Hamlet Act II Scene 2
Hamlet, alone, enters the courtyard.
Hamlet. At last, detached, may I pause to muse
On all which has befallen since the moon
Where dead rose up to speak and living died.
If lies there strength within this yellow frame,
Let me obey, and bear what waves shall come.
All would I cede to bring revenge, but no!
What of my rose, must I forsake her too?
Would that this flushed heart might cease to ache,
So no choice would I be obliged to make,
For which love now deserves my soul?
To follow he who brought me to this world
Shall I desert a garden sealed as mine1?
Forswear the vow I made with each embrace
Refuse her smiles, eschew her touch and waste
No more long hours in dreams of what might lie
Ahead2? How could I masquerade for her,
As if she too were tainted with a vain
And ill-breeding nature and sought for life
In flap-mouthed falsehood and in pox-marked dreams.
Nay, she canst not be likened to the queen,
A soul putrefying3 from Judas’ Kiss4.
However, their female gender remains
As one the same; could weakness be their name?
Is she my compass in this sea of muck?
Or but a sail blown by the prevailing
Wind? Have we forged the chain that melds our hearts?
Or could many waters5 rend us apart?
If I could only trust our hearts to guide
Us through this valley of despair, yet how
Can I measure the scope of her amore--My last hope lives within her sparkling eyes.
If false, may I forevermore be stone6.
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1 Song of Songs 4: 12 “A garden shut up is my sister, my bride; a spring shut up, a
fountain sealed.”
2 Pun on the word lie, referring to Hamlet’s sexual desire for Ophelia
3 To render putrid; cause to rot or decay with an offensive odor.
4 biblical reference to Judas’ betrayal of Jesus
5 Song of Songs 8:7“Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.”
6 Allusion to Medusa’s eyes which turned anything they gazed upon to stone
Lucy Bergin
Mrs. Ingerslev
AP English C Block
5 January 2008
Metacognitive
I decided to write another soliloquy for Hamlet because I felt it necessary to
express his deep emotion for Ophelia in order to disprove all of the cynics in the
classroom. This plan was not my original, which would have set the scene of Ophelia’s
suicide. I am glad I deviated from my path, since I would have died if called upon to
follow up Lauren Stern’s beautiful depiction. I was actually inspired to write for Hamlet
because I realized halfway during vacation how much I could relate to him. The first few
months of school this year were terrible for me because I had too many things to do, too
much time, and too little motivation. A lot of personal issues were taking over my brain
and thus squeezing out every other thing to the point where it was difficult to function
normally. Hamlet suddenly made sense to me, and I became less and less afraid of trying
to mimic his ingenious speech and flip of the tongue. It was not just fancy wordplay, but
needed to have real emotion and turmoil lying underneath. Likewise, I am a romantic, not
just at heart, but all throughout my being, and I would not hold back from shouting it
from the rooftops if I felt it necessary. All through the reading of Hamlet, I was hoping
that he would finally pronounce his love for Ophelia, would see how blind he had been to
everything else in his mind, and not give up something so beautiful as their relationship.
So, this soliloquy stands as a testament to the hope that Hamlet did love Ophelia once,
and felt some sort of pain at having to push her aside.
Hamlet’s motivation during this soliloquy coincides with the text by providing the
reason for his running into Ophelia’s room half-naked to stare into her eyes. During this
soliloquy, Hamlet opens by expressing how cowardly he feels for not having acted on his
father’s ghost’s command for revenge. This makes perfect sense, since this soliloquy
could be the first time the audience has seen Hamlet since his conversation with the
ghost. I would assume that a few weeks have passed before we see him alone. Once
Hamlet boldly says that he would give anything to avenge his father, he suddenly thinks
of Ophelia. This is significant to the idea that he truly loves her, since she is the first thing
he is reluctant to give up. He bemoans how impossible it would be to treat her like
everyone else and to shun her love, since they were truly in love. But, in line with
Hamlet’s personality, he begins to over-think, and starts to question whether there is true
love, whether it is unbreakable and everlasting. During this whole rampage he begins to
tear at his clothing with increasing violence until he ends up in the state described later by
Ophelia to her father. At the very end of the monologue, I included the allusion to
Medusa in order to directly lead him to Ophelia’s room. The speech would therefore be
inserted as a separate scene, between Polonius’ scenes with Reynaldo and Ophelia. This
soliloquy explains how Hamlet got to the point of semi-insanity and provided the
motivation to confront Ophelia, and seemingly scare her to her wit’s end.
