Blog 7

The soliloquy does not show Hamlet’s return to action, but instead portrays Hamlet as a character who views thought as the most important ideal.  Hamlet sees the emotion of the actors, and questions his relative lack of emotion as a “dull and muddy-mettled rascal” (506), but overall his central preoccupation with the actors is because their display is so much more dramatic than his.  Already he has been questioned about his own act of grief (Seems, madam? (1.2, 76)).  While some may think the repetitive questioning serves to inspire doubt in the character, it is instead used as a legitimate line of questioning.  When Hamlet asks, “What would he do/Had he the motive and the cue for passion/That I have?” (498-500), he is sincerely wondering what one would do when prompted to revenge by the motive of a ghost.  Eventually, Hamlet decides to answer that question for himself, with as some see it, a course of action.  

When considering what to do, he first says, “[a]bout, my brains” (526), nudging his mind to come up with a solution—he searches within his thoughts for a way to reach a solution.  Hamlet then details an intricate plan for beginning his road to revenge.  Instead of a resolution of action, this is a rational progression of Hamlet’s thoughts.  In a very systematic way, Hamlet mentions observations and “looks” as a way to gather evidence to indict Claudius.  As if he knows the jury would not convict Claudius on the basis of a ghost’s testimony, so too does Hamlet require proof “[m]ore relative than this” (543).  Eventually, while clearly resolved to act, the action is only a method to “catch the conscience of the king” (544).  Hamlet’s ultimate goal, while more direct and assertive than his ideas in the past, is not to kill or avenge, but to understand the mind behind the deed: the “conscience of the king.”  He places mind, and thought above all else in his deliberation and the resulting action only becomes another progression of thought.