Hamlet Soliloquy Analysis Essay
Hamlet Soliloquy Analysis
Before the soliloquy, Hamlet was going through a seemingly unpleasant conversation with his mother and Claudius, and Hamlet was asked to remain in Denmark as being opposed to continue his studies in Wittenberg (which was against his wishes). In the soliloquy Hamlet reveals his wish to fade away, or even to kill himself when shakespeare writes, “Oh, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew, Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter!” Also in the line, “How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world!” It reveals his feelings that he doesn’t take pleasure in the world, and that he sees no use in living on this planet. …show more content…
Overall showing the contempt to everything around him. With Hamlet grieving the loss of his father and his mother's unethical choices, it creates pathos to hamlet, thus developing the character of Hamlet. This soliloquy foreshadows that with all this pent up aggression in Hamlet, he might avenge his father and might even kill his mother in the process. Ever since the ghost of his father visited Hamlet, he has been motivated by melancholy and anger, foretelling that the only for Hamlet to gain vengeance is to act on his bitter emotions.
Modern Day Translation
Oh, if only my too too solid flesh would melt, thaw, and end up as dew, or if only the Everlasting Father had not forbidden suicide!
Oh God! God! How tiresome, stale, flat, and pointless everything in this world seems to me! A curse on it all! It's an untended garden that's gone to seed, completely overgrown with disgusting common weeds. That is should come to this! Just two months dead-no, not even that much, not even two! Such an excellent king! He was like a sun god, compared to this king who's half-man, half-beast. He was so loving to my mother that he wouldn't let the wind blow too roughly on her face. Heaven and earth! Must I remember? Why, she would hang onto him, as if the more she had of him the more she wanted. And yet, within a month… I don't want to think about it! Woman is just another word for weakness! One little month, even before the shoes were old in which she'd followed my poor father's corpse, weeping endlessly like Niobe in the Greek myth why she, even she… oh, God! A beast that can't even think with reason would have mourned longer! She married my uncle, my father's brother. But he's no more like my father than I'm Hercules. Within a month, before the salt of those hypocritical tears had been flushed out of her reddened eyes, she married. Oh, such wicked speed! To hurry so expertly into an incestuoous bed! It's not good; it can't come to any good. But you must break, my heart, since I must hold my
tongue.
Before the soliloquy, Hamlet was going through a seemingly unpleasant conversation with his mother and Claudius, and Hamlet was asked to remain in Denmark as being opposed to continue his studies in Wittenberg (which was against his wishes). In the soliloquy Hamlet reveals his wish to fade away, or even to kill himself when shakespeare writes, “Oh, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew, Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter!” Also in the line, “How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world!” It reveals his feelings that he doesn’t take pleasure in the world, and that he sees no use in living on this planet. …show more content…
Overall showing the contempt to everything around him. With Hamlet grieving the loss of his father and his mother's unethical choices, it creates pathos to hamlet, thus developing the character of Hamlet. This soliloquy foreshadows that with all this pent up aggression in Hamlet, he might avenge his father and might even kill his mother in the process. Ever since the ghost of his father visited Hamlet, he has been motivated by melancholy and anger, foretelling that the only for Hamlet to gain vengeance is to act on his bitter emotions.
Modern Day Translation
Oh, if only my too too solid flesh would melt, thaw, and end up as dew, or if only the Everlasting Father had not forbidden suicide!
Oh God! God! How tiresome, stale, flat, and pointless everything in this world seems to me! A curse on it all! It's an untended garden that's gone to seed, completely overgrown with disgusting common weeds. That is should come to this! Just two months dead-no, not even that much, not even two! Such an excellent king! He was like a sun god, compared to this king who's half-man, half-beast. He was so loving to my mother that he wouldn't let the wind blow too roughly on her face. Heaven and earth! Must I remember? Why, she would hang onto him, as if the more she had of him the more she wanted. And yet, within a month… I don't want to think about it! Woman is just another word for weakness! One little month, even before the shoes were old in which she'd followed my poor father's corpse, weeping endlessly like Niobe in the Greek myth why she, even she… oh, God! A beast that can't even think with reason would have mourned longer! She married my uncle, my father's brother. But he's no more like my father than I'm Hercules. Within a month, before the salt of those hypocritical tears had been flushed out of her reddened eyes, she married. Oh, such wicked speed! To hurry so expertly into an incestuoous bed! It's not good; it can't come to any good. But you must break, my heart, since I must hold my
tongue.