Trever Barnes
11/12/2015
HELP RECEIVED:
What is the reason that you use me thus?; An Analysis of the Development of Emotion and Thoughts in
Hamlet Through Soliloquys, Structure, and Rhetoric Devices
Word Count:
When writing an essay on Shakespeare’s Hamlet earlier this year, many questions came about in
regards to Hamlets character development. As Hamlet developed through the length of the play, it is
important to pay attention to the effect in which his soliloquys had in this development, and how they
assisted in his problem solving by guiding him towards an answer to his problems. All of Hamlet’s
soliloquys were unique, using stressed and unstressed syllables with a rhetorical device called meter.
With the use of meter, Shakespeare is able to insert a wide variety of emotions through Hamlet’s
dialogue, allowing Hamlet to convey his internal thoughts feelings and emotions as he tackles the inner
turmoil of self-identity within, solving his internal dilemmas and discovering himself throughout the
progression of the play. With the combination of rhetorical devices and strategies throughout Hamlet’s
soliloquys, Shakespeare was able to reveal the inner turmoil, thoughts, feelings, and emotions, setting
the mood for the character for the entirety of the play, while the formatting and use of devices also
aided in his development of Hamlet as a character. With the combination of all these devices, Hamlet
reveals many emotions to the audience by collecting his own thoughts and trying to resolve the internal
conflicts that he is facing. In performing soliloquys, Hamlet is able to problem solve and solve the
internal dilemmas, turning a seemingly straightforward contemplation of suicide towards the underlying
problem of revenge.
When paying close attention to Hamlet’s first soliloquy, “O that this too too solid flesh
would melt…” (i.ii), it becomes apparent of Shakespeare’s use of meter from the very beginning, as he
uses many pauses and stops in order to achieve the emotional effect in which he does. The use of
commas and exclamation points create dramatic pauses in his speech, with these pauses, a short break
from the emotion that he is flooding to the audience. The emotional disturbance in Hamlet's character
is amplified by severely altering the meter with exclamations that create the divide and sentence
fragments, using a device called a caesura (Mortensen). Shakespeare’s use of meter strengthens
Hamlets perceived emotional instability to the crowd.
"O that this too too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw,
and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter!
O God!”
When viewing his first soliloquy with the use of meter and rhetoric devices affecting how it was
read, the apparent madness of his thoughts can be seen. In using this rhetoric strategy, Hamlet was
able to convey heavy emotions when going through his internal thought process.
On one end,
Shakespeare could have been using meter throughout this soliloquy in order to strengthen the appeal of
Hamlets melancholy and depict him as a mad man. A second perception can be argued in saying that
Hamlet himself was witty and a great actor of sorts, putting on a show for those around him and using
meter to seemingly appear mad (Hudson). With either of these views however, the use of meter in
Hamlet’s first soliloquy allowed the amplification and strengthening of emotion throughout, being used
to depict Hamlet’s extreme state of depression and madness over his father’s death.
When viewing the complete structure of the first soliloquy, Hamlets collective thought process
followed pattern through many of his initial thoughts, battling with his own existing and being, teetering
on the idea of life or death. While this was his initial thought, his rational thinking always allowed him to
work beyond those thoughts and reach a conclusion, getting that much closer to the underlying issues
(Champion). By paying close attention to his first soliloquy, “Oh that this too solid flesh would melt,”
once more, We see firsthand Hamlets development away from suicidal thoughts to discovering an
internal issue, getting closer to the revenge piece that drives the play. When viewing the same opening
line analyzed in the previous paragraph, much more about Hamlet’s demeanor can be interpreted. With
this quote, we see Hamlet’s initial contemplation of suicide quickly be retracted, as he, states it is
against gods will to commit “self-slaughter”. After retracting his ideas of suicide, he begins to discuss his
issues with his mother, bringing up her ease to move on from his father so easily and his disliking
towards her for such actions. In discussing his mother and her moving on, Hamlet skirts close to the
distrust not to his own mother, but to Claudius for what he has done to his family. Being his first
soliloquy, Hamlet is still very fresh in his development of thought, as he has yet to expand and learn
more through the developing scene around him.
When comparing the developing thoughts from Hamlets first soliloquy to his last, you are able
to see the initial development leading to a final product of complete thought, realization, and coming to
a decision. In Hamlet’s final soliloquy following his encounter with Fortinbras, he states:
When honour’s at the stake. How stand I then,
That have a father kill’d,
a mother stain’d,
Excitements of my reason and my blood,
And let all sleep? while, to my shame,
I see the imminent death of twenty thousand men,
That,
for a fantasy and trick of fame,
Go to their graves like beds,
fight for a plot whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
Which is not tomb enough and continent
To hide the slain?
