also in this soliloquy, Hamlet talks down about Claudius and he compares him to his father. “So excellent a king, that was to this/ Hyperion to a satyr” (1.2.139) “but no more like my father/than I to Hercules” (1.2.152-153). This is to be most emphasized and is the most telling part of this soliloquy. As ultimately all Hamlet problems are because of Claudius and Hamlets main goal is to kill him. But Hamlet procrastinates more and more, and the audience wants him to stop talking about Claudius and to act on it.
This brings us to the second soliloquy, where every thing really starts to take shape. The second soliloquy takes place in Act 1, Scene 2.In this soliloquy, we see him questioning himself a lot. The secret word is why, why he hasn’t done anything yet? Why he hasn’t killed Claudius? Why he was born? He realizes all that the audience already knows. He realizes that he is all talk and no action. “Am I a Coward?” (2.2.537).The first step to progression is omission and Hamlet has omitted to himself, that he is all talk no action. So this is a step closer to Hamlet actually acting. Also in this soliloquy, we get the privilege to experience Hamlets emotions. And with his emotions flowing and his mind confused, he comes to the conclusion that he was born to revenge his father and kill Claudius. “That I, the son of a dear father murdered, / Prompted to the heaven and hell” (2.2.150-152). So in this soliloquy we see Hamlet getting closer to acting, and he only continues to get closer, and closer. Hamlet will not tell anyone about the murder, but he will show it. He will have the players; play out the murder of his father, in front of Claudius. “For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak/ with most miraculous organ. I’ll have these players/ Play something like the murder of my father/ before my uncle. I’ll observe his looks.” (2.2. 560-563). So if Claudius does react to the play, then Hamlet will have more proof that Claudius killed his father. It would be without doubt. The play is done and Claudius does react abruptly. Now Hamlet has all the proof, and the audience starts to get anxious and impatient. Hamlet has still not acted, but when he does act, the audience will be asking why he did.
In the third soliloquy Hamlet uses one of the most famous lines of Shakespeare’s literature. “To be or not to be-that is the question:” (3.1.56). This is the question. It is the question Hamlet asks himself over and over. What is the purpose of life? Hamlet has come to a circle, he wonders if he is a coward once again. Hamlet questions why people just don’t put an end to there miseries by killing themselves. “Thus conscience does make cowards of us all” (3.1.83).He comes to the conclusion that people don’t kill themselves because they’re scared. He feels to eject from life as he doesn’t know if he can deal with the pain anymore. However what keeps him from killing himself is the unknown, he doesn’t know what is after death, and is scared it might be worst. “But that the dread of something after death, / the undiscovered country, from whose bourn/ no traveler returns, puzzles the will.”(3.1. 78-80). Once again Hamlet starts to procrastinate and get off track. The audience starts to feel even more impatient now, because just as he started to take steps to action, Hamlet goes back to a man of no action. The audience has had enough with Hamlet thinking, they want him to act. But soon followed by this soliloquy is the explosion of action. Where Hamlet acts without thinking and the audience thinks to themselves, why Hamlet acted.
To conclude, in the three soliloquies, Shakespeare brings the audience through a series of mountains where we see Hamlet thinking one thing and then the next and we experience Hamlets progression and digression. We see him go from a man of no action, to becoming a man of action, and just as we think he is becoming a man of action, we see him return to that man of no action, in the third soliloquy. Shakespeare is amazing, because the explosion of action happens at the right time. The audience is completely surprised because after the third soliloquy they view him as a man of no action, and then all of a sudden hamlet does what the audience wants him to. He acts. However the audience is angry at him and wonders why, he did what he did.
A Soliloquy is a major component of a play, which helps reveal a character’s innermost thoughts, emotions and intentions, while further enhancing the plot. Although it is a loud speech given by a character, it cannot be noticed or heard by other characters since it is only intended for the audience to grasp. In Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, William Shakespeare uses soliloquies in first, second and third act, that advance the plot in an enormous matter, leading towards what one may call an “explosion of action”. The playwright does this by mentioning Hamlet’s state of depression and the suicidal thoughts in the first soliloquy, his lack of action and his plot against Claudius in the third soliloquy. Furthermore these two soliloquies lead to his thoughts on life and death in the third soliloquy.
