The Soliloquies
Hamlet Notes
1. 'O that this too sullied flesh would melt' (Act One, Scene Two)
2. 'O all you host of heaven' (Act One, Scene Five)
3. 'O what a rogue and peasant slave am I!' (Act Two, Scene Two)
4. 'To be, or not to be, that is the question' (Act Three, Scene One)
5. 'Tis now the very witching time of night' (Act Three, Scene Three)
6. 'And so a goes to heaven' (Act Three, Scene 3)
7. 'How all occasions do inform against me' (Act Four, Scene Four)
Hamlet gives us seven soliloquies, all centred on the most important existential themes: the emptiness
of existence, suicide, death, suffering, action, a fear of death which puts off the most momentous
decisions, the fear of the beyond, the degradation of the flesh, the triumph of vice over virtue, the pride
and hypocrisy of human beings, and the difficulty of acting under the weight of a thought 'which makes
cowards of us all'. He offers us also, in the last act, some remarks made in conversation with Horatio in
the cemetery which it is suitable to place in the same context as the soliloquies because the themes of
life and death in general and his attitude when confronted by his own death have been with him
constantly. Four of his seven soliloquies deserve our special attention: 'O that this too sullied flesh
would melt', 'O what a rogue and peasant slave am I!', 'To be, or not to be, that is the question', and
'How all occasions do inform against me'.
Readings of these soliloquies are varied and diverse. However, three remarks are in order:
L. Daly C. Muire Cobh 2017
1
The Soliloquies
1. The density of Hamlet's thought is extraordinary. Not a word is wasted; every syllable and each
sound expresses the depth of his reflection and the intensity of his emotion. The spectator cannot but be
hypnotized.
2. The language is extremely beautiful. Shakespeare was in love with words. His soliloquies are pieces
of pure poetry, written in blank verse, sustained by a rhythm now smooth, now rugged, by a fast or a
slow pace, offering us surprises in every line.
3. The soliloquies are in effect the hidden plot of the play because, if one puts them side by side, one
notices that the character of Hamlet goes through a development which, in substance, is nothing other
than the history of human thinking from the Renaissance to the existentialism of the twentieth century.
The Hamlet of the first soliloquy is an outraged man who, disgusted by his 'sullied flesh', can see no
outcome to his disgust other than death. To free himself from the grip of his flesh he must put an end to
his life. But there is the rub: God, the Everlasting, he tells us, does not allow one to act in this way. God
still rules the universe and Hamlet must obey his strictures. (Act I, Scene ii, L.135: ‘O that this too too
sullied flesh would melt…’)
O that this too too sullied flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew;
Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter.
Hamlet's attitude is different in 'To be, or not to be'. He asks himself about death beyond religious
considerations; the nature of his dilemma has changed, as Hamlet tells us with a lucid simplicity.
In the first soliloquy Hamlet submits to rules and prohibitions; in the second he imagines and
rationalises and decides to remain in the world, for the moment at least. But he goes much further.
L. Daly C. Muire Cobh 2017
2
The Soliloquies
Throughout the final act he pictures the final scene. There, where another dramatist would have given
the dying Hamlet a long discourse on death, Shakespeare has Hamlet say just a few words of
disconcerting simplicity, 'the rest is silence', precisely because Hamlet has already said everything
before:
Alas, poor Yorick! (Act Five, Scene One) And a man's life's no more than to say 'one'. (Act Five, Scene
Two)
There is 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. (Act Five, Scene Two)
The other two soliloquies are memorable because they reveal all the passionate nature of Hamlet's
personality. Observing young Fortinbras and his army on their way to conquer Poland-'an eggshell', 'a
wisp of straw'-Hamlet, on the edge of despair, asks himself why he, when he has so many reasons,
cannot stir himself to action, why he cannot carry out the necessary act of vengeance. Why? Why? The
last lines of Act Four are very revealing (Act IV, iv, L.32).
