In the well-known quote ‘To be or not to be – that is the question’ refers to one of the best known quotes from the poem. The line also serves as an opening to one of the most famous soliloquy of “Hamlet. There, he reflects and contemplates his suicide act which may mark the end of his previous adversities. The words clearly exhibit his experienced emotions at the very particular moment in life. In general, the soliloquies serve as a platform for exhibiting emotions of Hamlet throughout the piece. The presence of the soliloquies in the poem is an expression of one of the most frequently used tools by Shakespeare for exposing the characters of the portrayed personas in his poems. In that regard, Hamlet is no exception and the soliloquies serve a powerful tool for understanding the personality of the character.
The power of Hamlet’s soliloquies is exposed throughout the whole poem. It is generally linked to the plot and the developments that take place and have a strong impact on the personality of Hamlet. For instance, when the character is dealing with the overcoming of the death of his father, and faces a new reality with his mother, he constantly undergoes the reflection process. In particular, he analyses the situation for himself, and the internal voice expresses the emotions sitting inside Hamlet.
For instance, when Hamlet was shaken by the upcoming marriage of his mother to his uncle Claudius rather soon after his father death, his emotions sparke. Moreover, he later learns that Claudius murdered his father for the sake of gaining the power. This was another important element in the poel that shook Hamlet and was later translated in the soliloquy. These kinds of dillemas are frequently related to the correlation between the ego and a superego for the main character who had to be prepared to respond to these challenges.
Overall, one may note the presence of 7 soliloquies in the ‘Hamlet’, and all of them are related to the challenging moments of Hamlet’s life. Moreover, all of them are overwhelmed with the experienced sadness, and serve as a form to express the grief and similar emotions of the main character. While deconstructing each of the soliloquies, one may note how honest and how revealing the personality of Hamlet is. For instance, when the main character exposes the grief for his father’s death, he is surely overwhelmed with the need to win the emotional battle of the loss and as well as to learn how to deal with the new reality. Moreover, the first soliloquy delivered by Hamlet demonstrates the audience him as an individual and portrays his character.
In particular, the first feature that can be noted about himself that Hamlet is very reflective and has a very particular position of delivering his position to others. For instance, the information on his father’s dealth comes together with the revelation on his mother’s remarriage. Besides the informative functions, the soliloquies also serve as a form of assessment of the ongoing reality. For instance, Hamlet notes ‘it is not, nor it cannot come to good’, referring to his mother’s remarriage. This clearly given an audience some understanding over the feeelings and emotions of Hamlet that were expressed through a soliloquy.
Another great strength of the soliloquies is that it shows not only the emotions expressed by Hamlet but also his characteristics. For instance, in the course of his speech, he frequently refers to the historic context and makes some allusions to the events that occurred in the past to his experiences at that moment. Some of such expressions were really powerful. For instance, when Hamlet compared his mother to Niobe, a character of the Greek mythology, his intellectual capacities were uncontested at that point. By expressing that through the soliloquy, Shakespeare aimed to demonstrate the intelligence of the young man. Moreover, by mixing these expressions during the speech, the audience received a clear indication of the power of the Hamlet’s character throughout the poem.
Another powerful time when the audience experiences the power of Hamlet’s soliloquy is in the 5th scene of act 1. At that time, Hamlet describes the encounter with the ghost with his father and the disturbed news he received at that time. The power of the soliloquy is exposed at the moment when he made a statement that he would wipe away all the trivial knowledge he possessed at that time. Specifically, when he notes in his speech ‘Adieu, adieu, remember me’, he refers to the fact of letting his knowledge and emotions go. For the audience, it is critically important to be aware of the power of that soliloquy line, as it shows the dialectics between the previously possessed knowledge, his personal memories of his father and the desires of the ghost. For the contemporary world, the soliloquy also illustrates that people may not always be what they seem at first, and one must be really careful while dealing with them.
The overall character of Hamlet is mostly exposed throughout all of the soliloquies in the poem. It demonstrates the strengths and the weaknesses, his previous desires and emotions of loniliness. There is much direct and indirect meaning hidden between the lines, too. In particular, one may not always be aware of what an individual personality may bring, but the deconstruction of the poem creates the way for understanding the width of an individual soul on Hamlet’s example.
- Shakespeare, William et al. Hamlet. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2008,.
