Introduction
Few if any characters in Western literature have been as analyzed – and as attractive – as Shakespeare’s Hamlet. He is intellectual and man of action, victim and instrument of revenge, scholar and ordinary man. He hates the circumstances moving him to avenge his father, but his outrage is still greater than this. Perhaps most significantly, and despite the urgency of the cause and the ghost’s demands, Hamlet is still slow to act. This would be at best difficult to understand if Shakespeare did not provide insights into Hamlet’s character in the seven soliloquies. In these moments of intense self-reflection, the reader or audience is enabled to perceive the tortured thoughts and speculations both defining his character and dictating what the prince does.
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Analysis
This is, ultimately, a character consistently drawn to obsessive reflection, both on his own state and on what he sees around him. While it is not reasonable to claim that his feelings or reactions are insincere, it is still true that, as the soliloquies support, he finds a kind of excitement in his own, reflective despair. The prince is, as has been widely noted, obsessed with role-playing (Kiberd 168), and there is always a quality of satisfaction as he entertains even his most morbid and angry thoughts. The first soliloquy, for example, expresses anger fueled by Hamlet’s own sense of righteousness, especially as he reviles his mother: “O God! a beast that wants discourse of reason,/ Would have mourn’d longer” (I, ii). He is so intent on judging her, he completely ignores possible motives validating Gertrude’s admittedly quick remarriage. Convinced of the truth of his outrage, then, Hamlet later frightens and abuses his mother, just as Ophelia, guilty of nothing more than being female, is made to suffer from his disgust.
The legendary soliloquy of Act III, in which Hamlet ponders the value of life when suicide is so attractive, certainly reflects his hesitancy in taking action; action itself, he considers, is meaningless, so the speech works to clarify how doubt leaves him uncertain as to what course to take. Equally importantly, however, the next soliloquy reinforces the prince’s increasing focus on his role in what is occurring, as well as his dissatisfaction with any non-sensational killing of Claudius: “A villain kills my father; and for that,/ I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven./ O, this is hire and salary, not revenge” (Shakespeare III, iii). This is extremely important in revealing character, and because Hamlet is expanding on his father’s wishes. The ghost wants only justice but Hamlet, encouraged by his mania of righteousness, wants more. This sixth soliloquy exists to underscore the hero’s evolution, and descent into real obsession. Here it is seen that: “Hamlet is the subject and object of his own quest” (Bloom 399). His father’s plea is used as a means to justify violence going beyond reasonable response, and because Hamlet is essentially lost within the duality of the roles he plays. This certainly explains the use of the actors to draw out the new king’s guilt earlier; the obsessed Hamlet wants everything, from confession and shame to death for the “villain.” Lastly, the final soliloquy’s lines, “Thinking too precisely on the event/ A thought which, quartered, hath but one part wisdom/ And ever three parts coward” (IV, iv).are actually an ironic commentary on his own obsessions as impeding action.
Conclusion
For centuries, scholars and ordinary people alike have explored the deeply troubled character of Hamlet. Shakespeare provides insights in the prince’s soliloquies and these, while clarifying to a degree Hamlet’s actions, also explain the character; they simply reveal a complex and obsessive nature greatly magnified by extreme circumstances. The emphasis is on psychological realism, of which Shakespeare was a master. Ultimately, then, the seven soliloquies allow the audience to perceive the disturbed, obsessive thoughts and speculations both defining Hamlet’s character and motivating how he acts.
- Bloom, Harold. Hamlet. Infobase Publishing, 2009.
- Kiberd, Declan. The Irish Writer and the World. Cambridge University Press, 2005.
- Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. n/d. Web. 6 Dec. 2016.
