Hamlets Second Soliloquy Essay - 927 Words

HAMLET’S SECOND SOLILOQUY Coming immediately after the meeting with the Ghost of Hamlet’s father, Shakespeare uses his second soliloquy to present Hamlet’s initial responses to his new role of revenger. Shakespeare is not hesitant in foreboding the religious and metaphysical implications of this role, something widely explored in Elizabethan revenge tragedy, doing so in the first lines as Hamlet makes an invocation to ‘all you host of heaven’ and ‘earth’. Hamlet is shown to impulsively rationalize the ethical issues behind his task as he views it as a divine ordinance of justice, his fatalistic view reiterated at the end of scene 5 with the rhyming couplet ‘O cursed spite,/That ever I was born to set it right’. These ideas are†¦show more content†¦Most significantly though, is some absolute contrasts displayed here with Hamlet earlier on and with his first soliloquy. He declares all the ‘books’, ‘forms’ and ‘pressure s’ of his childhood and education as ‘baser matter’ despite having desired to go back to study at Wittenberg beforehand. Hamlet makes it clear that ‘[the Ghosts] commandment all alone shall live within the book and volume of [his] brain’ (the alliteration of ‘book’ and ‘brain’ adding a pronounced determination to his tone), the religious allusions presenting a complete displacement from the humanistic Christian values expressed in his comments on ‘the Everlasting’ fixing his ‘canon ‘gainst self-slaughter’ in his first soliloquy, where he also condemns his flesh as ‘too too solid’, the same ‘sinews’ that he now calls upon to ‘bear [him] stiffly up’. One of the Ghosts most poignant effects on Hamlet is pointed out by L.C. Knights in Hamlet and Death, where he explains that â€Å"Hamlet’s exclusive concentration upon things rank and gross and his consequent recoil from life as a whole determine his attitude to death, which also is purely one of negation†. While Hamlet declares the Ghost’s commandment will live in his brain ‘unmixed with baser matter’, he immediately switches to a vicious verbal assault on Gertrude as a ‘most pernicious woman!’ and Claudius as aShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Hamlets Second Soliloquy981 Words   |  4 PagesI Hamlets second soliloquy, we face a determined Hamlet who is craving revenge for his father. â€Å"Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat/ In this distracted globe. Remember thee!† Hamlet feels sorry for his father who was unable to repent of his sins and is therefore condemned to a time in purgatory. He promises his father that in s pite of his mental state (he is distracted, confused and shocked) he will avenge his death. He holds him in the highest regards because he sees his father asRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s Hamlet - Moral Idealism1159 Words   |  5 Pagestraits are visible in Hamlet’s behaviour throughout and reach their most palpable stage towards the end of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In each of Hamlet’s soliloquies, he’s left alone in an emancipated space with only his own thoughts, where the audience is able to grasp his continually undergoing change from a state of moribund feeling to purpose to dereliction of Hamlet’s duty to poise of his emotions and finally to the implementation of self-discipline. By being exposed to Hamlet’s various emotional changesRead MoreEssay On The Tragedy Of Hamlet1122 Words   |  5 Pagesâ€Å"Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder†{1.5.31}. This task from the ghost of Hamlet’s father becomes Hamlet’s main struggle throughout the course of the play The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare. This play takes place mostly in the royal castle of Denmark in the late middle ages. The play follows Hamlet in his quest to determine the truthfulness of the ghost and to avenge the death of his father. In the play, major characters include Hamlet, Claudius, GertrudeRead MoreHamlet Soliloquy1530 Words   |  7 Pagestime. In his plays, Shakespeare includes soliloquies, as they offer insight into the character, which cannot be done using dialogue. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet the seven soliloquies serve as the pillars of the play, the soliloquies introduce Hamlet’s character but also develop his character’s madness. Shakespeare’s use of blank verse, repetition, allusions and metaphors show that Hamlet is mentally unstable from the beginning of the play. Hamlet’s first soliloquy in Act One Scene Two is his fourth longestRead MoreHamlet Soliloquy Analysis Essay626 Words   |  3 Pagescharacters ever created. His intricacy can be seen in the amount of soliloquies he speaks throughout the play. 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The soliloquies function to advance theRead MoreHamlet Soliloquies and Their Analysis1527 Words   |  7 PagesHAMLET’S SOLILOQUIES THEIR ANALYSIS In the course of the play, Hamlet has seven long soliloquies. The first of these occurs before he has seen the Ghost. In this soliloquy, Hamlet reveals the grief that has been gnawing at his mind. He wishes that religion did not forbid suicide so that he could kill himself and be rid of this grief. He feels disillusioned with the world. â€Å"How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable, Seem to me all the uses of this world†. He deplores (condemns) theRead More Hamlets Soliloquies Essay665 Words   |  3 PagesHamlets Soliloquies The soliloquies spoken by Hamlet were directed to the audience, rather than seeming like conversations with himself. In the first soliloquy, Hamlet talks about how aggravated at life he is and that if it weren’t for God’s laws he would commit suicide. He is not really morning his fathers death in this soliloquy but more his disgust for his mother for marring his uncle especially a few months after his father’s death. He then goes on to explain he must remain silentRead MoreInvestigating the Function of the Main Soliloquies in Shakespeares Hamlet1614 Words   |  7 PagesInvestigating the Function of the Main Soliloquies in Shakespeares Hamlet â€Å"Hamlet† is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare in around 1601 when Queen Elizabeth the first was on the throne. In the play we see the royal court of Denmark becoming more and more corrupt with ghosts, murder, madness and incest, culminating in the highest death toll in any of Shakespeare’s plays. The lead character of Hamlet is an intellectual whose aim in the play is to avenge his father’sRead MoreHamlet Soliloquy Analysis Essay524 Words   |  3 PagesHamlet Soliloquy Analysis As Act I of Shakespeares Hamlet concludes, a conversation between the protagonist Hamlet and the ghost of his deceased father, King Hamlet occurs. In response to the ghosts request for Hamlet to take revenge, Hamlet shares his thoughts with the audience in a soliloquy. Through vows and promises, Hamlets oral reaction to the Kings request exposes his full will for revenge. In addition, Hamlets word-choice begins to exhibit the blind passion