The allusions and metaphors that I included were my attempt to mimic
Shakespeare’s style of speech for Hamlet, and also provided further character
development. The inclusion of allusions to mythology that was a pattern in Hamlet’s
character was represented in my soliloquy by the reference to eyes that would turn
Hamlet to stone; however, I also chose to include biblical references. These were
supposed to accentuate a side of Hamlet not yet explored by Shakespeare at this point in
the play, his religious beliefs. My idea was that he would be more readily understood as
one with formal religious education and experience. That way, the moment when he
decides not to commit suicide purely based on fear of the afterlife, and not on religion,
would be a little more poignant, since he has already expressed his knowledge of the
bible. Also, two of my allusions (line 12, line 27) are from Song of Songs, also known as
Song of Solomon, which is a book for the lovers. This reveals how Hamlet could have
pored over its pages prior to his life’s transformations, since he can refer to them from
memory (more evidence that he is a romantic!) I also reference “Judas’ Kiss” (line 21),
which is symbolic not simply for betrayal, but betrayal to the utmost. Hamlet views his
mother’s marriage as being equal to Judas’ betrayal of Jesus, which then sets up his next
speech on the weakness of women, and the beginning of his intense disdain and distrust
of them as a whole. Allusions were a significant aspect of Hamlet, which I felt were
necessary to effectively express his character and emotions.
I also tried to incorporate the Shakespearian style with my word choice. I must
admit I give dictionary.com, which has an excellent thesaurus, the full credit for the
stinging words that bring my soliloquy more to life. Phrases such as “ill-breeding”, “flapmouthed” and “pox-marked”, and words like “stew”, “eschew”, “grime”, “detached”,
“cede”, “masquerade”, “forswear”, and “tainted” were carefully selected, since I thought
each to strongly convey my intents. I also tried to include such Shakespearian language
as “forevermore” and “canst”, and the style of putting verbs before subjects to give it the
formal style that makes Shakespeare so annoying to understand (and beautiful). Word
choice and sentence structure were manipulated in order to bring more of Shakespearian
language into my writing.
While I worked diligently on my own to create a monologue that would do justice
to Hamlet character and integrity, I also owe much of my success to my excellent editors.
Having the class edit my soliloquy, while nerve wracking because I was afraid no one
liked it when no one spoke, was also extremely helpful. I was guided to make more
comparison between Ophelia and Gertrude, as well as to write more at the beginning to
make a smoother transition to Hamlet’s emotions, which had been an idea I had toyed
with but initially rejected. Also, attention was brought to my allusions, which were
deemed fitting and intriguing, as well as my word choice, which while at first exemplary
in some cases, was lacking in others. My peer editors Lauren Stern and Eva Parish helped
me immensely on my second draft by singling out specific weak words and corruptions in
my iambic pentameter. It was also relieving to hear that someone else could not only
understand my intent for this soliloquy, but feel the emotion as well. I had great success
with editing this soliloquy.
In conclusion, I am proud of the work I have done. I feel that this is pretty great
writing, and having been inspired all throughout the whole writing process, I feel a sense
of contentment to finally hand it in. So far, this is my favorite assignment, and I hope that
my passion leaks out through the lines of my soliloquy. While it is interesting to be able
to understand Hamlet’s conflict and the sense of being weighed down so much by one
thing that everything important is pushed to the background, I am sad that Hamlet could
not save himself in time. His obsession resulted in the loss of love, friends, family, and
his life. Don’t worry; I pulled myself out of the slump a long time ago.