The first act of Hamlet introduces the audience to the life of a prince, who struggles to survive after the death of his father and the marriage of his mother to his uncle who now holds the throne that would once belong to him. That is the life of Hamlet, who is shown wearing dark clothing throughout the play and even through his first scene in the play. The first line of the first soliloquy reveals Hamlet’s thoughts against life and his consideration of death, “O that this is too too sullied flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew, or that the Everlasting has not fixed His canon ‘gaint self-slaughter” (1.2.129). It is arguable that Hamlets self-murder thoughts are considered by him at first but later, he walks away from them since the fear of god creeps upon him. Another arguable matter which plays an important role in Hamlet’s ambition, is his hatred for the world, “O God, God, How steary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world” (1.2.132-134). Hamlet’s hatred for the marriage of Queen Gertrude with his uncle is arguably the main cause of Hamlet’s depression, after his father’s death. “As if increase of appetite had grown by what it fed on, and yet within a month” (1.2.144), shoes Hamlet’s unbearable attitude towards the new couple. Although this is the first time the audience gets to peek into hamlet’s mind, this soliloquy remarkably reveals that Hamlet is the only one mourning his father’s death and he clearly against the marriage. This leads to the escalation of action since the heartbroken Hamlet, clearly demonstrates his hatred for Claudius, which would later aid him to avenge his father’s soul.
The second soliloquy is delivered by Hamlet after encountering the ghost and after he has arranged the setup for the play. This one is considered to be significant due to Hamlet’s thoughts of his own inability to act. He compares himself to one of the players who acts better in an artificial situation while hamlet still fails to act in a real situation, “For Hecuba! What’s Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba that he should weep for her?”(2.2.523). One of the most important aspects of this soliloquy is Hamlet’s uncertainty of the ghost. By that one means that Hamlet is still not sure if the ghost is real since in the Elizabethan era, people had different perceptions about ghosts, “The spirit I have seen may be a devil, and the devil hath power T’ assume a pleasing shape, yea, and perhaps out of my weakness and my melancholy, as he is very potent with such spirits, abuses me to damn me.” (2.2.565). In this act Hamlet meets the players who are brought to the castle by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern , and later inserts his own lines into the play, as a scheme to catch the King’s reaction to his own crime, “I'll have these players play something like the murder of my gather before mine uncle. I’ll observe his looks.” (2.2.561). This soliloquy improves the plot drastically since the audience has knowledge that hamlet has a plan to catch the King’s guilt and he may act to finally avenge his father. This soliloquy ends the act, starting the third act which is known as the “explosion of action” by some.
The third act dwells the famous “To be or not to be” Soliloquy. Hamlet delivers this soliloquy when he is about to meet up with Ophelia who, as a bait, is being used by Polonius and Claudius to eavesdrop on Hamlet. This is considered as one of the best soliloquies in literature since it explores the human minds in deep heights and raises the ultimate question of humanity. The first line of the soliloquy, “To be or not to be- that is the question” (3.1.56), raises the question of one’s existence in the world. Hamlet asks himself this question as a rhetorical one since he already has a huge responsibility on his shoulder which is to avenge his father. He asks himself if one should live and suffer the consequences of life or if one should end fortune’s rule by committing suicide, “whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them. To die, to sleep-No more-and by a sleep to say we end the heartache, and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to.” (3.1.58). Hamlet answers his own question life when he mentions his fear of afterlife, “ But the dread of something after death, the undiscovered country, from whose bourn no traveler returns, puzzles the will, and makes us rather bears those ills we have than fly to others we know not of” (3.1.78). At the end of the soliloquy, the sweet prince confesses people’s loss of action (suicidal actions), “With this regard their currents turn awry and lose the name of action” (3.1.87). This soliloquy leads hamlet into taking action, which he always regretted to not have taken. This is what leads to the “explosion of action” in the third act.
