Blog Post #6 - Hamlet Soliloquy Close Reading

            The first of Hamlet’s suicidal soliloquys, this excerpt from Shakespeare’s tragic play establishes the frustration, disillusionment and even the occasional misogyny that characterize the young protagonist. Hamlet contemplates what he considers to be the only escape from the injustice that has tainted his life and the state of Denmark: killing himself. “Oh that this too too sullied flesh would melt,” laments the prince. His repetition of the word “too” reinforces his thought that his own body is holding him hostage to the misery that troubles him. He likens his life to the stale and pitiful fate that befalls an untended garden. Hamlet repeatedly uses the expression “fie,” a Shakespearean term meaning “what a shame.” This dark commentary creates a dismal mood, indicative of the sense of depressed lethargy present in Hamlet’s thoughts.

            Hamlet proceeds to remark on the seemingly traitorous actions of his mother, the Queen. In discussing Gertrude’s relationship with the late King, he invokes a mythological allusion, claiming that the King was as “Hyperion to a satyr.” While this establishes the dead King as a man of loyal character, it presents the Queen as dependent. This notion is strengthened when Hamlet proclaims, “she would hang on [the King],” conjuring up an image of Gertrude that would today be described as “clingy.” Already, Hamlet’s thoughts on his mother can be perceived as less-than-admirable. However, he goes on to degrade her further in discussing her hasty marriage to Claudius, her brother-in-law. The prince compares her to “a beast,” stripping her of dignity and all human qualities, and condemning her profligate willingness to suddenly enter an “incestuous” relationship. He extrapolates maternal disgust to include all of womankind when he asserts, “frailty, thy name is woman.” Thus, in the soliloquy Hamlet introduces an air of misogyny that will continue throughout the play.