What Is the Significance of Hamlet's Soliloquies?
What is the significance of Hamlet’s soliloquies?
Before Hamlet I had read three other Shakespeare plays - Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and King Lear. Hamlet is often renowned for being one of the best if not the best of Shakespeare's plays. At the same time it is a notoriously difficult play to study because of the complex themes and ideas that lie at its heart. Having now read and studied the play in class I feel inclined to say that these very general and stereotypical opinions about Hamlet are ones I share - I found it by far the most interesting and engaging of the four plays I have read. Equally at times I found getting to grips with the language and concepts a struggle.
Hamlet is such an intriguing play because we, the audience, are given direct access to the thoughts and feelings of the very troubled and emotional protagonist. This access comes primarily through Hamlet's four soliloquies that are crucial in providing us with some degree of understanding about what Hamlet really thinks, what drives him, and the psychological dilemmas he faces. Ultimately he is such a truly complex character, that even after studying the soliloquies it is impossible to understand certain aspects of him completely and definitely. I shall now look at the four soliloquies in turn.
The first soliloquy takes place in Act I, Scene ii. In the early part of the scene the audience witnesses a jovial court display in which King Claudius and his new wife Gertrude celebrate their recent marriage. The King and Queen behave as if nothing is out of the ordinary, and their courtiers desperately attempt to create a joyous and relaxed occasion. Despite the attempts of courtiers, King and Queen, the celebratory atmosphere seems somehow superficial to the audience. It strongly contrasts with the dark, ghostly atmosphere created in the previous scene, and the idea that Claudius believes in combining the ideas of "mirth in funeral" and "dirge in marriage" is very unnatural –
Before Hamlet I had read three other Shakespeare plays - Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and King Lear. Hamlet is often renowned for being one of the best if not the best of Shakespeare's plays. At the same time it is a notoriously difficult play to study because of the complex themes and ideas that lie at its heart. Having now read and studied the play in class I feel inclined to say that these very general and stereotypical opinions about Hamlet are ones I share - I found it by far the most interesting and engaging of the four plays I have read. Equally at times I found getting to grips with the language and concepts a struggle.
Hamlet is such an intriguing play because we, the audience, are given direct access to the thoughts and feelings of the very troubled and emotional protagonist. This access comes primarily through Hamlet's four soliloquies that are crucial in providing us with some degree of understanding about what Hamlet really thinks, what drives him, and the psychological dilemmas he faces. Ultimately he is such a truly complex character, that even after studying the soliloquies it is impossible to understand certain aspects of him completely and definitely. I shall now look at the four soliloquies in turn.
The first soliloquy takes place in Act I, Scene ii. In the early part of the scene the audience witnesses a jovial court display in which King Claudius and his new wife Gertrude celebrate their recent marriage. The King and Queen behave as if nothing is out of the ordinary, and their courtiers desperately attempt to create a joyous and relaxed occasion. Despite the attempts of courtiers, King and Queen, the celebratory atmosphere seems somehow superficial to the audience. It strongly contrasts with the dark, ghostly atmosphere created in the previous scene, and the idea that Claudius believes in combining the ideas of "mirth in funeral" and "dirge in marriage" is very unnatural –