Hamlet contains Shakespeare’s best soliloquies that exist in literature. The play advances forward via these soliloquies which uncover character traits, thoughts and emotions. The first soliloquy involves a harmless Hamlet, who is deep in sorrow. As the plot progresses, the audience are given the second soliloquy in act three. It is in this soliloquy that hamlet tries to capture the King in his trap, since he has a doubtful knowledge about the murder of his father because he does not trust the ghost yet. After the second act, the third soliloquy is delivered by the prince of Denmark. This time unpacking his mental thoughts about the subject of life and death, he leads the audience into the believing that he has the power to achieve a lot with a single action. This can be somewhat related to one’s experience since it shows that each thought one has, connects and ascends into a larger thought, making it easier for one to achieve a goal by a single action. When the writer of this latter, has a thought, it becomes a larger one, making it easier to achieve a goal that every human may have in common.
Works cited:
William Shakespeare. Hamlet, edited by Willard Farnham, in “The Pelican Shakespeare.” General Editor: Alfred herbage (rev. ed. ; New York: Penguin Books, 1970).
Authors use soliloquies as a way to let the audience know what a character is thinking. It gives you all details of what is going through his mind whether they’re sad, happy, feeling disgusted or having the time of their lives. Shakespeare uses three soliloquies in the first three acts of Hamlet to give the readers a better understanding of how Hamlet is feeling and why he acts the way he does. All three soliloquies have Hamlet focus on the negatives of his life and him questioning whether it is worth it or not. Hamlets first two soliloquies focus on all the bad aspects of his life and in turn, lead up to the third and most powerful soliloquy.
Hamlets soliloquies often revisit the negatives that Hamlet has been through or is in the middle going through. In Hamlets first soliloquy he is upset about his mothers re-marriage to his uncle soon after his fathers’ death. He does not understand how he’s still mourning and his mother has already moved on after only a month, “A little month, or ere those shoes were old / with which she followed my poor father’s body”(1.2.47-48). In his second soliloquy Hamlet has found out about his fathers’ death and then decides he is going to plan revenge. Hamlet knows he cannot murder his uncle because that would be treason but decides to use a player to guilt his uncle into admitting to it. This is a negative aspect of Hamlets life because he wants revenge for his father but does not know how to go about it. Hamlet is tempted to murder his uncle himself but knows he cannot. He then figures out how he will go about it; “For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak / With most miraculous organ. I’ll have these players / Play something like the murder of my father / Before mine uncle. I’ll observe his looks.” (2.2.560-564). All these circumstances lead to the third soliloquy of the play and the actions that go along with it.
Soliloquies let readers know what the character is thinking. Shakespeare often lets the audience know that Hamlet is questioning life and its purpose. While being upset about his father’s death and his mothers’ marriage Hamlet thinks about suicide. “His cannon gainst self-slaughter. O God, God, / How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable / Seem to me all the uses of this world!” (1.2.132-134), Hamlet wants to kill himself but knows it is a sin and must not. Hamlet then begins his third soliloquy with, “ To be or not to be – that is the question”(3. 1.56), then continues on to say “To die, to sleep- / No more – and by a sleep to say we end / The heartache”(3.1.60-62). Hamlet cannot decide whether to seek revenge or just die instead. He wants revenge because that’s what his father asked but at the same finds its too hard and would be much easier to end his own life.
The third soliloquy is the most powerful and takes all these events that hamlet has been through and makes him finally question whether murdering his father is worth going through or if there’s an easier way out. Hamlet questions all that he has known and whether it is what he thought it truly was. He wonders about the women in his life and questions why he has not already committed suicide. Hamlet views women in a negative way now after what his mother has done and how he feels about Ophelia leads to other actions throughout act 3. “With his regard their currents turn awry / And lose the name of action. - Soft you now, / The fair Ophelia!” (3. 1.87-89). Hamlet lets the readers know that Ophelia is just another problem that he is dealing with, and readers see that by the way Hamlet treats her later in act 3. Hamlet also discusses why he hasn’t taken his own life, and if it’s because he is afraid of what life is after death. He wonders if that’s why others have not taken their own life as well, because he fears that maybe life after death is worse, or just as bad as what he is going through now. “The undiscovered country, from whose bourn / No traveler returns, puzzles the will, / And makes us rather bear those ills we have / Than fly to others that we know not of?”(3.1.80-82). Hamlet fears what he does not know, but also realizes he has unfinished business with his uncle. The third soliloquy is very powerful because it shows the audience how close Hamlet was to ending his own life but fears the unknown too much. The unknown of what could happen if he does and what his uncles’ actions would be, or what could’ve been if his mother found out the truth about his father’s death.
