An Analysis Of Hamlet's Soliloquy At The End Of Act 2
The young prince of Denmark, Hamlet has recently lost his father. Right after this depressing event, his uncle, Claudius, takes over the entire property of his past away father: his crown and his wife (Gertrude) who is Hamlet's mother. This chain of heartbreaking misfortunes leaves deep wounds on the soul of young Hamlet and his soliloquies, allowing the audience to enter his agitated mind, revealing these spiritual scars. This soliloquy is the closing part of the second act and points out the inner feelings of the prince Hamlet being affected by the tremendous acting of the player which was full of meaning to him. This soliloquy can be divided into two parts: the first part deals with Hamlet being amazed by the passion of the player toward Hecuba "The queen of Troy", imagining how he would behave if he were in his situation. The second part of soliloquy deals with Hamlet's self censure and his anger headed for his uncle. The tone of this soliloquy is of self criticism and can be sensed from the very first line where Hamlet expresses himself as "rouge" and "peasant salve". Through using different techniques, Shakespeare seeks to maintain this tone from first to last of this soliloquy: One of the tools he uses to achieve this goal is by the means of exclamations made by Hamlet. For instance some of these exclamations are: "all for nothing! For Hecuba!", "O, vengeance!" and "What an ass I am!" The further skill Shakespeare utilizes in order to accomplish this tone of rebuke is by the means of the rhetorical questions that Hamlet asks himself. Such as: "What's Hecuba to him or, he to Hecuba?", "What would he do, had he the motive and the cue of passion that I have?" and the series of questions he asks himself in the third paragraph.
The last literary device used by Shakespeare to preserve this tone of self-criticisms is through using proper