Important Soliloquies in Hamlet

 Topic: Important Soliloquies in Hamlet

Paper-1: The Renaissance Literature

Name: Yashpalsinh Baldevsinh Gohil

Class: M.A. Sem-1

Roll no.: 24

                         Submitted To: Prof. Dilip Barad

                                      (Head of English Department,

                                      Maharaja Krushnakumarsinhji 

                                             Bhavnagar University)

                                                            

Important Soliloquies in Hamlet

o   The Role of Soliloquy in a Drama :-

The soliloquy is generally used as a means of revealing the inner working of the mind of character. It is a device by employing which the dramatist can communicate to the audience or the readers the secret thoughts of a character while at the same time preserving the secrecy of those thoughts viv-a-vis the other characters in the drama. By thus communicating to the audience or the readers the secret working of a characters mind, the dramatist throws additional light on the mental make-up of that character as also the mental progress or deterioration if any, of that character. A soliloquy is thus a means of character-revelation. Besides unfolding the inner life of the speaker, a soliloquy may also throw some light on another character or other character by disclosing to us what the speaker thinks of that other character or those characters.

o   Hamlet’s First Soliloquy:-

The first soliloquy of Hamlet occurs (act 1, scene 2, lines 12-9) after the king and the queen have urged Hamlet in the own court to cast off the deep melancholy which, as they think, has taken possession of him as a consequence of his father’s death. In this soliloquy, gimlet reveals the grief that has been gnawing at his mind. He wishes that religion did not forbid suicide.  So that he cod kill himself and be rid of this grief. Hamlet feels disillusioned with the world:

How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,

Seem to me all the uses of this world!

                                                                   (Act 1, Scene 2)

He compares the world to an “unwedded garden” in which rank and gross things grow in great abundance. He deplores the fact that his mother has remarried barely two months after the death of her first husband and she has now married a man much inferior to the husband she has lost. That his mother should have so soon forgotten the husband who used to dote upon her and whom she also loved fondly makes him believe that women are weak creatures. “Frailty, thy name is woman”, he says. Even a best would have mourned for a longer time. Hamlet considers this marriage of his mother to nature of Hamlet and prepares us for the prolonged delay in his mother to his uncle to be and incestuous affair. This soliloquy shows the meditative nature of Hamlet and prepares us for the prolonged delay in his executing the command of the Ghost for revenge. This soliloquy also throws some light on the character of Hamlet’s dead father who was an excellent king and a loving husband Hamlet’s mother and his uncle fall in our estimation as a result of this soliloquy. We are made aware of the indecent haste of Hamlet’s mother in getting remarried and her not observing even the ritual of morning for a respectable period of time. This soliloquy also shows Hamlet’s filial attachment to his dead father. Hamlet’s reference to Hyperion, Niobe, and Hercules show him to be well-versed in classical literature. In this soliloquy, we also see Hamlet’s tendency to generalize, a tendency which appears again and again in his soliloquies.

o   Hamlet’s Second Soliloquy:-

Hamlet’s second soliloquy (act 1, scene 5, lines 92-112) comes just after the Ghost leaves Hamlet, having charged him with the duty of taking revenge upon the murderer of his father. Hamlet has been stunned by the revelation and echoes the Ghost’s words asking him to remember it. Hamlet resolves to wipe up everything else from his memory and to preserve in it the Ghost’s commandment only. The manner in which Hamlet here speaks of never permitting him to forget the Ghost’s words make us think that Hamlet will soon plunge into action and carry out the behest of the Ghost. But we are much deceived in thinking so. Hamlet now refers to his mother as a “most pernicious woman” and to his uncle as a “villain” a “smiling damned villain”. We see Hamlet’s tendency to generalization when he says: “That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain.”

