Why Is Hamlet's Second Soliloquy In Now I Am Alone

Hamlet’s second soliloquy of the play is very interesting because it is full of a raging spirit and the object of Hamlet’s ire is himself. Hamlet’s speech is fueled by his own rage of thinking on the ghost of his father and its missive. It (the speech) is also furthered by his impression of the player who just recently before gave his impassioned speech. Hamlet is livid with himself and it truly shows in his second soliloquy. The beginning phrase of the soliloquy (“Now I am alone”) is rather interesting. It could truly be Shakespeare conveying to his (rather uneducated) audience that the character on the stage is actually, physically alone and no one will hear or see him or it could be something deeper - he is mentally alone, emotionally alone. He is alone because
he, alone, heard the directions of the ghostly King Hamlet and he is alone because he can confide the directions of revenging the murder to anyone. His simple comment could, in four words, be the revealing moment of the bare essence of Hamlet’s character - he feels that no one understands him because of his situation and therefore he is alone. The tone of the statement also seems to be sad and simple. It is a quick utterance of pure depression. However, the prince goes on to deliver an emotionally charged speech that is full of shouting and exclamations. This juxtaposition between the quick “Now I am alone” and the melancholy feel to the words and the powerfully exclaimed anger that follows shows how quick Hamlet can be to change mindsets and trains of thought. Hamlet begins by calling himself a “rogue and peasant slave” because of his reaction to the player. Hamlet is appalled by how quickly the player could make himself into the character he was aiming to portray and how he could let that character envelop his entire being - becoming pale in the right moments, crying in the right moments - all for the mere purpose of art and entertainment. All for Hecuba! All for nothing! And yet, here is this prince, this man, who has been told that his father was murdered by his uncle in order to claim his titles, lands, crown, and queen.
He has been told to avenge his father, and yet, this man is unable to do so. Hamlet has been unable to devise a plan in which he can trap Claudius and exact the revenge required by the phantom King Hamlet. He, Hamlet, a prince and son to a dead, disgraced father cannot sum up the energy to exact revenge, but a mere common player can stand before a group and blanch, weep, and go hoarse all for the sake of entertainment. Hamlet thinks it “monstrous” that this is so. He goes on to continue that the player would “drown the stage in tears and cleave the general ear with horrid speech” if he knew what Hamlet’s burden. He is thinking that the player was so skilled that he could have the entire kingdom revolting against Claudius in a five-minute speech than Hamlet has done in two acts of a play! Hamlet is upset and angry with himself because this is so. He has let the vile King out of his sight too many times when he could have taken revenge, but he has failed to do so. Hamlet’s soliloquy reflects this anger at failure theme in Act II, Scene
2. Hamlet is angry with himself and calls himself “pigeon livered” and says that he lacks “gall” and that is an “ass” and that instead of taking action and plotting to overthrow King Claudius in the name of goodness and justice, he must “unpack his heart with words” like a whore. This anger within himself stems from Hamlet’s inaction throughout the beginning of the play. Finally, Hamlet devises a scheme in which he might trap Claudius’s “conscience” once and for all with a play set by the players that will reflect the murder of his father. He comes up with this to be double sure that the ghost of the late king was indeed telling the truth and not the devil. He needs “grounds more relative than this” in order to pursue his revenge and so Hamlet ends his soliloquy entailing the forthcoming act and how it will help him get along in taking his long coming revenge.