Some actors, including the very best, believe that the most beautiful soliloquy is that which comes at
the end of Act Two, immediately after the first discussion between Hamlet and the travelling players.
Here Hamlet is enraged, furious and rude. He lays himself, we feel, totally bare. He is no fool however.
Recovering his spirits he devises a plan which will lead the king to betray himself. This is Shakespeare
at the height of his theatrical prowess, stamping Hamlet's language with relentless changes in tone, the
peaks of rage inter-cut with short moments of profound depression or of incredulous questioning (Act
II, ii, L.575).
Hamlet’s Soliloquies: To be, or not to be: that is the question (Act III, i, L. 64-98)
L. Daly C. Muire Cobh 2017
3
The Soliloquies
COMMENTARY
This soliloquy, probably the most famous speech in the English language, is spoken by Hamlet in Act
III, scene i (58–90). His most logical and powerful examination of the theme of the moral legitimacy of
suicide in an unbearably painful world, it touches on several of the other important themes of the play.
Hamlet poses the problem of whether to commit suicide as a logical question: “To be, or not to be,”
that is, to live or not to live. He then weighs the moral ramifications of living and dying. Is it nobler to
suffer life, “[t]he slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” passively or to actively seek to end one’s
suffering? He compares death to sleep and thinks of the end to suffering, pain, and uncertainty it might
bring, “[t]he heartache, and the thousand natural shocks / That flesh is heir to.” Based on this metaphor,
he decides that suicide is a desirable course of action, “a consummation / Devoutly to be wished.” But,
as the religious word “devoutly” signifies, there is more to the question, namely, what will happen in
the afterlife. Hamlet immediately realizes as much, and he reconfigures his metaphor of sleep to
include the possibility of dreaming; he says that the dreams that may come in the sleep of death are
daunting, that they “must give us pause.”
He then decides that the uncertainty of the afterlife, which is intimately related to the theme of the
difficulty of attaining truth in a spiritually ambiguous world, is essentially what prevents all of
humanity from committing suicide to end the pain of life. He outlines a long list of the miseries of
experience, ranging from lovesickness to hard work to political oppression, and asks who would choose
to bear those miseries if he could bring himself peace with a knife, “[w]hen he himself might his
quietus make / With a bare bodkin?” He answers himself again, saying no one would choose to live,
except that “the dread of something after death” makes people submit to the suffering of their lives
rather than go to another state of existence which might be even more miserable. The dread of the
afterlife, Hamlet concludes, leads to excessive moral sensitivity that makes action impossible:
“conscience does make cowards of us all . . . thus the native hue of resolution / Is sicklied o’er with the
pale cast of thought.”
In this way, this speech connects many of the play’s main themes, including the idea of suicide and
death, the difficulty of knowing the truth in a spiritually ambiguous universe, and the connection
between thought and action. In addition to its crucial thematic content, this speech is important for what
it reveals about the quality of Hamlet’s mind. His deeply passionate nature is complemented by a
L. Daly C. Muire Cobh 2017
4
The Soliloquies
relentlessly logical intellect, which works furiously to find a solution to his misery. He has turned to
religion and found it inadequate to help him either kill himself or resolve to kill Claudius. Here, he
turns to a logical philosophical inquiry and finds it equally frustrating.
Hamlet’s Soliloquies: 'Tis now the very witching time of night' (Act III, iii, L. 380-391)
COMMENTARY
Hamlet's plan to "catch the conscience of the king" has been a success, and Claudius has retired,
distraught, to his chamber. Thrilled that his scheme worked, Hamlet experiences a sudden surge of
confidence which prompts the first half of this short soliloquy. Hamlet is now sure that he could easily
complete the "bitter business" of revenge; sure that he could murder his uncle without hesitation.
However, Claudius is out of reach for the moment, and so Hamlet turns his attention to his mother,
revealing in the second half of the soliloquy his intentions to force Gertrude to make a full confession.
