Hamlet is a play written by William Shakespeare. In telling the story of a fatally indecisive character’s inability to choose the proper course to avenge his father’s death, Hamlet explores questions of fate versus free will, whether it is better to act decisively or let nature take its course, and ultimately if anything we do in our time on earth makes any difference. Once he learns his uncle has killed his father, Hamlet feels duty-bound to take decisive action, but he has so many doubts about his situation and even about his own feelings that he cannot decide what action to take. The conflict that drives the plot of Hamlet is almost entirely internal: Hamlet wrestles with his own doubt and uncertainty in search of something he believes strongly enough to act on. The play’s events are side-effects of this internal struggle. Hamlet’s attempts to gather more evidence of Claudius’s guilt alert Claudius to Hamlet’s suspicions, and as Hamlet’s internal struggle deepens, he begins to act impulsively out of frustration, eventually murdering Polonius by mistake. The conflict of Hamlet is never resolved: Hamlet cannot finally decide what to believe or what action to take. This lack of resolution makes the ending of Hamlet especially horrifying: nearly all the characters are dead, but nothing has been solved. Existentialism is one of the recurrent themes in this play. Existentialism is the philosophical study that begins with the human subject not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual. It has several themes which are perceived as typically or even uniquely modern traumas: existential alienation, isolation insecurity, the labyrinth of state bureaucracy, the corrupt or whimsical abuse of totalitarian power, the impenetrable tangle of legal systems, the absurdity of the word, the contingency of existence, the nightmare of inner subjectivity, the political oppression, existential angst, and existential alienation. In the view of the existentialist, the individual’s starting point is characterized by what has been called the existential attitude, or a sense of disorientation, confusion, or dread in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world. Throughout the play, Hamlet’s seven soliloquies are centered around the most existential themes.
Discussion
Hamlet displays the existential attitude throughout the play, especially in his soliloquies. In his first soliloquy of Act I, he contemplates the absurdity of the world,” How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world!” (1.2.136-137). The first soliloquy shows his anger deriving from his father, King Hamlets death and how his mothers Gertrude is remarried, feeling a sense of betrayal from his parents. In it, he expresses his disgust with his uncle’s marriage to his brother’s wife becoming King Claudius “Oh, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into dew, or that the Everlasting had not fixed His canon ‘giants self-slaughter!” (I, II, 129-132), Hamlet speaks of his life in this quote and how he wishes that he would die and let his flesh melt, but it’s unethical to commit suicide. Hamlet does not want to suffer with the grief of his dead father, King Hamlet and how easily his mother, Gertrude moved on in life without him. “Why she, even she o God, a beast that wants discourse of reason would have mourned longer! Married with my uncle” (I, II, 150-153), Hamlet speaks of how his mother Gertrude is remarried to King Hamlets brother, Claudius in less than a month of his death with no signs of agony which frustrates him. Hamlet is confused with anger toward his mother marrying, Uncle Claudius because she did it so hastily and he does not want to speak his feelings because it could upset her , “within a month, ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears had left the flushing in her gallèd eyes, she married…But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue.” (I, II, 155-161), this part of the soliloquy explains Hamlet’s feelings of his mother and how he doesn’t want to hurt her heart with his own consciousness. Throughout this Soliloquy Hamlets is first portrait as a discontent character with his feelings towards his Uncle Claudius, and his Mother Gertrude marrying him so quickly after her husband, King Hamlet’s death.
The second soliloquy in Hamlet that is witnessed would be in the first act when he talks to the apparition. Hamlet is told by Horatio that he has seen a man that looks like his father outside the castle walls at night; Hamlet is exhilarated with Horatio’s words
And decides to go see it himself. An apparition appears before Hamlet and reveals to him that he is, King Hamlet and that he was murdered by his own brother,
“Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother’s hand of life, of crown, of queen at once dispatched”(I, V, 74-75). This made Hamlet furious. The apparition leaves Hamlet alone and he begins to talk, “O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else? And shall I couple hell? Oh, fie! Hold, hold, my heart” (I, V, 92-94). Hamlet begins to have a soliloquy revealing that he is irritated and confused by everything around him, about heaven and hell keeping him alive, showing his tragic flaw which would be his sense of insecurity and indecisiveness. Hamlet can’t believe what the apparition has told him, but decides to deal with his vow to it, “So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word. It is Adieu, adieu. Remember me. I have sworn ’t”(I, V, 111-112). this part of the soliloquy reveals Hamlets vow and that he has to kill King Claudius, his Uncle. This Soliloquy reveals Hamlet’s confusion for his father’s death and triggers Hamlet to show his antic disposition characteristic and tragic flaw. Later on, he bemoans the responsibility he now carries: “The time is out of joint: O cursed spite / That ever I was born to set it right!” (I.v.189–190). This soliloquy reveals his existential attitude and his existential angst, as he is confused in the face of an absurd world, and the fact that knowledge is transformed by the very fact of knowing.
