Soliloquy in Shakespeare's Hamlet PDF

Soliloquy in Shakespeare’s Hamlet Soliloquy is a device according to which a character brings out the inner complex feelings by speaking to himself/ herself. The audience is supposed to hear it but not the other characters on the stage.It helps to bring to light the private side of a character’s per...

Soliloquy in Shakespeare’s Hamlet Soliloquy is a device according to which a character brings out the inner complex feelings by speaking to himself/ herself. The audience is supposed to hear it but not the other characters on the stage.It helps to bring to light the private side of a character’s personality. Hamlet, a world-famous play, Shakespeare’s most debated work and perhaps the longest play written by William Shakespeare. Besides, soliloquies are essential to the presentation of a story through the medium of a play because they provide the chance to tell the audience specific pieces of information which cannot be disclosed through normal conversation. In his work, ‘Hamlet’, Shakespeare’s title character is shown to speak in seven soliloquies. Each soliloquy advances the plot, reveals Hamlet’s inner thoughts to the audience and helps to create an atmosphere in the play. In Hamlet, Shakespeare gives soliloquies either to villain (Claudius) or to Protagonists (Hamlet’s Ophelia). Role of Soliloquy in a Drama: The soliloquy is generally used as a means of reveling working of the mind of character. It helps the dramatist to expose the motives, plans and actions of the character. The dramatist throws additional light on the mental make-up of that character. A soliloquy is thus a means of character-revelation. Playwrights employ the soliloquy as a device to provide the audience with information about the characters‟ motives, plans and state of mind, to explain earlier events and action that have occurred offstage, or to fill in other necessary background.” SOLILOQUIES IN THE PLAY Reading the play minutely it can be learnt that there are seven important soliloquies in the play uttered by the protagonist Hamlet himself. Besides them, there are some other minor soliloquies. The First Soliloquy: O God, O God How weary, state, flat and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world.” The first soliloquy of Hamlet gives the audience their first glimpse of him as a character. Hamlet is reflective and depicts the way he views his own position; He tells of his father’s death and then his mother’s quick remarriage. He says, “It is not, nor it cannot come to good”, when referring to the marriage of his mother. This speech also reveals his thoughts further when he says that his mother is frail because she is a woman, all of this information put together gives the audience a very strong first impression of Hamlet as a character. This soliloquy was necessary for the context of the play; otherwise, Hamlet’s personality,“Hamlet is a portrayal of a tortured, depressed young man who loses his way in the labyrinth of his negative thoughts.” This demonstrates to the audience that he is an intelligent young man ❖. This clearly shows the audience that his heart is breaking not only for the loss of affections towards his mother but the fact that she does not seem to care about this loss. The primary function of the soliloquy is to reveal to the audience Hamlet's profound melancholia and the reasons for his despair. HAMLET’S SECOND SOLILOQUY Hamlet’s second soliloquy comes after the Ghost leaves Hamlet, having charged him with the duty of taking revenge upon the murder of his father. Hamlet has been stunned by the revelation and echoes the Ghost’s words asking him to remember it. Hamlet resolves to wipe out everything else from his memory and to preserve in it Ghost’s “commandment” the manner in which Hamlet is speaking of never permitting himself to forget the Ghost’s words. Hamlet will soon plunge into action and carry out the behest of the Ghost. He refers to his mother as a “most pernicious woman” and to his uncle as a “smiling damned villain”. Hamlet’s tendency is to generalization when he says: “ O most pernicious woman! O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain! My tables-meet it is I set it down That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain. At least I am sure it may be so in Denmark.” In his second soliloquy, Hamlet becomes curious and suspicious after hearing of the ghost. He said: “My father’s spirit in arms? All is not well: I doubt some foul play. Would the night were come! Till then sit still, my soul. Foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth overwhelm them, to men’s eyes.  ✓ Hamlet feels the presence of the ghost indicates that his father died due to dubious circumstance. The question of his own death plagues Hamlet as well as he repeatedly contemplates whether or not suicide is a morally legitimate action in an unbearably painful world. ✓ Hamlet’s grief and misery is such that he frequently longs for death to end his suffering, but he fears that if he commits suicide, he will be consigned to eternal suffering in hell because of the Christian religion’s prohibition of suicide. ✓ In his famous soliloquy “To be or not to be” Hamlet philosophically concludes that no one would choose to endure the pain of life if he or she will come after death and that it is this fear which causes complex moral considerations to interfere with the capacity for action. HAMLET’S FOURTH SOLILOQUY Hamlet’s fourth soliloquy is the most famous and the most celebrated because it is the most philosophical of all. In this soliloquy there are mental debates. Hamlet finds himself on the horns of a dilemma: 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. To die, to sleep No more; and by a sleep to say we end He asks which of the two alternatives is nobler whether silently to suffer the cruelties of fate or to put up a fight against the misfortunes of life. It would be better perhaps to commit suicide if death were to mean a kind of total sleep and total unconsciousness. The reason that prevents a man from committing suicide is that he does not know what is in store for him after death. It is the fear of what may happen after death that makes endure the ills and injustices of life. It is for this reason that a man’s resolution or power of determination is weakened and a man finds himself unable to execute great enterprises.  This soliloquy reveals the speculative temperament of Hamlet, his irresolute and wavering mind and his incapacity for any premeditated action of a momentous nature. This soliloquy also shows Hamlet’s generalizing habit of thought. The whole of this soliloquy has a universal appeal because Hamlet is speaking for all human beings. There are occasions in every man’s life when he feels a strong desire to put an end to his life but is prevented from doing so by several considerations including those specifically mentioned by Hamlet. The dramatic purpose of this soliloquy is partly to explain Hamlet‟s delay in carrying out his purpose and to show at the same time the mental torture that Hamlet has been undergoing because of his failure to have carried out that purpose. PHILOSOPHICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE FOURTH SOLILOQUY Hamlet’s soliloquies and asides express his melancholic nature. He commits himself to his father’s charge above all, he distrusts others. He berates himself with guilt; he has a hard time stating a task, he analyzes philosophically and he seeks perfection. Hamlet’s conscience is making him a coward by not allowing him to kill Claudius without knowing that he is justified without a doubt. In this soliloquy Hamlet concerns, more on action. First Hamlet accuses himself of thinking too much, resulting with no action. Hamlet also reveals that he does not know why he has yet to take advantage of the opportunity he has to kill Claudius. DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION OF THE FOURTH SOLILOQUY Dramatic soliloquies are generally understood to be spoken by a character that is alone on stage or seems to be speaking private thoughts aloud. Yet there are many instances of overheard soliloquies, in which the character may or may not be aware of other characters that are nearby but concealed from the speaker. Soliloquies are often viewed as a dramatist’s way of informing the theater audience about subtleties in the dramatic action or a character’s motivation. In Hamlet‟s fourth soliloquies, his mental state shows signs of declination. He castigates himself for not taking action to avenge his father. He realizes that he has cause to kill Claudius