ANALYSIS OF HAMLET SOLILOQUY

In the present essay, I would like to advance a personal interpretation of the famous Hamlet’s soliloquy: To Be Or Not To Be. Before I start with the analysis, I would like to clarify that a soliloquy is a speech spoken by one person who is alone on the stage, in this case the speaker is Hamlet.

Right from the first line, Hamlet explains that To Be Or Not To Be is a question and from this expression the reader can imagine what is Hamlet mood and his feelings during this specific moment: why is he talking about to be or not to be? Moreover, it is interesting to highlight that he is using the infinite mode, which adds an existential dimension and makes sure that all humanity is involved.

Hamlet continues his speech defining and analysing the difference between To Be and Not To Be. According to Hamlet, to be means carrying on with a life full of problems and matters to face. On the other hand, not to be coincides with death. In other words, this means sleeping to end the heartache and natural shocks we are exposed and represents the end everyone should desire. In the sentence  “and by a sleep to say we end the thousand shocks that flesh is heir to:’tis a consummation devoutly to be wish’d” it can be noticed that Hamlet uses words belonging to opposite semantic fields: flesh and devoutly. Devoutly is an adverb that refers to the Christian language, while flesh alludes to the carnal dimension. This implies a voluntary choice to overturn traditional aspects of that time.

The soliloquy presents the structure of an argumentative text, where Hamlet analyses in a philosophical way the pros and cons of to be or not to be. For example, he states that to die represents the end that all humans should desire as this allowed them to sleep and dream. However, considering the fact that human beings are not aware of the types of dreams they will have after their death, he fears these could be not only pleasant but also negative.

Consequently, he starts asking himself whether life is worth to be lived or not, considering that there are several reasons to die including anxiety (whips and scorns), law, pride and prestige. But the problem is that conscience makes people cowards. People do not know what is afterlife and this is more frightening that suffer from slings and arrows that life throws toward people. In this section of the soliloquy there is a clear reference to life as a trip, usually common in the medieval code.

Another interesting element that the intelligent reader can easily notice is related to the semantical choices of Hamlet. It is worth mentioning is the use of the words “outrageous fortune”, medieval expression that refers to the role of fortune and highlights the lack of human power in shaping their future. Moreover, the metaphor “sea of troubles” is used to refer to life, while “sleep” is used instead of the verb die.

In addition, he made a wide use of military words such as slings and arrows and the expression take arms that suggests a fight against life.

At the syntactic level, there are some interrogative marks that convey the idea of a confused mood, typically adolescent. Finally, the reader can deduce that life is worth to be lived because afterlife is unknown and scaring for human beings. To sum up, it can be said that the soliloquy analysed above presented a very deep connotative meaning; in my opinion, this implies that Hamlet presented a strange behaviour due to an introverted personality. Therefore, the “single speech” can be considered a contemplation about the nature of life and the reasons of death.