In Shakespeare's Hamlet, it is,
ironically, the soliloquies to Hamlet that propel the drama and action of the play
despite Hamlet's melancholic inertia. For, each soliloquy represents Hamlet's internal
meditations that do effect much of the drama. In Act I, Scene V, after Hamlet speaks
with the ghost, his resolve is passionate:
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...Remember
thee?
Ay, thou poor ghost, whiles memory holds a
seat
In this distracted globe. Remember
thee?
Yea, from the table of my
memory
I'll wipe away all trivial fond
records...(1.5.95-99)
And, at
the end of this soliloquy, Hamlet swears to his word. However, between this scene and
Act II, Scene 2, in which his next soliloquy appears, Hamlet has descended into a dark
melancholy in which "Man delights me not, nor woman neither" (2.2.300). However, after
a nonsensical banter of words with Polonius and, then, conversation with the actors of
the forthcoming play in which they agree to perform The Murder of Gondazo
with the insertion of lines that Hamlet has provided, the Prince of Denmark
is again alone with his own thoughts. This time his soliloquy is a rebuke of his lack
of action which he vowed to the ghost of his father. Hamlet reflects upon the tears of
the actor for a fictitious character--the passion he diplays even in a pretended
situation. Criticizing himself for his lack of passionate action for the very real
death of his father, Hamlet calls himself "A dull and muddy-mettled rascal" (2.2.524),
as well as a "coward." He berates himself as being a man who would let people call him
names because he is "pigeon-livered" and lacks the gall to summon up enough bitterness
to act upon his father's murder. But, after his self-rebuke, Hamlet again rouses
himself as in the previous soliloquy. As he sits down, an idea forms itself from what he
talked to the actors about--"the play's the thing":
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...I'll have these
players
Play something like the murder of my
father
before mine uncle. I'll observe his
looks.
I'll tent him to the
quick...
Out of my weakness and my
melancholy,
As he [the devil] is very potent with such
spirits,
Abuses me to damn me. I'll have
grounds
More relative than
this...
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.
(2.2.551-562)
Again, then,
Hamlet demonstrates resolve, although in the second soliloquy he must first criticize
himself for his inaction. In addition, while Hamlet professes resolve as in the first
soliloquy, this time it is with a distance as he has the players commit the actions,
rather than he doing so.
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