Hamlet Soliloquy Essay

The first time the audience encounters Hamlet in Act 3 is in Scene 1 with one of his most famous soliloquies. Hamlet enters, after Polonius, Claudius, and Ophelia devise a plan to discover if Hamlet has been driven mad by love, and stands alone in the room to deliver his soliloquy. Hamlet starts with “To be or not to be-- that is the question:” and then continues, “Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,” followed by many more lines all contemplating if it is better to live or to die (3.1.64-67). This well known soliloquy questions what is better in life, to live and accept the punishments and sufferings of life, or to end life and take control by going into an eternal sleep.
He justifies the extermination of the two men by saying they deserve it for siding with Claudius. If Hamlet is willing to do this to two men who caused him little to no physical or emotional harm, the audience can only envisage what Hamlet is willing to do to Claudius. Then comes one of the last times the audience observes the thoughts of Hamlet, as Horatio tries to talk him out of dueling Laertes. Hamlet explains to Horatio, “ 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” (5.2.233-237). At this point in the play, Hamlet has put all his faith in God and destiny. He is stating here that whatever happens was planned to happen, and as we know from his earlier thoughts, he is no longer afraid of what will happen if he dies. Hamlet is finally content with whatever God has planned for his life. His attitude towards death at the end of the play is accepting of the fact that no single person can control his