Hamlets soliloquies give the audience a better look of what Hamlet has been through and continue to go through. It shows us Hamlets options and gives us a better insight into why Hamlets acts they way he does and chooses to do so. They give us a different perspective into Hamlets life and make you put yourself in his situation.
A soliloquy is used in plays to reveal a characters thoughts to the audience. Throughout the play Hamlet, Shakespeare plays around with the readers thoughts by using Hamlet’s soliloquies. There are three significant soliloquies that ignite the “explosion of action” in Act 3. The soliloquies Hamlet performs lead to Act 3 by specifying on his hate for Claudius, his lack of action and his obligations.
The word hate has a far more intensified meaning then the word dislike, by understanding the intensity of this word it is easier to relate to others that truly hate a person. Shakespeare manages to portray the exact feelings of hate that Hamlet has for Claudius. In each soliloquy Hamlet manages to mention how much he loathes Claudius,” Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless, villain!”(2.2.592), the passion in those words are as intensified as strong as his hate Claudius. By mentioning his feelings the audience begins to share these feelings towards Claudius. Hamlet sees through Claudius and the audience can as well through his soliloquies. There is still doubt as to whether Hamlet is exaggerating or not, but Shakespeare silences this doubt in Act 3. Claudius panics while seeing the play, proving he is guilty of King Hamlet’s murder and now has sent Hamlet to England, Claudius can fool Gertrude and Denmark but the readers are aware of his intentions. By hearing Hamlet’s inner thoughts about his hate for Claudius the audiences opinion is influenced by him. By seeing Act 3 it becomes clear that the audience’s opinion on Claudius is correct.
In the play Hamlet, the biggest issue is the simple word action. As simple as it may seem Hamlet is unable to follow his word with an action. Shakespeare realizes that the audience is questioning Hamlet’s character and in response to this Hamlet questions himself. “Am I a coward?”(2.2. 582), Hamlet fails to prove himself worthy to the people of Denmark and to the audience, which reveals he is aware of his cowardice. His lack of action is prevalent in Act 3 when Hamlet throws away the opportunity to kill Claudius. Hamlet is constantly prolonging the act of murdering Claudius, “Before mine uncle. I’ll observe his looks.”( 2.2.608), rather then murdering him he now will once again observe. Hamlet is always thinking about his situation rather then facing it, which unnecessarily prolongs the situation. The soliloquies show Hamlet begin to convince himself to prepare to act but as they come to an end the idea of action does too. The reader is on the edge throughout the whole play waiting for him to act and when he kills Polonius the reader is not satisfied. In Hamlet’s soliloquies he reveals to the reader his plan to kill Claudius instead he kills Polonius. Shakespeare’s’ Hamlet is truly a tragedy since it manages to successfully intrigue the reader and then disappoint them by the turn of events.
Shakespeare’s characters are in confining situations, they can not escape their obligation. In all of Hamlet’s soliloquies, he refers to his duty to avenge his father, King Hamlet’s murder. Due to Felial obligation he must kill Claudius, it is no longer a choice it is now his duty. “That I, the son of a dear father murthered,/Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,/ (2.2.595-596), the natural order can only be fixed by killing Claudius and Hamlet rightfully getting the crown. Now that the natural order has been all mixed up this gives the audience a hint of strange events to follow this disorder. In Act 3, strange events due follow; Hamlet is rude to Ophelia and Gertrude, King Claudius runs off stage while watching a play and Hamlet kills Polonius. The natural order of things has been shuffled around to produce a chain of chaos. Hamlet is controlled by the factor of time, nor having enough time weakens his plans of revenge. “For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,”/[..](3.1.70), life moves too quickly for Hamlet. His fathers sudden death and his mothers remarriage are too much for Hamlet too wrap his head around. Hamlet is trapped in his situation by natural forces and time, which lead to the stream of strange events in Act 3.