Although Hamlet still loves his mother, he must be cruel to her in order to facilitate the admission of
her guilt. Hamlet says, "My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites" (389), because he knows that he
must feign violent intentions towards his mother, and that his words must express those false
intentions. Hamlet is becoming like the players who so mystified him in 2.2:
Is it not monstrous that this player here,
But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
Could force his soul so to his own conceit
That from her working all his visage wann'd,
Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect, (560)
A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
With forms to his conceit? and all for nothing!
For Hecuba! (556-563)
Hamlet once wished that he could manipulate his emotions and behavior like a player, and now it
seems he can.
Hamlet’s Soliloquies: Now might I do it pat, now he is praying (Act III, iii, L. 77-100).
L. Daly C. Muire Cobh 2017
5
The Soliloquies
COMMENTARY
Hamlet has thought himself prepared to "drink hot blood" (3.2.382) and carry out the murder of the
King. Now, as he happens upon the unattended Claudius, the time has come to take action, but Hamlet
finds that he is unable to kill. Hamlet's reason for delay is that Claudius is in the midst of praying, and
in order for revenge to be complete, the King must be engaged in some sinful act such as sex,
gambling, or drinking, and thus be condemned to eternal damnation. While it is true that similar
reasoning is common in other revenge plays, such vengeance seems unworthy of our noble prince.
Many critics believe that Hamlet uses Claudius's prayer as an excuse for further delay because his
conscience will not allow him to commit premeditated murder. Others claim that it is not Hamlet's
altruism which saves Claudius in this scene, but his own paralyzing habit of "thinking too precisely on
th'event" (4.4.41). However, the second argument is moot because the basis of his procrastination is his
inability to commit premeditated murder. Ironically, Hamlet's soliloquy is ultimately irrelevant, for
Claudius is not sincerely repentant, as he reveals in the concluding couplet of scene 3:
My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
Words without thoughts never to heaven go. (97-8)
L. Daly C. Muire Cobh 2017
6
The Soliloquies
Hamlet’s Soliloquies: How all occasions do inform against me (Act IV, iv, L.35-69)
COMMENTARY
Hamlet's final soliloquy appears in Q2 but not in the First Folio. Some critics argue that Shakespeare
himself cut the passage from the Folio as he made revisions to his work over the years before his death.
It is possible that the editors of the Folio printed a copy revised by Shakespeare, but it is highly
unlikely that Shakespeare would mutilate his own work by removing such an integral part of the play.
Hamlet's last soliloquy is crucial to our understanding of his character development. By the end of the
soliloquy, Hamlet brings to a halt his solemn contemplation on the immoral act of murderous revenge,
and finally accepts it as his necessary duty. It is not that Hamlet has presented a solid and reasonable
argument to convince himself of his terrible responsibility; rather he has driven himself to the
conclusion with intense and distorted thoughts. Hamlet accuses himself of forgetting his father in that
"bestial oblivion" (43), yet, he thinks his problem could be "thinking too precisely on the event" (44).
Moreover, although Hamlet has seen Fortinbras only for a moment earlier in the play, and knows
nothing of his true motives for going to war, Hamlet convinces himself that Fortinbras is fighting to
protect his honour. Part of Hamlet relishes the idea of such conviction, however illogical and futile, and
so he focuses on the image of Fortinbras courageously leading his troupes. Hamlet's reason, the part of
him that has been dominant throughout the play; the part of him that questions the "honour" in murder
and revenge, this time cannot provide a rebuttal. So Hamlet is overcome by his obligations to enact
revenge. Hamlet was once greatly distressed over having to exact payment for his father's murder, even
though the reason for such revenge was weighty indeed. Now, Hamlet commends the idea of the
"imminent death of twenty thousand men" for a ludicrous "fantasy and trick of fame" (63)
L. Daly C. Muire Cobh 2017
7