Soliloquy Essays

Hamlet Soliloquy (An Analysis of Major Themes and Questions Introduced in Soliloquies of Acts 1-3 of Shakespeare’s, Hamlet) What exactly is a soliloquy? Soliloquies are a playwrights method of conveying the most crucial themes and messages to the audience through one character thinking out loud to themselves. Even the most famous tragedy of all time, Shakespeare’s, Hamlet, is filled with critical soliloquies that prove themselves the driving force of the play. Particularly those made by the main character, Hamlet, contain the most thought provoking and intensive messages to the plot. “Hamlet shares his inner feelings, thoughts, and plans for the future.

Hamlet, the longest play and one of the famous tragedies story written by William Shakespeare is considered one of the most powerful and influential works in literature has contained various of language uses to create the description and images in Hamlet. Shakespeare uses numerous drama conventions including soliloquy, asides and specific figurative languages to build the imagery of the plot. To make the theme of the drama more easily to understand, Shakespeare writes out the dialogue to show how is speaking and the stage directions, specify the time and place and how the characters should behave and speak. In addition, Shakespeare typically used more literary devices in his dramas. Soliloquy and asides are the way Shakespeare creates to give audiences access to the characters’ private thoughts and feelings.

Beginning Challenges (A Discussion on the challenges of Hamlet by His Soliloquies.) Shakespeare’s famous play Hamlet can't be described as anything but a tragedy. Through the whole play, the audience is able to view the tragic scenes and understand why the play is considered tragic. Shakespeare often uses different literary devices to express different emotions, and hidden messages. In Hamlet, Shakespeare uses a literary device called a soliloquy.

Hamlet 's "To be, or not to be" soliloquy is arguably the most famous soliloquy in the history. Hamlet infamous statement towards himself. Hamlet is unlike any other character in Shakespeare plays before. Hamlet has complex character with many layers that need to be exposed to actually see what he means. Which draw the assumption of what Hamlet that was his mental state of health in play was a lie or was it just to readers more attracted to him.

Everyone has to deal with loss and Shakespeare understood that within his play Hamlet. Throughout the play Hamlet is dealing with the loss of his father, in fact he gives several soliloquies about it. Perhaps the most famous soliloquy given is the one from Act III, scene i. Hamlet begins with the famous line, “To be, or not to be, that is the question:”(1). Although there are many literary devices used within this excerpt, the most prominent are syntax, diction, and imagery, and Shakespeare creatively uses each to portray Hamlet’s state of mind. At first the sentences are short and contradicting, hinting towards instability, just within the use of syntax.

Thought Piece: Hamlet’s First Soliloquy When comparing Franco Zeffirelli’s Hamlet to Kenneth Branagh's rendition, the preceding setup of Hamlet’s first soliloquy is just as important as the interpreted performance itself. Branagh’s version seems to stay true, but not without added extravagance, to the original, in which Claudius and Gertrude attempt to wean Hamlet off of the sorrowful milk of mourning whilst in the company of many onlooking eyes and the council. This contrasts to Zeffirelli’s, in that his version primarily takes place in what appears to be Hamlet’s study, making the conversation between the King, Queen, and Hamlet much more intimate, which, in my opinion, seemed much more fitting and natural. In the play text, no more than 10 people seem to have been written to appear onstage during Act 1 Scene 2, so Claudius and Gertrude's pleas and words of persuasion would most likely seem less strange in the company of others, considering when these things tend to happen in plays the uninvolved characters just fall away into the background until it is their turn to speak or act; however in the midst of the grandeur setting of Branagh’s interpretation of the scene, it comes across as rather odd to speak about such private matters in front of what seems like at least one hundred or so

Dramatic Poetry The third kind of poetry is dramatic; it presents the voice of an imaginary character speaking directly, without any narration on part of the author. It is the type of poetry in which the actions are dramatized through monologue or dialogue. The speaker is a character, like one in a play or a story; he has his own points of view, attitudes, background and ways of looking at reality. According to Nina Peboworth (2004) in dramatic poem characters speak through written word.

In Act One, Scene Two of Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet” the character Hamlet communicates his first soliloquy, which discloses his inmost beliefs and unhinged mind. Hamlet voices multiple soliloquys through the duration of the play, however, his first soliloquy is arguably the most significant and expressive. This is because he has yet to encounter the ghost of his late father, ergo he speaks with an unbiased outlook on current events. His soliloquy comprises the usage of mythological allusions, metaphors and tone to help depict Hamlets feelings and emotions.

In Act III, Scene I of Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet performs his most famous soliloquy that starts off, “To be, or not to be….”(Shakespeare). This speech is arguably the most profound and thought provoking pieces in English literature. This speech comes right in the midst of the main action of the play. At the end of Act Two, Hamlet provided a more rational outlook and attitude to life, while this soliloquy contradicts his previous persona. In Act Three, Hamlet has reverted by to his dark times and into a contemplative state.

“To be or Not to be, that is the question...” These are possibly one of the most well known and widely quoted words written by Shakespeare. However, this famous soliloquy by the crazed prince Hamlet goes much deeper than many understand. A man struggling with a sense of duty and whether he should fulfill it or just simply give up, voices his struggles and desires to end his suffering in 34 lines of dramatic distress. What makes these lines so universally appealing?

