Hamlet Soliloquies

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Hamlet was written in the early 1600s.The tragedy of Hamlet is one of William Shakespeare's most famous plays. It is popular because of the way Shakespeare uses Hamlet to show the complexity of the human mind is. Shakespeare uses soliloquies to reveal Hamlet’s innermost thoughts. Through the soliloquies, the audience learns of Hamlet's struggle to face his internal conflicts, deciding when to avenge his father and his disgusted feelings about his mother’s lustful marriage. Also the soliloquies, which will form the basis of my essay, help the audience to trace Hamlet’s mental process. Shakespeare explains the influence someone’s state of mind can have on the decisions that they make in Hamlet.

In Shakespeare's Hamlet, the 3rd and 4th soliloquies delivered by Hamlet are both significant to the play. Despite their differences in terms of language, and dramatic devices, are similarly used by Shakespeare in their many parts of the play. They’re both crucial to the audience's understanding of the character Hamlet’s state of mind. The soliloquy in Act 3, scene 1 takes place while Hamlet is totally engrossed in thought about his enigmatic question “to be or not to be”. Hamlet’s soliloquy mainly reflects on death and how it makes us fearful. This soliloquy comes as a surprise because in an earlier soliloquy Hamlet has planned out how he’s going to figure out if Claudius is guilty. His character is clearly shown in this speech. In act 4 scene four, Hamlet finally decides to kill Claudius, but only after seeing men going to a meaningless war. He also decides to stop thinking too “precisely on the event” as this is his flaw and delays him taking action.

Unlike the 4th soliloquy, the third and most famous soliloquy seems to be governed b...

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...ontemplation over life and death that he would rather live than die. This is because death scares him and he has to revenge his father. In this soliloquy, we learn that Hamlet is a fickle, indecisive and confused character whose state of mind is troubled. The soliloquy “How all occasions do inform against me” has parts of it that is similar to the third monologue. "I do not know why yet I live to say "This things to do." In this quote Hamlet might still be debating on why he still lives. This again brings up the question of Hamlet contemplating on death again.

Soliloquies can be a powerful tool used to gain access into the deepest thoughts of a character. I think that without the soliloquies, “Hamlet,” would have had a different effect on the audience. Other, the audience wouldn’t have been aware of the contradictions that may occur in Hamlet internally.

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