Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, tells the story of a man named Hamlet who is subjected to much emotional distress. He arrives home from university one day and finds that his father has died and his mother has married his uncle. Naturally, this is difficult for Hamlet to absorb. To make matters worse, the ghost of Hamlet’s father informs Hamlet that his brother poisoned him and that he should be avenged. This puts a great amount of responsibility on Hamlet, but he does not share it with anyone because he wants to be masculine. This desire to be masculine results in Hamlet isolating himself, which causes his downfall. Hamlet chastises himself for not being a masculine throughout the play. His self-doubt begins when Claudius reproaches Hamlet …show more content…
They all are dark and seem representative of the way men perform acts of masculinity when among others, but may be someone much more feminine when alone because there is no one to perform for. Hamlet takes on the feminine characteristic of being attuned with his emotions while alone as seen by the inconfidence and frustration in his soliloquies. These soliloquies contain attacks at himself and seem to be his way of redeeming himself in the audience’s eyes (Palmer 3). They are Hamlet’s way of assuring the audience that he knows that he is being unmanly and deserves a reprimander. As a result, these soliloquies are dark and critical. The first dark soliloquy arrives after Hamlet learns of his father’s death and his mother’s treachery. This soliloquy is the famous “To be or not to be” where Hamlet questions whether it is better to live a hard life or to “win” against that hard life by killing oneself. This demonstrates Hamlet’s lack of rational thinking because a rational mind doesn’t contemplate such things. The second soliloquy is the “witching hour” one where Hamlet contemplates how he could do whatever hellish thing he wanted and could get away with it because of the time. He describes drinking hot blood, and has to warn himself to not act on his infernal thoughts while with his mother This clearly illustrates the sinister mindset Hamlet is in. A rational mind would shudder at such