The third soliloquy is revealed in act two after the player’s leave and Hamlet is alone, “Oh, what a rogue and peasant slave am I! Is it not monstrous that this player here, But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, Could force his soul so to his own conceit”(II, II,509-512), this part of the soliloquy shows Hamlets tragic fall and how he could not match to the player that can act upon belief unlike Hamlet, who is insecure and indecisive towards himself. Hamlet then shows his antic disposition characteristic by wanting vengeance on Claudius for killing his father, King Hamlet. He decides to come up with a plan to reveal who killed his father, King Hamlet, so he created a play about the death of his father, “I’ll have these players play something like the murder of my father Before mine uncle. I’ll observe his looks.”(II, II, 557-559), Hamlet does this so he can make a decision to kill Claudius base off his reaction of the play. Hamlet’s an antic disposition character because of his undying will to find out who murdered his father and if the apparition was telling the truth about the death of his father. Hamlet is acting like a lunatic on purpose to perceive his family so he can get Claudius to confess about killing King Hamlet. In the third soliloquy, he speaks with Guildenstern and Rosencrantz, alluding to the existential creation of self, telling them “for there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so” (2.2.257). He reflects upon the essence of man, albeit sarcastically. Also in the same scene, Hamlet contemplates his alienation and his disappointment in his attempts to find his essence “Now I am alone. O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I” (2.2.542-543).
His fourth soliloquy is considered to be one of the most important and fundamental in English literature. It is quintessentially existential as he contemplates the very meaning of existence. His desperate question, “To be, or not to be,” occurs in Act 3, Scene 1, and is the most famous and celebrated because of its philosophical nature, questioning life and death–in short, existence. Hamlet’s dilemma is whether it is worth it to exist, and he weighs life’s worth against the nothingness of nonexistence as he toys with the idea of suicide. He wonders which is more appropriate given his desperate situation: to die and end his suffering, thus avoiding the cruelties of fate; or to put up a fight against the misfortunes of life. In considering the former, Hamlet states:” To die To die, to sleep—No more—and by a sleep to say we end the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep” (3.1.61-65).But when Hamlet considers the consequences of death and afterlife, he begins to examine the other option: life. He questions whether death is in fact an end to all his troubles, or if, perhaps, things may become worse as he is forced to reflect on all of the misdeeds and crimes he has committed throughout his life. He turns over the idea of death and questions if it is truly an eternal sleep or a hellish and unceasing restlessness. His obstacle, like all who contemplate death, is his fear of the unknown. In essence, dead men tell no tales, thus no matter how hard we try, man will never know what comes after the end of our life. He ruminates on this idea, thinking out loud:
“But that the dread of something after death, the undiscover’d country from whose bourn no traveller returns, puzzles the will and makes us rather bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all.”(3.1.79-85)
Hamlet, using the word “we” in “and makes us rather bear those ills we have,” aims to encompass all those who have sinned have considered death as a way out of their suffering. This fourth soliloquy partly explains the dilemma in Hamlet’s mind regarding his delay in executing the revenge of the Ghost and killing Kind Claudius. If Hamlet kills King Claudius, he believes that he’ll be dead too after killing him, and he is afraid of death because of the unknown consequences he mentions above. That is why is not able to make a decision on whether to execute the Ghost’s revenge or to endure his sufferings at this point in the play.
Hamlet’s fifth soliloquy falls in Act 3, Scene 2, when he is about to go to his mother’s chamber when he’s summoned. When Polonius was escorting Prince Hamlet to Queen Gertrude’s chamber, Hamlet asks for a moment alone and says that he will meet her mother in a short moment, and then in the moment alone, he delivers his short soliloquy in which he resolves to be brutally honest with her but not to lose control of himself. This short soliloquy focuses on the upcoming conversation between Hamlet and his mother, Queen Gertrude, and its preparation in Hamlet’s mind. Hamlet decides his course of action for the conversation with his mother. He vows to treat her harshly, but to refrain from harming her, saying, “I will speak daggers to her, but use none”(3.2.357) This soliloquy creates tension for the audience, who are unsure of how his first private meeting with his mother will turn out and how they will speak to each other.
