Hamlet's Soliloquies Reveal His Personality

Hamlet's Soliloquies Reveal His Personality "To be or not to be—that is the question (Hamlet, III, i, 64)" The previous quotation is the opening line from Hamlet's most famous soliloquy in which he is contemplating suicide as an end to all of his adversities. "Hamlet's world is bleak and cold because almost no one and nothing can be trusted ("Folger Shakespeare Library")." Hamlet allows his words to exhibit his emotions through the soliloquies in the play. While dealing with the sudden loss of his father, Hamlet must now face the reality of his mother's (Gertrude) marriage to his uncle, Claudius, only two months after his father's death. Hamlet learns that Claudius murdered his father to become the king of Denmark. These dilemmas in Hamlet's life are the cause of his depression and desire of revenge against his father's killer. Joanna Montgomery Byles states that "The concept of the superego, both individual and cultural, is important to our understanding of the dynamics of aggressive destruction in Shakespeare's tragedies involving revenge. (Tragic Alternatives 1)." "According to the psychoanalytic perspective on human development, the superego represents a person's conscience, incorporating distinctions between right and wrong; ("Saskatchewan Learning")" therefore, superego may justify the reasons for Hamlet's actions because both his father's death, and mother's marriage, have mentally affected him, not allowing Hamlet to know any better action to take. All of Hamlet's seven soliloquies in William Shakespeare's Hamlet, Prince of Denmark reveal Hamlet's grief, indecision, insanity, and revenge; however, the three strongest soliloquies are essential to the reader's understanding of Hamlet's motivation leading to his tragic end. Hamlet's first soliloquy appears in Act I of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, where he explains his feelings about his father's death and his mother's marriage to Claudius. Although Hamlet is feeling both grief and sorrow, he also

Cited: Baron, Earhard. "Introduction." Saskatchewan Learning. 1998. 15 May 2007 . Mowat , Barbara A., and Paul Werstine. "Hamlet." Folger Shakespeare Library. 1992. 18 May 2007 Shakespeare, William. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. New York: Washington Square Press, 1992.