Hamlet by William Shakespeare

In Act 2 Scene 2 of Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, Hamlet is working through emotional issues and struggles with balancing these internal thoughts. Claudius and Gertrude are very concerned about Hamlet’s actions at this point. In this part of the soliloquy, Hamlet is portrayed as a shrewd and logical young man. Hamlet chastises himself for displaying far less emotion and less resolve to avenge his father’s death than a mere actor who is only playing a part.

In the beginning of this soliloquy, Hamlet compares himself to an actor who displays passion with each word he says; Hamlet describes himself as “a rogue and peasant slave’ because “[the] player.../ But in a fiction, in a dream of passion/ Could force his soul so to his own conceit.”(2.2.577-580) Hamlet portrays himself as eloquent in speech and he also continues to display introvert qualities. He’s upset at the fact that this actor can stimulate such emotions and can react to such events seemingly easily, where as hamlet cannot. Throughout the novel, Hamlet shows hatred towards himself by wondering “Am I a coward?” and comparing himself to a “pigeon-livered” whom “lack galls” (2.2 604). The way that Hamlet behaves shows that he is conflicted with so many emotions.

At the end of the soliloquy, Hamlet comes up with a plan that will unveil Claudius’s sins and what he has done. This is a plot to determine if the ghost is telling the truth by attempting to see if Claudius is guilty of King Hamlet’s death by having the actors act out a scene that’s similar to the actual death of the King. Hamlet’s thoughts are leaning towards the fact that the ghost could potentially be a devil: “the spirit that [he has] seen/ May be the devil, and the devil hath power/ T’assume a pleasing shape”. Hamlet also believes that the devil may be out to punish him because he’s become weak, “ perhaps out of [his] weakness and [his] melancholy, as [the devil] is very potent