Use of Soliloquies in Hamlet Essay - 941 Words

A soliloquy is a speech in a play that is meant to be heard by the audience but not the other characters on the stage. In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the use of soliloquies allows the audience to know what the characters are feeling and what their pure motives are. They are also able to hear the characters’ thoughts directly. The character’s secrets are revealed only to the audience which gives way for irony to take a part in the play. Shakespeare uses soliloquies throughout the play enhance the story by making the personal thoughts and feelings of characters open to the audience, creating irony, and setting a course of action. Hamlet has a number of soliloquies that express his thoughts and feelings throughout the play, for†¦show more content†¦It allows the audience to side with Hamlet and sympathize with him. In the soliloquies given by Hamlet, it is made known what he plans to do and his method of operation. After speaking with the Old King’s ghost and learning that his father was killed by his brother Claudius, Hamlet’s main goal is to kill Claudius to avenge his father’s death. He begins to do so by pretending to be crazy. â€Å"How strange or odd some’er I bear myself / (As I perchance hereafter shall think meet / To put an antic disposition on)† (I.v. 190-192). Hamlet pretends to be crazy as a way to protect himself because it was believed that whoever kills a crazy person will also become crazy. This would allow Hamlet the time needed to devise a plan and kill Claudius. To verify that the Ghost’s statement about his cause of death is true, Hamlets sets up a â€Å"mousetrap† to prove that indeed Claudius did kill the Old King. â€Å"I’ll have these players / Play something like the murder of my father / Before mine uncle†¦ The play’s the thing / Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King† (II.ii.623-625, 633-634). By having the players reenact the murder Claudius committed and watching Claudius’ reaction, Hamlet will be able to prove that what the Old King’s ghost said was true, and that he must avenge his father’s death. When the queen, his mother, asks Hamlet to speak with her, he lays out his priorities; what he wants to get out of theShow MoreRelatedEssay on The Use of Soliloquy in Shakespeares Hamlet1175 Words   |  5 Pages A Soliloquy is a dramatic convention, in which the character stands alone on stage, speaking. Originally it was a plot device, to enable a character to tell the audience what he planned to do next, for example, in the course of revenge. But the device is heightened in Shakespeare as it enables a character to reveal the amp;#8216;inner soulamp;#8217; to the audience without telling the other characters. 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