Paper #4

Hamlet’s First Soliloquy Roll No: Teacher: 8th June 2009 Hamlet’s First Soliloquy “ O, that this too too sullied Flesh would melt….”
The above mentioned soliloquy occurs before Hamlet has seen the Ghost of his father. This soliloquy is there when Hamlet’s father is dead and his mother marries Claudius, her husband’s brother within a short span of time and Claudius takes the charge of the state as a King. Hamlet shows disgust for his mother’s act and is gloomy. In this soliloquy, Hamlet reveals the grief that has been gnawing at his mind. He wishes that religion did not forbid suicide so that he could kill himself and be rid of his grief. He feels disillusioned with the world as he says
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,
Seem to me all the uses of this world ! (Act I, Scene II, 133)
He deplores the fact that his mother should have remarried barely two months after the death of her first husband. This soliloquy also shows Hamlet’s meditative nature. It also reveals his filial attachment to his dead father to whom he speaks highly, and his scorn of his uncle to whom he refers in disparaging terms. His references to Hyperion, Niobe and Hercules show him to be well versed in classical literature. His generalizing tendency is also explicable when he says,
Frailty, thy name is woman. (Act I, Scene II, 146)
By the above mentioned quote, Hamlet also blames his mother to be frail and not loyal to his father as she marries with his uncle with haste. The soliloquy as a whole also reveals that Hamlet presented an artificial dialogue before the court and his uncle when he was in the court as the soliloquy is contrasted to his words. Hamlet through this soliloquy expresses his grief and sadness over the demise of his father whom he regards as an appreciative and amicable personality. He also shows in depth love for his father.
Hamlet is very much injured because of his mother’s hurried married and he considers her tears and sadness as feigned as he says:
Within a month,
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
She married. (Act !, Scene II, 153-156)
Hamlet regards that his mother has not felt any pain and torment because of her husband’s demise and has married as soon as she could. He thinks that her tears were “ unrighteous”. Hamlet not only regards his mother’s marriage as a sign of her fragility and weakness but also considers it as incest as he says:
O, most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets ! (Act I, Scene II, 156-157)
This soliloquy and the feelings expressed in it are indicative of Hamlet’s sorrow and depression that are there because of his mother’s marriage with Claudius. Hamlet also expresses profound love and respect for his father but his mother has degraded herself in the eyes of his son by her act of marriage. Hamlet’s shown sorrow and attitude can be applied on general human feelings and attitudes. Anyone can be sorrowful and sad on such state of affairs.
For example, there is a child whose father is dead and his mother marries another man only after a short time of her husband’s death, the child would be badly depressed because of her mother’s act. Children usually consider their parents as their possession and feel themselves associated to their parents. In addition, they keep expectations with their parents and whenever, their parents fail to complete their expectations, they feel sad. Also, when they do something not expected, children become sad. In this soliloquy, Hamlet is direly sorrowful because of his mother’s hasty marriage after his father’s death.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Sydney: Sydney University Press, 1998.