Term Paper on "Hamlet's Soliloquy"

Term Paper 3 pages (1107 words) Sources: 1 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Hamlet's Soliloquy is touted as one of the most telling of all his rants. In this one passage he discusses the reason people choose to live or die. In short men choose to live because they fear the unknown of death. This passage is a larger answer to Hamlet's own question of why he has chosen to this point to act in life, to avenge his father's death rather than simply to let himself die or be killed as his father was. From this point forward in the work, Hamlet lives without fear of death, Ophelia has shown him that fear is only necessary when one makes no peace with the calamity of his life. Hamlet vows to make his revenge and let his life be taken in the process if it will. If the soft, fair Ophelia can choose death over life to end her worldly calamity, the scorn of his love given and then taken away, than he must no longer live in fear of death, he must avenge himself and his father so that all but the wicked can sleep the peaceful sleep of death.

The language of the passage is a clear indication that Hamlet is at a decision point. He has taken from his life the message that all is calamity, especially in worldly intrigue and that a decision must now be made to live or die, avenged or un-avenged. His fear is built on, the fear of the unknown as well as the fear of living in a world that continues to beat him down with, "whips and scorns of time, / the oppressor's wrong, the proud mans contumely, / the pangs of despised love, the law's delay, / the insolence of office and the spurns / That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make..." The language is wavering, as like all other points in the work, he discusses with himself the nature of his decision. He asks, w
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hat is right, to seek out an end to his worldly depravity before or after he has avenged his father or to simply keep living in such calamity, because he is afraid of death? Yet, his resolve is set when he says, "And thus conscience does make cowards of us all; / and thus the native hue of resolution / I sicklied over with the pale crust of thought, / and enterprises of great pith and moment / With this regard their currents turn awry, / and lose the name of action." Hamlet seeks to stop thinking and to start doing, and in his last apology to Ophelia, for using her in his plot and precipitating her own death he tells her, "-Soft you now! The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in they orisons / Be all my sins remember'd." He gives Ophelia the right to hold him responsible for his act of betrayal towards her.

Hamlet vows not to fear death but to take within his own hands the responsibility to avenge himself and his father Hamlet, through his interactions with his betrayed father, the ghost, has established that there is a life after death. He knows it to bring the individual back to a life that betrayed them. Hamlet's own fear of death is based upon the assumption that if he, as his… READ MORE

Quoted Instructions for "Hamlet's Soliloquy" Assignment:

1.The paper must include an introductory paragraph explaining how the soliloquy will be discuss.

2.Examine the language in the seliloquy without paraprasing.

3.Analyzy what the soliloquy reveals about Hamlet.

4. Conclusion.

Soliloquy is listed below:

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? To die: to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause: there's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life;

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office and the spurns

That patient merit of the unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscover'd country from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great pith and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry,

And lose the name of action. - Soft you now!

The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons

Be all my sins remember'd.

How to Reference "Hamlet's Soliloquy" Term Paper in a Bibliography

Hamlet's Soliloquy.” A1-TermPaper.com, 2007, https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/hamlet-soliloquy-touted/82797. Accessed 28 Sep 2024.

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[1] ”Hamlet's Soliloquy”, A1-TermPaper.com, 2007. [Online]. Available: https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/hamlet-soliloquy-touted/82797. [Accessed: 28-Sep-2024].
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1. Hamlet's Soliloquy. A1-TermPaper.com. https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/hamlet-soliloquy-touted/82797. Published 2007. Accessed September 28, 2024.

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