O,
from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth! (4.4.32-67)
By restructuring this quote to follow the way in which the meter intends for it to be
read, a stronger sense of drama can be added to Hamlets revelation on his need to act swiftly on his
revenge from this moment on (Mabillard). That is what makes Hamlets final soliloquy a final product on
the converging ideas from each one previous. As he lead up to this final revelation for revenge, he never
truly was able to pinpoint the internal issues within. Through his many soliloquys, he was seen
contemplating life versus death, distrust towards his friends, hate towards Claudius, and the morality of
his decisions. In the concluding lines of this final soliloquy, Hamlet is finally realizing it is morally ok to kill
a man who unjustly murdered his father, as men before him go out and die in clutches for a meaningless
patch of land, so basically nothing.
In addition to better conveying Hamlet’s apparent emotional madness and melancholy,
Shakespeare’s use of meter also did a good job at revealing Hamlets dark thoughts, plans and feelings
towards other characters. While the use of a soliloquy allows a character to reveal his plans to the
audience and generate dramatic irony, emotion would be void without meter.
Through use of meter,
Hamlet reveals many emotions to the audience such as guilt, anger, and cowardice towards Claudius as
he compiles together a plan to take his revenge (Mabillard). It is the content of this soliloquy that makes
its language so powerful, as here Hamlet finally reveals his true internal conflict, and the conflicting
feelings, which prevent him from carrying it out. Combining Hamlet’s strong emotions with literary
devices such as metaphors, similes, and a synecdoche, Shakespeare was able to create a strong and
emotional protagonist by creatively revealing his thoughts and emotions. In doing so, the reader is
capable of connecting with Hamlet on an emotional level and more sympathetic to the cause.
While meter played an important role in conveying emotion throughout his soliloquys, the
structure in which they were presented to the reader came into effect as well, as the emotional reveal in
some cases displayed Hamlet’s insanity, while in others, revealed his ability to rationalize and avoid
irrational decision making. The structure of Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy was pieced together
in such a way that Shakespeare’s use of meter was maximized for emotional reveal. With the use of
soliloquys, Hamlet revealed his thoughts to the audience as he collected them within himself. In this his
soliloquys had structure and revealed emotions with a similar pattern. After collecting his thoughts,
Hamlet would go raving with madness and insanity. This is seen with his use of exclamation points and
caesuras, rhetoric devices that emphasized his anger and madness (Hudson). While Hamlet spoke in
meter, his demeanor and character developed from rational thought to madness, yet he was always
capable of recovering thoughts and emotions. This is how Hamlet was able to establish himself as a very
levelheaded character, as he was able to talk himself down and resolve his issues using soliloquys. In
using the order of emotional reveal to the audience, we see the inner struggles he has with dealing with
the issues and his ability to resolve them without acting out of place. In doing so he establishes himself
not as a character who has gone mad, but one who is very capable of using speech and reasoning to
problem solve.
When problem solving, Hamlets many soliloquys contributed to his ability to reason and get
closer to addressing the real issue to his problems, as he was never truly contemplating “to be or not to
be”, but rather the idea of revenge and whether it’s justifiable or not. With each sequential soliloquy
Hamlet developed his thoughts and ideals, diverging away from the thought of suicide, and more
towards his actions or right and wrong, contemplating the internal problems facing the morality of
committing murder by acting on his plans for revenge.
While Hamlet’s use of soliloquys was successful in conveying his thoughts and feelings,
it was also useful in being able to help him reason and solve his dilemmas by talking out his issues. One
interesting fact to note about Hamlet through observation, Out of Shakespeare’s many tragedies, he is
portrayed as one of the most depressive and suicidal of all tragic heroes, yet not once does he ever
commit to the act of suicide. This ability to not act on a rash decision can be contributed to his use of
soliloquys, as Hamlet has six total throughout the entire play, more than any other character in any of
Shakespeare’s plays (Spradley). With the use of soliloquys, not only was Hamlet able to convey his
thoughts and feelings to the crowd and generate dramatic irony, but also in giving his soliloquys he was
able to reason, solve and figure out his internal dilemmas, ultimately solving his problems by talking
through them internally. In doing so, Hamlet was able to talk himself out of acting irrationally.
Hamlet’s ability to reason and figure out his internal dilemmas by talking through his soliloquys
can be seen heavily in his soliloquy while stalking Claudius, “Now might I do it pat, now he is praying…”
Throughout this soliloquy, we see Hamlet using reasoning and talking himself through his decisions
before acting, something not seen in Shakespeare tragedies as characters typically act irrationally.