Therefore, Hamlet’s soliloquy, “now I am alone. O, what a rogue and peasant slave am,” portrayed as a coward because he felt he has done nothing to take revenge on Claudius. Throughout, the play persona of a hamlet, broke down into emotional roller coaster while he equivocates on avenge for his father.

In Hamlet a play composed by William Shakespeare, Shakespeare uses multiple soliloquies throughout his play to delineate the thoughts and feelings of a character (Hamlet) at a key point during a characters climax. Within the second soliloquy in Act two scene two Hamlet seems to question his existence and states himself as “alone” as well as a “peasant slave” which indicates how his intellectual self is grieving towards the death of his father (the king). Hamlet had once seen his father as his hero, his role model and luminary. However, due to his father’s death his mother decided to incestually marry Hamlet’s uncle in which had aflittered him and had made many believe that he was “mad”.

The best soliloquy is the one acted by Kenneth Branagh because it efficiently conveys Hamlet’s message while skillfully providing foreshadow. The soliloquy starts with a long shot of the setting, where Hamlet walks into a big empty room and as a result hears the echo of his footsteps, which gives a sense of isolation. In addition, the room is mostly white and well-lit, which helps to contrast Hamlet, as he’s wearing all black. Consequently, this highlights the Hamlet’s dread and supports the topic of his soliloquy, which is death.

The inspiration that motivates someone can come from anything and anyone, and in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, there is a particular focus on both comparing one’s ideas to another and drawing inspiration from surrounding people. Young Prince Hamlet, desperate to fulfill his dead father’s unfinished revenge, took inspiration from a variety of sources. Mostly, it is other influential people in his life like the ghost of his father, the first actor, and his foil Fortinbras. In the second and fifth soliloquy, Hamlet characterizes himself as devoted compared to the others around him, and it highlights his desire to uphold his honor through these comparisons; these soliloquies strongly show Hamlet comparing himself to others and drawing inspiration from them and their differences to motivate him further in taking revenge for his father. Hamlet is characterized as indecisive but willing to go through with the revenge in

‘The soliloquy expresses something which has all the appearance of inevitability and credibility’ - Wolfgang Clemen Soliloquies are the display of layers which make up the human psyche. The human mind is said to be extremely volatile. Soliloquies are an authentic means to analyze any character. Emotional outbreaks during various situations make this task much easier. As interesting as Hamlet is as a character, he has layers of identities and personalities hidden.

Secondly, both film use the mise on scéne in the “To be or not to be” soliloquy to create a choice of path for Hamlet. In Doran’s film, he does this with the door jamb, and contrast between lighting in the background and foreground. However, Almereyda choses to do this with purely with the mise on scéne by having Hamlet walk up and down the aisles of the video rental shelves. The shelves also provide a suggestion to Hamlet’s intentions through the “To be or not to be” soliloquy. “Hawke stands awkwardly in the centre of a wide shot contemplating whether to go forward toward the section with familiar film genre or go back toward the uncharted territories of action-packed movies.”

Throughout the play Hamlets characters has the largest impact on the story and plot out of all the other characters. It is his actions that set everything in motion for the rest of the play, for better or for worse. At the start of the play Hamlet is depressed about his father’s death and faced with is mother’s remarriage in put in an uncomfortable situation dealing with his new step father’s way of running the country. “O if only this far too solid body of mine would melt, thaw, and turn itself into dew...” it’s clear by these lines that Hamlet is expressing his want to just die and melt away from this situations he’s in.

In Act 2, Scene 2, a theatrical troupe arrives at the castle to perform a speech from Aeneid. Impressed with the player’s performance, Hamlet asks that the player act out a short speech he has written for the next day. Once alone, Hamlet undergoes an introspection that sheds light to his cowardly disposition. The soliloquy is divided into three sections: problem, cause, and resolution. Through his initial self-condemnation for being passive, Hamlet realizes the essence of his internal struggle and devises a plan to take action without having to go against his true nature.

In language, regardless of dialect, nationality, being written in literature or not, emotion is a component of language felt and displayed constantly. All words and phrases come with connotations and in any shape or form, emotion is always dispersed throughout language. In the work of one of the best at writing emotion in language, William Shakespeare holds many emotions within his writing at all times. A well rounded and sufficient example of this is his beautifully crafted play, Hamlet. In the play, Shakespeare utilizes the uses of metaphors, tone, and parallel structure to further Hamlet’s emotions of love, anger, and despair throughout the play.

Another way words hold power, found in Hamlet’s tragic flaw, is his use of words instead of action throughout the play. Seen most clearly in his soliloquies, Hamlet struggles with indecisiveness to act. Using them to understand reality, they serve as turning points in the story where he finally makes decisions on how to act. In his fourth soliloquy, Hamlet scolds himself on his inaction and commits to taking action against Claudius realizing that “examples gross as earth exhort me” (4.4.45). While being harmful, words are used to drive the action of the play in Hamlet.