Shakespeare .....! Again (an essay) .

Can we understand Hamlet’s Character through his soliloquies?



A soliloquy is a literary device often used in drama whereby a character relates his or her thoughts without addressing any of the other characters. Soliloquy is distinct from monologue and aside . Shakespeare is one of the most eminent English writers and in many countries he is well know for his plays: Hamlet, Macbeth and Romeo & Juliet. In those plays we can come across some of the most famous soliloquies in English literature. In Hamlet tragedy, Shakespeare intensively focuses on Hamlet’s as a central character; leaving the door open to some critiques to believe that Hamlet is a mad man. Shakespeare used the soliloquies to draw an indecisive, hesitant, doubtful and in contrast a loyal character, Hamlets loyalty to his loving father begins the plot. In this essay I brought together two famous Soliloquies in attempt to understand the character of Hamlet better.
The Summary of Hamlet
Hamlet is a serious drama gradually, during the scenes, transforms to tragedy. It is a multi- theme drama where the themes of the plot cover indecisiveness, revenge or retribution, deception, ambition, loyalty and fate. The story can be summarized in: - Prince Hamlet mourns both his father's death who died two months before the start of the play and his mother, Queen Gertrude's marriage to Claudius his uncle. The ghost of Hamlet's father appears to him and tells him that Claudius has poisoned him. Hamlet swears revenge. He kills Polonius while he was spying on him from behind a curtain in his mother’s room. Hamlet hears Polonius while talking to his mother, and kills Polonius through the curtain, thinking the person was Claudius. Polonius's son Laertes returns to Denmark to avenge his father's death. Polonius's daughter Ophelia loves Hamlet but his behaviour drives her to madness. Ophelia dies by drowning. A sword duel takes place between Laertes and Hamlet ends in: the queen dies, screaming that she has been poisoned and Laertes, dying, declares of Claudius' deceit. Hamlet fatally stabs Claudius, Laertes dies, and Hamlet begins his death speech. Though Horatio wants to commit suicide out of sorrow, Hamlet requests him to tell the story of King Hamlet's death and the whole story to all. Fortinbras, the prince of Norway, arrives from conquest of England, and Hamlet's last dying wish is that Fortinbras become the new King of Denmark, as happens.

First Soliloquy
Act 1 Scene2: O, that This Too Solid Flesh Would Melt (Spoken by Hamlet lines129-158)
O, that this too solid flesh would melt
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two:
So excellent a king; that was, to this,
Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
Must I remember? why, she would hang on him,
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on: and yet, within a month--
Let me not think on't--Frailty, thy name is woman!--
A little month, or ere those shoes were old
With which she follow'd my poor father's body,
Like Niobe, all tears:--why she, even she--
O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourn'd longer--married with my uncle,
My father's brother, but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules: within a month:
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
She married. O, most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
It is not nor it cannot come to good:
But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.

"O That This Too Solid Flesh Would Melt" Soliloquy Translation:
He wished that his body would melt, turn to water and become like the dew. Or that God hadn't forbidding suicide. How exhausted, stale, flat and useless everything about life seemed! It was awful for him. The world was full of draught and only ugly disgusting things flourished. He couldn't believe what had happened. Only two months dead; no, not even two. In a moaning mode he compared his father to his uncle (the new king) the comparison was like to compare a good God Hyperion, the sun God, to a lusty person. Then Hamlet explains how he cares for his mother that he wouldn’t allow a gentle breeze from Heaven to touch (roughly) her face. He talked about his mother’s love and adoration to his father and how he can’t believe (He couldn't bear to think about it) that she’s forgotten him so quick. Women were so contradictory, even before the shoes with which she had followed his father's body were old, Even an animal would have mourned longer she married his uncle compared to his father who was like Hercules. In a sinful speed she rushed to the (incestuous sheets) referring to the marriage to his uncle.

In the above soliloquy there is an ongoing internal conflict in Hamlet’s mind, the soliloquy is not only about suicide but it also indicates loneliness and certain amount of confusion. Also, the confusion was only because the period of time between the two events was not long to Hamlet or we can say his grieve upon his father was still there. His feeling of uselessness may be because he wasn’t able to stop the marriage. He expresses himself and his desire to know the reason that made his mother swiftly turn to his uncle’s arms. There is a great amount of questioning and confession in this soliloquy as well as the contradictory thoughts that Hamlet’s mind is full with. The other thing was his loyalty to his father which appears in the comparisons he made. Until that time he was still mourning his father and that shows again the real love of Hamlet to his father.

Osama
TBC

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