Up, sword;
and know thou a more horrid hent:
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’t;
It is here in this soliloquy that Hamlet talks himself out of making quick, spur of the moment
decisions. In this soliloquy in particular, he battles with himself on whether he should or should not take
his revenge on Claudius. Initially he sees the moment as ideal, as he is unaware. He believes he has
gotten confession through his sporadic actions in viewing the play, but through the soliloquy, he talks
himself out of it, stating that, “now he is praying; And now I'll do't. And so he goes to heaven.” In his
reasoning, he stops himself based on the premise that enacting revenge on Claudius while he is praying
will send him to heaven and will therefore not be the ideal revenge. He puts his sword away and deems
it not the right time, believing the best time will be to catch him drunk, raging, gambling, or swearing, as
it is not truly revenge if he is to send him to heaven. It is Hamlet’s back and forth within himself and his
internal dilemmas that show the strength in his reasoning and his ability to be a very level headed
intelligent character (Wright).
When looking back up at the structure of Hamlet’s soliloquy in regards to Claudius, the meter in
which it is presented is much more different from previous. While in earlier soliloquys Hamlet barks
madness and depression within, the meter draws out his sentences. Noting each break in his dialogue
and using it as a pause, his demeanor is very slowed down. In past soliloquys, these breaks were caused
by exclamation points or trailing run on sentences, yet in using colons, semicolons, and commas, it is a
very cold and callus presentation of his emotion to the event, highlighting the seriousness of his
issue(Spradley). This structure contributes to the ideal that he is facing a great internal dilemma,
contemplating whether he should commit murder or not based on the premise of revenge.
While the use of a soliloquy helped Hamlet rationalize his thoughts before acting on them, there
were limits, issues, and repercussions that followed it as well. The amount of soliloquys could be seen
as excessive, and his cautious mindset and inability to act on anything set for a chain of events that
could have been prevented. In reference back to his soliloquy, talking out his revenge plot on Claudius
at the opportune moment, his rationality and internal thought talked him out of it. While he gave
justifiable cause and reason not to, but rather Hamlet personally not being able to bring himself to
commit murder on a defenseless man. He became paralyzed in thought as he was “thinking too
precisely on th'event" (iv.iv.41). It is because of this paralysis in thought that Claudius was able to live,
only to go on and plot against Hamlet, leading to the death of 4 others, including himself. So while many
would argue it was great on Hamlet to rationalize thoughts and emotions through a soliloquy, it can be
seen that it is good only in moderation, as hesitation and uncertainty simply led to a larger tragedy.
A true sign that Hamlet was finally able to piece together his thoughts and internal
idea’s into a decision never truly came until the final act of the play, in his last talk with Horatio. Before
he enters the chambers to confront Claudius, he states to Horatio:
Not a whit, we defy augury; there's a special providence in
the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be
not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come:
the readiness is all. Since no man knows aught of what he leaves,
what is't to leave betimes? Let be.
In this final talk with Horatio, we see Hamlet for the first time; mention his plan to carry
out his plan of revenge on Claudius, even if indirectly. It is in his final moments he was finally able to
remove the barrier of discretion within himself that the soliloquys provided him through the entirety of
the play. In opening up to Horatio about his internal dilemmas, he ultimately reached a conclusion
within and was finally able to break down that barrier and make it be known, so to with his revenge. In
doing so Hamlet was finally able to realize what needed to be done, as he no longer was at internal
conflict with himself trying to resolve his issue, as he now discovered the true issue and saw the
importance of its resolution through interaction with Fortinbras and his surroundings. With his final
piece of dialogue he is able to vocalize his intentions and bring them to the surface.
Works Cited
Champion, Larry S. “ʻBy Indirections Find Directions’": The Soliloquies in Hamlet.’”
The Journal of General Education 27.4 (1976): 265–280. Web.
Hudson, Henry. "Hamlet: Versification and Diction." Shakespeare.
Ginn & Co., 1 Apr. 2002. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.
Mabillard, Amanda. Hamlet Soliloquy Analysis.
Shakespeare Online. 20 Aug. 2000. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.
McDonald, Russ. Shakespeare and the Arts of Language. Oxford
[England: Oxford UP, 2001.] Print.
Michelotto, Paulo. "Iambic Pentameter in Hamlet."
Academia. 18 Sept. 2009. Web. 4 Nov. 2015.
Mortensen, Arthur. "Expansive Poetry & Music Online: Prosody." Expansive Poetry Online.
Rocks Press, 2000. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.
Pressley, J.M. "Hamlet : To Be or Not to Be."
Shakespeare Resource Center. 10 Feb. 2005. Web. 25 Oct. 2015.
Spradley, Dana. "Verse and Prose in Shakespeare."
Shakespeare Resource Center. 2002. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.
Wright, George T.. “The Play of Phrase and Line in Shakespeare's Iambic Pentameter”.
Shakespeare Quarterly 34.2 (1983): 147–158. Web.