William Shakespeare has managed to give his readers the ability to predict and form an opinion on the plot by using Hamlet’s perspective. By understanding Hamlet’s opinion the readers can then further more understand the events that follow. During his three popular soliloquies he mentions his hate for Claudius, his inability to act and his obligations.
Analysis of Soliloquies in Act 1-3 of Hamlet
Authors of various eras have often used the soliloquy, a personal monologue in which a character conveys his or her most intimate thoughts to an audience, to demonstrate the complexity of internal conflict. Through this dramatic technique, characters attempt to rationalize solutions to complicated issues while demonstrating for the audience a lesson in humanity. Shakespeare’s use of soliloquies in Hamlet allows insight into the protagonist’s inner-turmoil, and establishes the foundation upon which future events transpire. Thus, Hamlet’s first, second, and third soliloquy within the Act 1-3 of the play contribute to the “explosion of action” found in Act 3 of Hamlet.
While originating from his earliest soliloquy, Hamlet’s attempt to conceal volatile emotions leads to the eventual eruption of action witnessed in the third act of the play. During Act 1, the protagonist performs his first monologue in the wake of his father’s murder. Hamlet struggles with accepting the remarriage of his mother, Gertrude, to Claudius, his uncle and recently coronated king of Denmark. He is forced to confront the authenticity of Gertrude’s previous relationship with King Hamlet, and questions the moral fibre of both his mother and stepfather. At the conclusion of the soliloquy, however, Hamlet recognizes his inability to publically express his opinions. He acknowledges that, “It is not nor it cannot come to good. / But break my heart, for I must hold my tongue” (I.ii.158-159). In order to avoid charges of treason, Hamlet must suppress personal views that would be deemed acts of open defiance against Claudius. He is forced to maintain a persona of reserved melancholy and subtle opposition while devising a means of revealing Claudius’ treachery. This forestalls much of the physical “action” of the play until Act 3, where Hamlet is presented with an opportunity to execute his strategy. Though it occurs on a much grander scale, the essential nature of Hamlet’s predicament is common to all individuals in today’s society. Through fear of pain, loss, or regret, one will often prefer to withhold his or her beliefs in place of publically challenging an accepted norm. Evidently, this only delays an inevitable explosion of conflicting values and a subsequent confrontation (as witnessed in the third act of Hamlet). Thus, the protagonist’s first soliloquy sets in motion the eventual eruption of action found within the play.
Shakespeare further demonstrates Hamlet’s second soliloquy as a central component of the explosion of events in Act 3. At the conclusion of Act 2, Hamlet’s monologue emphasizes internal conflict as a major obstacle to Claudius’ murder. As a means of self-evaluation, the protagonist first contrasts his own situation with that of a professional actor. He reflects upon the level of emotional response that an actor, without significant motivation, can instil in an audience. Though Hamlet recognizes that filial obligation is more than sufficient cause to take action against Claudius, he continues to hesitate over avenging his father. Hamlet resolves to confirm Claudius’ role in the murder through organizing a public omission of guilt, stating that, “The play’s the thing / Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king” (II.ii.571-572). Consequent indecision over Claudius’ guilt persuades Hamlet to postpone the immediate death of his uncle. As a result, the scheme orchestrated in Hamlet’s second soliloquy provides the basis for the dramatic character interaction in Act 3.
