Hamlet Soliloquy Essay

In this essay, I am going to show how significant Hamlet’s soliloquys are in the play and how they relate with the plot, and will expose the different ideas shown indirectly by Shakespeare through Hamlet and i will explain Hamlet as a whole as he expressed through his soliloquys and how he gives the play its tragic theme. The character of Hamlet in Shakespeare’s play â€Å"Hamlet† show many strong emotions through the use of his soliloquys and shows the internal battle which he experiences throughout the play giving it it’s â€Å"tragic† theme. An example of this would be in the first of his soliloquys, where he ultimately contemplates suicide due to the despair that he is experiencing: â€Å"O that this too too solid flesh would melt†. From this, the importance and significance of Hamlet’s Soliloquys during the play show his isolation from society, suggesting the uniqueness of his character. His feelings during his soliloquys also contrast with the behaviour of the Courts, where he reveals his state of mind and the truth, where the courts are more pleasure seeking than decisive when discussing politics. This is shown by Hamlet in his discussion with Horatio where he reveals that â€Å"This heavy-headed revel east and west/ Makes us traduced and taxed of other nations†¦ though performed at height. † The power of Hamlet’s soliloquys during the play show shakespeares philosophical views to life. For example, in Hamlet’s â€Å"To be or not to be† soliloquy, Hamlet, again contemplates suicide, where he suggests that suicide is the easiest way of ending the problems and conflicts of life. He then debates this by saying that the fear of an unknown afterlife is what keeps man living. Hamlet observes religion, but it has been shown that he is hypocritical of it because he is inconsistant with his beliefs (As shown by Schlegel), for example, when the ghost enters, he believes that it truely is his father, and when it leaves, it appears to him as he has been decieved: â€Å"Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned†¦ /That i will speak to thee. I’ll call thee Hamlet. † Hamlet, in his first soliloquy also refers to the 6th Biblical commandment â€Å"Thou shalt not kill† which he understands forbids suicide and murder:†His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter. O God, God. † Shakespeare has also given Hamlet the habit of thinking in religious terms, e. g: â€Å"For God’s Love, Let me hear! † , â€Å"Angels and Ministers of grace defend us! † Hamlet’s soliloquy before act 3 shows the audience the endless debate that Hamlet goes through, and Shakespeare delays the end to express how Hamlet is abzorbing the news and whether or not to accept the challenge. Shakespeare does this to shape Hamlet’s character in the eyes of the audience. A tragic theme is shown through Hamlet’s quotations by firstly, Hamlet having to celebrate his Mother’s marriage with his uncle, and at the same time having to mourne his Father’s death. Hamlet reveals his loneliness when his Mother asks him why his father’s death seems so important, he replies by saying â€Å"Seems, madam? Nay it is. I know not ‘seems’. † Shakespeare, here shows another source of Hamlets sadness, where he has only Ophelia, who has also rejected him due to the ‘advice’ given to her by her father. He reveals this in another one of his soliloquys: â€Å"Now I am alone. O, what a rouge and peasant slave am I! † Hamlets sorrow mulitiplys when he finds out that Ophelia had died, where he states that â€Å"Forty thousand brothers/Could not (with all their quantity and love) Make up my sum. † However, these feelings of sorrow quickly get replaced with anger, where he expresses them early on in Act 1: â€Å"I with wings as swift as thought†¦ sweep to my revenge. † He does this again in his conversation with Ophelia where he finds out that she has been lying to him, where he exposes her and commands her to â€Å"Get thee to a nunnery†, and that â€Å"I loved you once†. This speech indirectly shows his hatred for women, i. e. his mother, where Hamlet exposes Claudius’ plan of killing the Late Hamlet and dethroning him for becoming king himself. He appreciates that he needs to act out his anger by saying: â€Å"O Heart, lose thy nature, let me be cruel†, showing that Hamlet has a soft side, and that he actually wants to kill Claudius to avenge his Fathers death. During Act 3, Hamlet asks some players to act out a speech that he â€Å"Chiefly Loved†, where he reads out the first 13 lines from memory, signifying the link to his fathers death. The story that Hamlet expects is the fall of Troy and the killing of King Priam by his own son, and to Hamlet, this is what he wants to do to Polonius, where in his soliloquy after the speech, Hamlet rebukes himself for not having the same motivation and passion that Pyrrhus did: â€Å"What would he do/ Had he the motive and the cue for passion/ That i have?†¦ horrid speech/†¦ appal the free/†¦ confound the ignorant†¦ â€Å"