Hamlet's Soliloquy

William Shakespeare's Hamlet is a complex play regarding the kingdom of Denmark, and the unusual stage it is going through. The main focus of the play concerns Hamlet, prince of Denmark, and his feeling of ambiguity toward his recently lost father and his remarried mother. Hamlet is a complicated character who plays assorted roles in order to manipulate people. These various roles make it problematic to develop a sense of the real Hamlet. Only during the soliloquies is the reader given a chance to understand Hamlet, they allow the reader to attempt to decipher who is the real Hamlet and what is an act. The first soliloquy allows the reader to initially delve into the character of Hamlet, by showing his anger and distaste towards his mother. The soliloquy also shows that, even through his anger, he is in a coherent state of mind.

Though this first soliloquy occurs rather promptly in the play, there are still a lot of proceedings that lead up to it. Hamlet comes back from school to find all is not well in the state of Denmark. His father has died a mysterious death, and his mother has already remarried his father's brother. In royal times it was customary to mourn the death of royalty for a year, yet his mother only waited two months to remarry. She not only waited two months, but she was committing what Hamlet and others considered incest. This anomalous marriage paired with the recent meeting whit his mother and stepfather, where Hamlet is embarrassed by Claudius, is the root of Hamlet's first soliloquy.

Hamlet is so burdened by all the recent occurrences, he contemplates suicide. He quickly decides that suicide is not an option because it is against God. This is evident when Hamlet says, "Or the Everlasting had not fixed/His canon 'gainst self-slaughter"(I.ii.131-132). Once Hamlet discards the idea of suicide due to its ungodly nature, his true thoughts on women specifically his mother come out.

Hamlets true thoughts about his mother's marriage quickly come out, he states, "Fie on't, ah, fie, 'tis an unweeded garden/That grows to seed. Things rank and gross in nature/Possess it merely"(I.ii.135-137). This clearly shows his distain toward the incestuous condition of his mother's marriage.

Hamlet is not just upset at his mother's marriage because of its incestuous sate, but also because of the type of man Claudius is. In the soliloquy hamlet says that though Claudius is the brother of king Hamlet, it is clear to him that no similarities between them. Hamlet compares his uncle to a satyr while his father he describes as a Hyperion, the sun god, a model of beauty. At this point, Hamlet has worked himself up so much that is no long just his mother he is troubled with. Hamlet is troubled by the whole species of women, which is very evident when he says, "Let me not think on't; fraility, they name is woman" (I.ii.146).

The essence of this soliloquy is not focused on the frailty of women or the incestuous