Hamlet’s third soliloquy is the most philosophically complex illustration of his internal conflict, and provides the greatest contribution to the “explosion of action” witnessed throughout Act 3. In a state of absolute melancholy, the protagonist questions the very nature and purpose of human existence. Hamlet contemplates suffering as an essential component to humanity, and in turn ponders the notion of death as an escape from mortal anguish. He struggles to rationalize both the ordeals of existence- oppression, arrogance, government, etc- as well as how one endures these hardships. Hamlet’s revelation occurs while realizing that humanity continues its discontented existence under threat of the unknown. It becomes apparent to the protagonist that one would rather suffer an entire life in absolute despair than risk an eternity of damnation. He concludes that, “... the dread of something after death, / The undiscovered country, from whose bourn / No traveller returns, puzzles the will, / And makes us rather bear those ills we have / Than fly to others that we know not of...” (III.i.79-82). It is through this concern that Hamlet decides to resume the task of avenging his father in place of taking his own life. The second revelation within this soliloquy arises when the protagonist claims that, “...enterprises of great pitch and moment / With this regard their currents turn awry / And lose the name of action” (III.i.86-88). Hamlet finally acknowledges that action can often be misdirected by the fear of death, shrouding the original intent or purpose of the exploit in dread and apprehension. Therefore, the protagonist continues his plot to overthrow Claudius and assume reign of Denmark while influencing the explosion of events in Act 3 of the play. The issues discussed by Hamlet in this soliloquy concern the fundamental aspects of human nature. As a human being it is natural to questions one’s own existence, and strive to find answers for the most eluding of life’s mysteries (For example, what does it mean to be human? Or ultimately, what is the meaning of life?). Humanity forms a personal understanding of existence though these questions, allowing one to take appropriate action in developing and fulfilling individual aspirations. The third of Hamlet’s soliloquies thus impacts the eruption of events in Act 3.
In conclusion, Hamlet’s first, second, and third soliloquies directly influence the “explosion of action” during the third act of the play. Hamlet’s initial monologue addresses the issue of succumbing to silent obedience over open defiance. While delivering his second soliloquy, the protagonist uses internal conflict as a motive for delaying the murder of Claudius. Finally,
Hamlet’s dialogue concerning the nature of human existence convinces the character to pursue a course of action in place of hesitation. Shakespeare consequently utilizes the soliloquy- a literary technique of a profoundly personal nature- to establish an intimate connection with his audience.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2003.
Although the first three soliloquies in the play Hamlet provide insight into the “explosion of action” which occurs in Act 3, Hamlet’s fourth soliloquy, which begins “To be or not to be” in Act 3 scene 1, is the most compelling. In Hamlet’s first three soliloquies he focuses on his own moral predicament, which leads him to focus on the moral predicament of man in his fourth soliloquy.
The importance of the first soliloquy, is to illustrate Hamlet’s disturbance by the conduct of his mother after his father’s death. He is struggling with his mother’s immoral actions in that he feels she has not properly grieved his father’s death by so quickly marrying his brother, Claudius, “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, --/ O God! A beast, that wants discourse of reason, / Would have mourne’d longer, --married with mine/ uncle” (1.2.147-152). By suggesting that a beast without reason would have had the decency to know the importance of mourning, he is suggesting his mother’s actions are unbefitting even a beast let alone a human. Although his mourning is seen by others as unmanly grief over his father’s death, Hamlet is in fact bitter and angry at his mother for her infidelity. He feels this lack of respect for his dead father goes against the nobility for which his father’s position as King was held and is astounded by the lack of shame displayed by his mother and uncle by virtue of their marriage. In other words, he feels as though his mother’s actions go against that of a virtuous human being. The way in which Hamlet ends this soliloquy, “It is not nor it cannot come to good;/ But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue!” 1.2.158-159) suggests that his disturbance by his mother’s conduct is not unwarranted, foreshadowing the revelations of his second soliloquy. I can relate to Hamlet’s discontent with his situation since there have been times when I have been in a situation where, even though I have a feeling something is not quite right, when you are missing a piece of the puzzle, it is difficult to find closure and move on.
In Hamlet’s second soliloquy, after finding out that the disturbing feelings that plague him are valid, he must now deal with how to react morally. Although he is excited at having his suspicions confirmed, and his immediate reaction is revenge, he is now faced with whether to believe it or not, “O all you host of heaven! Oearth! What else?/ And shall I couple hell? O fie! Hold, hold my heart!” (1.5 .92-93). Hamlet realizes he has no proof that the ghost is that of his father, and cautions himself that it could be the devil preying on him in his weak state to commit an immoral act. Regardless of the validity of the ghost’s identity, its words validate Hamlet’s hatred of Claudius, and cause him to feel the need for revenge, “O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!/… So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word;/ It is ‘Adieu, adieu! Remember me” (1.5.106,110-111), . Now that he feels he knows the truth Hamlet wants to act upon it. The suggestion that the ghost’s identity is questionable, foreshadows the plan that is hatched in Hamlet’s third soliloquy. I can relate to Hamlet’s cautionary approach to this information because sometimes when you are looking for an answer and you find the one you want to believe, you sometimes question whether it is true or whether you want to believe it is true.
In the third soliloquy, Hamlet is angry with himself for not taking action and avenging his father’s murder. “Yet I,/ A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,/ Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,/ And can say nothing; no, not for a king./ Upon whose property and most dear life/ A damn’d defeat was made. Am I a coward?” (2.2.570-575). By reproaching himself with his inability to take action, causing his emotions to rise and fall, Hamlet unwittingly leads himself to devise a clever plan to confirm his uncle’s guilt. Believing he is unable to commit a moral wrong unless he is sure his victim is guilty, Hamlet satisfies the uncertainty of his revenge by hatching a clever plan, “The play’s the thing/ ?Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king” (2.2.608-609). At this point Hamlet feels that his plan will lead him to do what is morally right, however, as we see in the fourth soliloquy, it’s not that simple.
Hamlet’s fourth soliloquy is a departure from the first three in that it no longer relates to the situation that faces him personally as there is no specific mention of his mother, uncle, revenge or murder, but rather the situation as it relates to mankind in general. He appears to be looking at the bigger picture, which is that of mankind in the search for whether it is nobler to live or to die. “To be or not to be; that is the question:/ whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer/ The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,/ Or to take arms against the sea of troubles and by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;(3.1.56-60). Hamlet is now questioning his morality in general. By questioning whether one should choose to live or die raises the question of whether there is nobility in either action. Is the noble or moral thing to do, in a predicament that man finds himself at a crossroad, to suffer with what troubles him morally by living or should he take his own life? The more Hamlet thinks about this the more he feels that neither action would be effective. To live and suffer with what troubles you is what is known to you and is ‘the devil you know’; however, to take your life to put an end to your suffering on earth may land you in a far worse state ‘the devil you don’t know.’ Therefore, by not taking a stand or taking a chance one may never have inner peace. This soliloquy builds towards the “explosion of action” in Act 3, in that it leads Hamlet to take action which results in Polonius’ death.
When a character goes into a soliloquy, he or she cannot hide anything from the audience. That is why more and more tension builds up for every one that is delivered. Focusing on Hamlet, the reader sees that he is incapable of completing the tasks set out for him. In his first soliloquy, he is bound to not say anything. In the second, he does something, but only delays in murdering his uncle. Finally, in the third one, he questions what it is to exist and whether or not he should do something. As the readers progress through the three soliloquies, they will see Hamlet losing time and pressure mounting. Because of this, Hamlet is in a trap and the only consequence is an explosion of action.
In act one, scene two, the line “Or that the Everlasting had not fixed his cannon gainst self-slaughter.” (1.2.131-132). in the first soliloquy deals with suicide. The other characters do not know that Hamlet thinks this way. But a sadness where only suicide is the solution is very difficult to hide. In fact, such a depressing behaviour coupled with an ‘antic disposition’ gives Claudius the perfect reason to ship him off to England. Also, if the whole situation of his mother marrying his uncle so soon “cannot come to good” (1.2.157) then he should not “hold his tongue” (1.2.158). His mother is the most useful to Hamlet because of her closeness to Claudius. But since Hamlet does not tell anyone, then he sets himself in in a trap where he is alone and helpless.
The reader knows that Hamlet wants to do something, yet he cannot. The second soliloquy is the turning point where there is absolutely nothing going on to where there is a lot of action. It is where Hamlet forces public omission from King Claudius. Although it is not the bravest form of action, it is the cleverest. It is true when Hamlet says “For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak / With most miraculous organ.” (2.2.560-561). because King Claudius’ violent reaction to the play of himself killing his own brother cannot be taken back. This time, it is King Claudius who is stick in his own situation.
