Hamlet Soliloquy Act 1, Scene 2

Hamlet Soliloquy Act 1, Scene 2

The play opens with the two guards witnessing the ghost of the late

king one night on the castle wall in Elsinore. The king at present is

the brother of the late king, we find out that king Claudius has

married his brother’s wife and thus is having an incestuous

relationship with her. We also learn that Claudius has plans to stop

the Norwegian invasion from the north. Hamlet, the son of the late

king is unhappy about his mother’s marriage to his uncle and is still

mourning the death of his father. Hamlet has become withdrawn and

depressed and wants to return to his studies in Wittenberg (Germany),

but stays because they are the wishes of his mother and Claudius.

Despite his agreement with his mother and Claudius he makes it quite

clear in his soliloquy that he has been feeling suicidal.

“O, that this too too solid flesh would melt

Thaw and resolve itself into a dew”

Shakespeare is showing that Hamlet is feeling suicidal by saying that

hamlet says that he wishes that his flesh would just melt away as he

cannot kill himself because he is a Christian. In other versions of

Shakespeare’s hamlet the first line where it says solid it is sullied,

this means that hamlet feels dirty/tainted by the world which is also

dirty and tainted, but I think solid is the better word for this as it

fits in with hamlets feelings at the moment.

“Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd

His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!”

Hamlet is expressing here that he wants to kill himself and he wishes

that god had not said that it was against his word, so that he can

kill himself but as he is a Christian h...

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...ity to incestuous sheets!”

Hamlet tells how his mother and his uncle married so quickly from the

death of his father and moved with such speed and grace to the

incestuous sheets that they sleep together in. There are many

references to Hamlet’s disgust in his uncle throughout the play. He

seems to be strangely preoccupied with the sheets and bed to which his

mother shares with his uncle. Hamlet’s hatred is increased by the

thought of his mother sleeping with his uncle, This is another example

of the Oedipus complex.

“It is not nor it cannot come to good:

But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.”

Hamlet says that no good can come of this as they are committing

incest and also because maybe because he loves his mother even though

Hamlet must keep quiet about his feelings and it tears him apart

inside.