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Situational Irony
Definition of Soliloquy
A soliloquy is a literary device, most often found in dramas, in which a character speaks to him or herself, relating his or her innermost thoughts and feelings as if... read full definition
A soliloquy is a literary device, most often found in dramas, in which a character speaks to him or herself, relating his or her innermost... read full definition
A soliloquy is a literary device, most often found in dramas, in which a character speaks to him or herself... read full definition
Soliloquy Mind Map
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Key Examples in Hamlet
Soliloquy
Explanation and Analysis—Unweeded Garden:
Near the beginning of the play, however, Hamlet gives the audience insight into his perspective through figurative language. In Hamlet's first soliloquy (which is in Act 1, Scene 2), he uses an illuminating metaphor, saying: "’Tis an unweeded garden / That gros to seed. Things rank and gross in nature / Possess it merely." In this dejected monologue, Hamlet reflects on the events that have recently taken hold of Elsinore. He speaks metaphorically about an "unweeded garden" to illustrate the type of misdeeds that he perceives in those around him.
Related Themes:
Act 1, Scene 5
Explanation and Analysis—Remember Thee:
In Act 1, Scene 5, immediately after relaying the circumstances of his death, the ghost disappears and leaves Hamlet alone. What follows is one of Hamlet’s soliloquies, in which he has the opportunity to express himself in a manner uninhibited by the presence of other people. Throughout much of the play, Hamlet conceals information from those around him, so his moments alone onstage provide important opportunities for him to reflect or make certain decisions. In this soliloquy, he uses his moment of solitude to reckon with the news of his uncle’s violent betrayal before his friends arrive. He is able to express the extent of his shock and horror for a limited period of time, and he uses it to consider the ghost’s parting words. He says:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Remember thee?
Yea, from the table of my memory
I’ll wipe away all trivial, fond records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures
That youth and observation copied there,
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain.
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Act 2, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Murder's Tongue:
Act 2, Scene 2 ends in a soliloquy from Hamlet in which he vows to use the players to find out whether his uncle is guilty. He berates himself for his previous inactivity and feels a sense of guilt, as though he has been a bad son for feeling unable to kill or confront his uncle. He runs over the plan in his mind and convinces himself that it will give him the opportunity to ascertain whether his uncle committed the deed he has been accused of. Using the players is the best way to do this, Hamlet says: "For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak / With most miraculous organ."
Act 3, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis:
The most famous lines in Hamlet come from his soliloquy in Act 3, Scene 1, when he reflects on the struggle of balancing his weariness of life and his fear of death. The soliloquy begins:
Unlock with LitCharts A+To be or not to be—that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And, by opposing, end them.
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Act 4, Scene 4
Explanation and Analysis—Thinking too Precisely:
Hamlet’s last soliloquy takes place in Act 4, Scene 4. Like his previous moments of pause, Hamlet uses the privacy of an empty stage to reflect on his behavior. By this point in the play, he has begun to understand a frustrating pattern in his behavior: he is paralyzed by his fear of making a decision, and he agonizes over what to do until any action seems impossible. In his soliloquy in Act 4, Scene 4, he addresses this pattern directly. He says:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Now whether it be Bestial oblivion or some craven scruple
Of thinking too precisely on th’ event
(A thought which, quartered, hath but one part wisdom
And ever three parts coward), I do not know
Why yet I live to say “This thing’s to do,"
[...]
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