Hamlet's Changing State of Mind Shown Through Shakespeare's Use of Soliloquies

Hamlet's Changing State of Mind Shown Through Shakespeare's Use of Soliloquies

To the reader, the play of Hamlet is somewhat like a roller-coaster

ride taking us up and down with Hamlet's emotions and before we have

chance to see whether we've just looped the loop Hamlet's emotion will

have changed from one of a depressing nature to one of a sheer

desperation to avenge his father's death or he will seemingly have

beaten us to the loopy loop the loop of insanity. On such a

helter-skelter of emotions one may find it difficult to comprehend

exactly how Hamlet is actually feeling; is he pretending? Is he really

mad? Does he really love Ophelia?. In a book we can be told how a

character feels, however on the stage it is not always obvious. This

is why Shakespeare used soliloquies in Hamlet to try and help us to

keep up with the topsy-turvy circus ride of emotions that we join

Hamlet on in Hamlet.

There are six soliloquies in Hamlet, each one helping to update us on

how Hamlet's thinking has changed and how he really feels. Rather than

leaving an audience to guess how he may be feeling Hamlet has a secret

confrontation with the invisible fourth wall behind which we as the

audience would hide and begin to understand him and hopefully begin to

empathise with him. Hamlet is talking only to himself, there is no-one

for him to lie to so what he says will be true, and this fact clears

up any confusion about how Hamlet really feels. They are a vital

dramatic device in involving the audience and letting us understand

his feelings, understand his emotions and ultimately empathise with

him, whether it's desperation or anger his soliloquies are a di...

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... meddle with death and he doesn't want to hurt his

mother. Shakespeare's visual language using the theme's of dirty and

rotting matter and an unweeded garden bring another dimension to our

understanding of how Hamlet is really feeling. We understand the

numerous dilemmas he faces by his constant thinking and inaction and

his frustration at these characteristics. Shakespeare's very dramatic

language once again ensures this and his use of prose in the

soliloquies gives them an extra dramatic and hitting depth. My essay

itself bares witness to how the soliloquies make us empathise with his

situation as I have constantly had to check myself to ensure that I

haven't been too emotive in the language I used because as I read the

soliloquies I myself have been a victim of Shakespeare's oh so

dramatic and effective soliloquies.