Hamlet "O What a Rogue and Peasant Slave Am I"

Shakespeare has created the act two soliloquy "O what a rogue and peasant slave am I" to give the audience deeper insights into Hamlets internal conflicts surrounding his attempt to fulfil his pledge of avenging his father's death. In this soliloquy Shakespeare has revealed Hamlet feelings of inadequacy due to his inability to act and the reasons behind his inaction. Shakespeare also uses this soliloquy to set up the play within the play as the climax at which point Hamlet will be forced to be the revenging son.
From the beginning of the play it is obvious that Hamlet is extremely depressed and disillusioned with the world around him. In this soliloquy however Shakespeare has introduced Hamlets internal judgement of himself for the first time. This is revealed through the first line of the soliloquy in the form of an insulting image that Hamlet links to his own character "what a rogue and peasant slave am I!" The use of this image immediately informs us that Hamlet is not the man he wants to be. Shakespeare has then used the image of the player who passionately acts even with no real motive as a foil to Hamlet to represent what Hamlet sees as flaws in his own character. "this player here, but in a fiction, in a dream of passion, could force his soul so to its own conceit". This effectively informs the audience that Hamlets feelings a inadequacy stem directly from his flaw, that is unable to commit the act of revenge and is instead procrastinating. Shakespeare reinforces this idea through the use of the rhetorical question "Am I a coward?" which also informs the audience of Hamlets judgement of himself due to his inability to act.
Shakespeare has also used the soliloquy to set up the coming play within the play as the climax by making it the time at which the Hamlets doubt of wheatear his father's ghost was the devil or not will be answered. Shakespeare has created a shift from a self abusing tone to one of practical thought to inform us that Hamlet has