Finally, in the “To be or not to be” speech, the audience sees Hamlet questioning life versus death. That is to say, if Hamlet kills himself now then the explosion of action is avoided. On the other hand, Hamlet admits he is not willing to die when he says “And makes us rather bear those ills we have / Than to fly to others we know not of.” (3.1.81-82). Therefore, Hamlet is bound to complete his task since he is not dead. In addition, “For those who would bear the whips and scorns of time.” (3.1.70) is a line that views time as a person of high power. Which is ironic because Hamlet is a slave of time. In medieval days, a slaved is owned forever. Which emphasizes that not only is Hamlet trapped by life, he is also trapped by time.
To conclude, “A trapped man is the most dangerous man.” Hamlet decides to solve all his problems on his own but he has a time limit. He has the option of killing himself, but he does not want to die because he does not know what comes after. The only thing he can do is trap the enemy as well. When two opposing forces are trapped, it is not just a conflict, but an explosion of action.
In literature there needs to be a way that a character can state his/her feelings with a bang of action. These are known as soliloquies in which a character articulates the way he or she feels to the audience. In the play, Hamlet during acts one to three, has had three soliloquies where his feelings carry fourth choices that he has to pick from which in turn have directed him to his choice of action. In many of the soliloquies the anger Hamlet has is always directed in the direction of Claudius, his uncle. Though it is evident that Hamlet would like revenge the decisions he makes defiantly turn out most unpleasant in the end.
“So excellent a king that was to this, Hyperion to a satyr, so loving to my mother […] Would have mourned longer- married with my uncle, My father’s brother, but no more like my father, Then I to Hercules” [1.2.139-140, 150-153]. In this soliloquy Hamlet compares his father and uncle to one another. It is obvious that they are both extraordinarily the reverse of one another. Hamlet says that his father was somewhat like a Son of God whereas his uncle was compared to a half goat half human. Claudius has left a revolting impression upon Hamlet. Not only is Hamlet angry that Claudius marries his mother, but it is the fact that Claudius has taken Hamlets rightful spot as king. Hamlet is also in a difficult spot with his mother, considering she has wedded a man that (1) was his fathers brother (2) that she knowingly married him even though she promised King Hamlet that she would love no other (3) it is very apparent to her that all Claudius wants is the supremacy and he is using her for the throne. It would seem to Hamlet that Claudius is trying to substitute his father not only as king, but as a true father as well. Hamlet does not like the fact the Claudius is trying to take on the “fatherly love” role that his true father did.
It is evident that Hamlet is extremely saddened over the fact that he has just found out that without a doubt, Claudius was the one who indubitably killed his father. Seeking revenge is the first thing that comes to Hamlets mind, but can Hamlet do it? Can Hamlet kill? Hamlet is not positive that he can kill Claudius because he knows that in his heart it is in the wrong, and that that if anyone found out he would be killed as well. “Bloody, bawdy villain! Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindness villain! O, vengeance! […] Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, […] I’ll have grounds, More relative than this, The play’s the thing, Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king” [2. 546-548, 551,570-572]All of this leads to Hamlets filial obligation. Hamlet is now using his uneasiness to make excuses as to why he is unable to kill Claudius. He lies to himself throughout the play to find reasons not to kill. Becoming frustrated with himself, he uses every excuse not to kill Claudius.
Now that Hamlet has postponed his revenge he has fallen into a state of depression where he is unable to kill others, but is thinking of killing himself, suicide. Hamlet thinks about this act for a while, would it be the right thing to do? No. So Hamlet realizes that sometimes to fix a problem you don’t need revenge or self harm. You need thoughtful words as well as strong ones that can prove your point. He explains “To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscovered country, from whose bourn, No traveler returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have” [3.1.77-81]Hamlet knows that it is better to know where you are rather then going to a place that you have never been before. The surroundings are different and there is the thought of an element of surprise. By this point Hamlets feelings of revenge have turned a new leaf and he has decided to take a step closer in his plan to terminate Claudius.
In the play Hamlet the helplessness Hamlet feels, the fact that Claudius is trying to uproot the bad in Hamlet as well as the fact that he’s trying to bring fourth feelings from Hamlet that are sacred and not to be mentioned, and the fact that Claudius has married Hamlets mother Gertrude, has all contributed to the three soliloquies that end up contributing to explosion of action in the third act of the play. Hamlet ends in a tragedy but there was a lesson to be learned. That lesson was that people can choose right or wrong. And it is there decision not matter what.
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