Hamlet’s first three soliloquies are some of most important moments in the play. They are very similar, but in each soliloquy he addresses his problems in a different manner. With every act, he seems to gain more purpose, and a bit of resolve. Partially that’s due to what he learns about his father’s death, but it’s more due to the fact that, however slowly, he is moving through his period of grief.
The mood of Hamlet’s first soliloquy is one of deep depression. We already know that he’s grieving for his father, but this is the first time we see how much he’s suffering. It’s very clear he is struggling to cope with his father’s death and his mother and uncle's’ marriage. Hamlet no longer wants to live, and he says that if it was not a sin, he would take his own life. “O that this too, too sullied flesh would melt … Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd / his canon ‘gainst self slaughter”(1.2.133,135-136). These are three lines that clearly illustrate his state of mind.
…show more content…
Because of this, the second soliloquy is more angry and vengeful, where the first was grieving and depressed. However, Hamlet doesn’t talk about his anger towards Claudius, but rather how his anger at himself. After seeing the actor display so much emotion over the death of an imaginary charcter, he feels guilty that he hasn’t done the same for his real dead father, “... Yet I / A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak / Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause, / And can say nothing”(2.2.593-596). He also feels guilty that he hasn’t taken steps to avenge his father’s murder, “Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave, / That I, the son of a dear father murdered, / Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, / Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words”(2.2.611-614). There is a clear shift from the first to the second soliloquy. In the first, Hamlet didn’t want to be alive, now he has