This soliloquy is the closing part of the second act and points out the inner feelings of the prince Hamlet being affected by the tremendous acting of the player which was full of meaning to him.
This soliloquy can be divided into two parts: the first part deals with Hamlet being astonished by the passion of the player toward Hecuba "The queen of Troy", imagining how he would behave if he were in his situation. The second part of soliloquy deals with Hamlet's self censure and his anger headed for his uncle.
The tone of this soliloquy is of self criticism and can be sensed from the very first line where Hamlet expresses himself as"rouge" and "peasant salve". Through using different techniques, Shakespeare seeks to maintain this tone from first to last of this soliloquy: One of the tools he uses to achieve this goal is by the means of exclamations made by Hamlet. For instance some of these exclamations are: "all for nothing! For Hecuba!", "O, vengeance!" and "What an ass I am!"
The further skill Shakespeare utilizes in order to accomplish this tone of rebuke is by the means of the oratorical questions that Hamlet asks himself. Such as: "What's Hecuba to him or, he to Hecuba?", "What would he do, had he the motive and the cue of passion that I have?" and the series of questions he asks himself in the third paragraph.
The last literary device used by Shakespeare to preserve this tone of self-criticisms is through using proper diction or the set of words that reveals this tenor. Shakespeare uses a variety of diction on behalf of Hamlet, like "dull",