Hamlet's Soliloquy Essay

This soliloquy is spoken by Hamlet in Act III, scene I (58–90). In Hamlets speech he forms many connections to the play’s major themes, including the idea of suicide and death, the difficulty of obtaining the truth from a spiritually ambiguous universe, and the connection between thought and performing an action. In this Hamlet makes very good argumentative points as to why suicide cannot be the answer to solve his problems. He effectively provides evidence of both options as whether to commit the act of suicide or not and the results that may possibly follow either choice. For me this creates a very interesting image of a man so intellectually conscious of his actions and the results that follow them, when the act of suicide is often determined
through emotions, rather than thought and logic.
In the story Hamlet’s role is the Prince of Denmark, the title character, and the protagonist. Hamlet is the son of Queen Gertrude and the late King Hamlet, and the nephew of the present king, Claudius. Hamlet is bitter, cynical and full of hatred for his uncle’s interest for his mother’s sexuality. An observant and thoughtful young man, Hamlet is often indecisive and hesitant when it comes to making decisions, but at other times well known for his impulsive acts.
In the beginning of his speech Hamlet considers whether to commit suicide in a logical sense; “To be, or not to be (62),” meaning, either to live or to die.
Then he determines the moral consequences of both living and dying. It is known to be a more noble deed to suffer through life, “The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune (64),”then to actively attempt to end one’s suffering. He then compares death to sleep, thinking of how it may bring his suffering to an end, “The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks, That flesh is heir to (68-69).” This metaphor is used here to determine that suicide in this situation is a necessary action, “a consummation, Devoutly to be wished.” (69-70) But the word “devoutly” used here suggests that there is more to the question, reflecting on what may happen in the afterlife. Hamlet quickly realizes he mistake of misinterpretation as he reconfigures the metaphor of sleep to include the possibility of dreaming, “To sleep, perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub, For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause”. (71-74) He then decides that the uncertainty of the afterlife, which is closely related to the theme of attaining truth in a spiritually unruly world, this difficulty is essentially what prevents humanity from simply committing suicide in any situation with the efforts of ending their pains of life. He outlines a long list of pains from his life experiences, ranging from lovesickness to political oppression. Hamlet asks who would choose to endure those pains if peace could be obtained with the swift act of a knife, “When he himself might his quietus make, With a bare bodkin? Who would these fardels bare”. (81-82) In answering his own question he says, no one would choose to live through their miseries if they didn’t have to, “But that the dread of something after death” (84) is the only conscious thought that makes people resistant to the suffering taking place
in their lives. Rather than travel to another state of living in the afterlife which possibly could turn out to be even more miserable. Hamlet concludes in the end of his soliloquy that the dreadfulness of afterlife leads to extreme moral consciousness, which makes for the act of action towards ending life impossible “Thus conscience does make cowards of us all: And thus the native hue of resolution, Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought.” (89-91)
As I observed the play of Act 3 Scene 1 on YouTube as presented by David Tennant I saw the real emotion, thought and seriousness that was portrayed in Hamlets speech. In presentation of the play you are given a very good visual to set the mood and setting of Hamlet at that moment. In the performance the emotions are sincerely brought to real life, through the slowness of the scene, the pauses Tennant applies and his tone of voice. I feel Tennant in the performance of Hamlet presents a very good job in conveying the emotions, intellect and tone that you don’t get from simply reading the play lines.
In conclusion, this famous speech delivered by Hamlet is important to the overall tone of the play for what it reveals about the quality of Hamlet’s thoughts. It shows in both the speech and the performance given by Tennant the character of Hamlets intense nature is complemented alongside a logical understanding of emotions and pain in life. These two traits of being strong willed and logically mindset work together in formulating a solution for Hamlet’s troubles once we get to the end of the play. In his speech Hamlet delivers a logical and powerful examination of the reoccurring theme reflected on throughout the play of suicide and its moral justification in a cruel world. The idea of reoccurring themes is an important aspect to our class as many other plays also follow the same use of theme, clarifying the internal message and idea of a work.