o    Hamlet’s Third Soliloquy:-

           Hamlet’s third soliloquy (Act 2, Scene 2, Lines 543-601) occurs after he has had a talk with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and with the players. In this soliloquy Hamlet bitterly scolds himself for his continuing failure to execute his revenge. The player’s shedding tears while reciting a speech descriptive of Hecuba’s grief over the death of their husband stings Hamlet to the quick and makes him scold himself for his inaction. Hecuba is nothing to the player, and yet the player wept over their fate. What would the player do if he had the motive or passion which Hamlet has? The player, in Hamlet’s place, would drown the stage with tears and “make mad the guilty and appeal the free…” Hamlet regards himself as a dull and muddy-metalled rascal who has so far done nothing to avenge the murder of his father. He feels ashamed of being a coward who can only “unpack” his heart with words and “fall a cursing like a very drab.” He vents his anger upon his uncle by referring to him as “a bloody, bawdy villain; remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindles villain”. He then dwells upon his plan to stage a play by means of which he would be able to make sure whether or not his uncle is a murderer. “The play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.” This soliloquy clearly reveals Hamlet’s incapacity for any vigorous king of action, especially for any premeditated bloody deed. It is hard to believe that Hamlet could not have found an opportunity for killing the king. If it were for a lack of opportunity that he has not acted so far, he would have mentioned the fact in this soliloquy. It is clear to us, as it is to him, that what has prevented him from doing anything is a natural want, or a natural deficiency. It is this natural want that makes him ask: “Am I a coward?” He realizes that it is his own lack of “gall to make oppression bitter” that has stood in the way of his executing the command of the Ghost. If he had not been lacking in “gall” he should have “fatted all the region kites with this stave’s offal”, that is, fed the kites with the flesh of the king. Hamlet condemns himself in round terms for his inaction and for merely indulging in worlds and curses “like a whore”. This soliloquy thus makes it clear that we are dealing with a philosopher, and not with a man of action. He now seeks a confirmation of the Ghosts charge against Claudius. This is rather strange; because it has taken him long to doubt the authenticity of the Ghost’s charge. His entertaining a doubt regarding the truthfulness of the Ghost so long after the revelation was made by the Ghost seems merely a pretext for a father which he has seen might have been the devil who appeared to him in the melancholy. The players have come to Elsinore just by chance. We naturally ask what Hamlet would have done if the players had not come and thus provided him with the opportunity of seeking a confirmation of the Ghost’s charge against Claudius.

o   His Fourth Soliloquy:-

Hamlet’s fourth soliloquy (Act 3, Scene 1, Lines 56-88) is the most famous and the most celebrated because it is the most philosophical of all. In this soliloquy we have a mental debate. Hamlet finds himself on the horns of a dilemma:

“To be or not to be - that is the question”.

                                                                            (Act 3, Scene 1)

He asks which of the dilemma to alternatives is nobler whether silently to suffer the cruelties of fate or to put up a fight against the misfortunes of life. It would be better perhaps to commit suicide if death were to mean a kind of total sleep and total unconsciousness. But the reason that prevents a man from committing suicide is that he does not know what is in store for him after death. It is the fear of what may happen to us after death that makes us endure the ills and fear of what may injustices of life. And it is for this reason that a man’s resolution or power of determination is weakened and a man finds himself unable to execute great enterprises. This soliloquy, more than by any other, reveals the speculative temperament of Hamlet, his irresolute and wavering mind, and his incapacity for any premeditated action of a momentous nature. This soliloquy, again, shows Hamlet’s generalizing habit of thought. The lines in which he gives a catalogue of the misfortunes of life are a neat summing-up of the painful features of human existence the oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, the pangs of disprized love, the laws delay, the insolence of office, etc. the whole of this soliloquy has universal appeal because Hamlet is speaking for all human beings. There are occasions in every mans life when he feels a strong desire to put and end to his life but is prevented from doing so by several considerations including those specifically mentioned by Hamlet’s delay in carrying out his purpose and to show at the same time the mental torture that Hamlet has been undergoing because of his failure to have carried out that purpose.

Thank You.