Hamlet's First Soliloquy

Soliloquy vs Asides

“To be or not to be that is the question.” (III. i L 56). This soliloquy is one of the most recited piece by those who are familiar with the line. Although, not many may know the true meaning behind the line. It is significant to analyze how the use of soliloquies can enhance the message in Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet and in other literary elements. Hamlet’s soliloquy reveals that he is contemplating suicide due to complications he experienced in the play. However, soliloquies are often confused with the function of an aside, which is a comment a character directs to only the audience can hear inner thoughts by the speaker. By understanding these dramatic devices that appear in the play, it will reveal the dynamics of Hamlet’s

After hearing that his widowed mother quickly married his father's brother on the day of his father’s funeral, Hamlet storms off to seclude himself in private then, presents a soliloquy. “O, that this too too solid flesh would melt thaw and resolve itself into a dew!Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God!” (I. ii L 131). Hamlet wishes that his body would turn to water and convert to dew or that God had not made suicide a sin. In this soliloquy, the audience perceives Hamlet to be someone who is often sullen and dispirited relating to how he talks to himself in

Hamlet’s first line was an aside as he was showing his demeanor about King Claudius. “A little more than kin, and less than kind.” (I. ii L 66). Hamlet is addressing his feelings about how they are not directly kin and not precisely on good terms with each other. Another aside would be when Polonius converse with Hamlet to examine if he has gone mad. “How pregnant sometimes his replies are. A happiness that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of.” (II. ii L 216.) This introduce the audience how Hamlet interacts with those whom he encounters himself with. Hamlet’s wit makes it seems that he has gone mad, although, everything is just an act. ““They fool me to the top of my bent.”(III. ii L 336.).

In Hamlet’s soliloquies, he is often identified to being full of thought between the king, his mother, and his own self. He shows his innermost struggles of what he will have to overcome. In this soliloquy, he is conflicted to either kill the king, or not kill the king. “Now might I do it pat, now he is praying and now I’ll do’t. And so he goes to heaven and so am I revenged … A villain kills my father; and for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain