Hamlet Soliloquy Analysis
The purpose of a soliloquy is to outline the thoughts and feelings of a certain character at a point in the play. It reveals the innermost beliefs of the character and offers an unbiased perspective as it is merely the character talking to the audience, albeit not directly, and not to any other characters who may cause the character to withhold their true opinions. Therefore, Hamlet's first soliloquy (Act 1, scene ii) is essential to the play as it highlights his inner conflict caused by the events of the play. It reveals his true feelings and as such emphasizes the difference between his public appearance, his attitude towards Claudius in the previous scene is less confrontational than here where he is directly insulted as a "satyr", and his feelings within himself. Although in Shakespeare's Hamlet there are several soliloquies, the first of Hamlet's is the most important. Hamlet's despair stems from his mother's marriage to his uncle and it is this that is the driving force behind what is communicated. His constant repetition of the time in which it took the two to get married, "But two months dead...yet within a month...A little month...Within a month...most wicked speed", suggests his disgust at the situation and that i
grows to seed; things rank...in nature". This image represents the something that is "...rotten in the state of Denmark". It is a simile for the state of his society, as in it used to be nice but now is "gross". The language of the description also emphasizes this as it suggests images of things that are unprofitable and nasty. These images all serve to highlight Hamlet's impressions of the society that the audience are only just forming theirs upon; therefore, leading to a bias towards the character of Hamlet. female race. The actions of his mother have lead him to believe that all women are capable of acting in this "wicked" way and that all women are weak. Alongside the image of his father that is communicated, Hamlet is saying, and therefore feeling, that the people that he could look up to in life have departed and that his entire world has been altered, "It is not nor it cannot come to good". The distressed nature of Hamlet's mind is also communicated well by the imagery that is The structure of the piece also communicates the nature of Hamlet's thoughts as he is constantly changing subject, "Let me not think on't - Frailty thy name is woman! A little month", and is doing so by using short, broken sentences. These help reveal and suggest the depth of Hamlet's thoughts; he has so much going in his head that he wants to commit suicide and is therefore trying to rati
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Approximate Word count = 936
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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