In Act 3, Scene 3, we observe the sixth soliloquy of Hamlet. It arrives soon after, when he sees the King Claudius and draws a naked sword to kill him. Hamlet decides not to kill Claudius while he is praying, claiming that this would send him to heaven, which would not be a fitting punishment for a man who killed his father unprepared for death and sent him to purgatory. For Hamlet revenge must involve justice. It begins with a hypothetical ‘might’, as if he has already decided to take no action, confirmed by the single categorical word ‘No’ in line 87, the most decisive utterance in the play. He tells himself to wait for an opportunity and kill the King when he is “drunk, asleep, or in his rage, or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed, at gaming, swearing or about some act that has no relish of salvation in it”(3.3.73-96). If this is done, when the King Claudius will be killed, he will have to pay for his sins and misdeeds, and will be totally accountable for his crimes and that will justify the act of revenge and the promise the Prince Hamlet made to his beloved, dead father. Several themes are presents in this soliloquy as corruption and revenge, destiny and life’s purpose, and procrastination, display Hamlet’s logic for killing Claudius.
In the seventh soliloquy, Hamlet seeks the essence of man. This last soliloquy falls in Act4, Scene 4( line 73-96)and it takes place right after he has spoken to a Norwegian captain and learnt that young Fortinbras’ troops are about to invade some part of Poland in order to acquire a small territory which, according to the captain, “hath in it no profit, but the name.” The information given to Hamlet by the captain stimulates his thoughts of revenge and makes him scold himself for his inaction. He thinks that thousands of soldiers are ready for dying for a piece of land which indeed worth nothing, but on the other hand, Hamlet is equipped with a reasonable motive of revenge for his father’s death, but he is still unable to execute it. Hamlet says, by scolding himself: “How all occasions do inform against me/ And spur my dull revenge.” He believes that every person is to live with a purpose and they should fulfill it. “A man is no better than a beast if he is satisfied only with sleeping and feeding himself. God gave reason to human beings so that they may make use of it.” This soliloquy puts light on the fact that Hamlet is urging himself to take revenge, but a natural deficiency in him always thwarts his purpose. His generalizing and universalizing tendency, seen in his other soliloquies, is, once more, evident here also: “What is a man, If his chief good and market of his time/ Be but to sleep and feed?” Thus from the above soliloquies we come to a better understanding of the psyche of the character of Hamlet. Moreover, the soliloquies in Hamlet serve the purpose of expositing the audience the ongoing battle in the character’s mind, taking us into the depth of the character’s mind, and enabling to empathize with him, which could have been otherwise difficult to do.
Throughout the play, Hamlet essays to define man and his essence and to act with deliberation and responsibility as a man. Jean-Paul Sartre, a leading Existentialist declared, “Etre homme, etre responsable” [to be man is to be responsible], and Hamlet truly becomes responsible after he observes Fortinbars in Act IV,
“a delicate and tender prince, Whose spirit with divine ambition puff’d, makes mouths at the invisible event, exposing what is mortal and unsure to all that fortune, death, and danger dare, even for an eggshell.” (4.4.50-55)
For, he is inspired to find his essence as man. Declaring, “This is I, Hamlet the Dane,” Hamlet has found himself and is free. He accepts his existential responsibility and duels Laertes but is reconciled with him as King Claudius and his mother die. Hamlet gives his kingdom to Fortinbras, knowing this noble man will rule well. Hamlet the Dane creates his own essence and is liberated in death.
Conclusion
In essence, this research explains Hamlet’s seven soliloquies and there relation to the existential themes.
Citation
Anne, Camille, and Camille Anne. “The Portrayal of Hamlets Character in His Soliloquys Hamlet by William Shakespeare.” Academia.edu,
SparkNotes, SparkNotes, www.sparknotes.com/nofear/shakespeare/hamlet/page_184/
Meer, Syed Hunbbel. “Hamlet’s ‘To Be, or Not to Be’ Soliloquy and Summary.” Owlcation, Owlcation, 20 Nov. 2017, owlcation.com/humanities/Hamlets-Fourth-Soliloquy-Original-Text-Summary.
Khan, Mousir, and Mousir Khan. “Hamlet Examined Through Soliloquies.” Academia.edu, www.academia.edu/8416750/Hamlet_Examined_Through_Soliloquies.
“Keyword Analysis & Research: Summary of Hamlet.” Web Page Hit Counter, www.keyosa.com/search/summary-of-hamlet
SparkNotes, SparkNotes, www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/hamlet/section4/
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