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English Literature: Rejhane Jonuzi

In his first soliloquy, Hamlet bemoans his inability to commit suicide due to religious prohibitions. He is deeply depressed by his father's death and his mother Gertrude's hasty remarriage to his uncle Claudius. Hamlet sees Claudius as a beast compared to his father, whom he regarded as a god-like figure. He is disillusioned with his mother for replacing his father with such an inferior man so quickly. In his second soliloquy, Iago reveals his plan to get revenge on Othello, who he believes slept with his wife Emilia. Noting Othello and Desdemona's affection for each other, Iago hatches a plot

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122 views5 pages

English Literature: Rejhane Jonuzi

In his first soliloquy, Hamlet bemoans his inability to commit suicide due to religious prohibitions. He is deeply depressed by his father's death and his mother Gertrude's hasty remarriage to his uncle Claudius. Hamlet sees Claudius as a beast compared to his father, whom he regarded as a god-like figure. He is disillusioned with his mother for replacing his father with such an inferior man so quickly. In his second soliloquy, Iago reveals his plan to get revenge on Othello, who he believes slept with his wife Emilia. Noting Othello and Desdemona's affection for each other, Iago hatches a plot

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Rejhane Jonuzi
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English Literature

Important soliloquies from Hamlet and


Othello

Rejhane Jonuzi
Hamlet
O that this too too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d
His canon ’gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on’t! O fie! ’tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
But two months dead!—nay, not so much, not two:
So excellent a king; that was, to this,
Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother,
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on: and yet, within a month,— 
Let me not think on’t,—Frailty, thy name is woman!— 
A little month; or ere those shoes were old
With which she followed my poor father’s body
Like Niobe, all tears;—why she, even she,— 
O God! a beast that wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourn’d longer,—married with mine uncle,
My father’s brother; but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules: within a month;
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
She married:— O, most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
It is not, nor it cannot come to good;
But break my heart,—for I must hold my tongue.

Act I, scene ii (129–158)


This quotation, Hamlet’s first important soliloquy, occurs in Act I, scene ii (129–
158). Hamlet speaks these lines after enduring the unpleasant scene
at Claudius and Gertrude’s court, then being asked by his mother and stepfather
not to return to his studies at Wittenberg but to remain in Denmark, presumably
against his wishes. Here, Hamlet thinks for the first time about suicide (desiring his
flesh to “melt,” and wishing that God had not made “self-slaughter” a sin), saying
that the world is “weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable.” In other words, suicide
seems like a desirable alternative to life in a painful world, but Hamlet feels that
the option of suicide is closed to him because it is forbidden by religion. Hamlet
then goes on to describe the causes of his pain, specifically his intense disgust at
his mother’s marriage to Claudius. He describes the haste of their marriage, noting
that the shoes his mother wore to his father’s funeral were not worn out before her
marriage to Claudius. He compares Claudius to his father (his father was “so
excellent a king” while Claudius is a bestial “satyr”). As he runs through his
description of their marriage, he touches upon the important motifs of misogyny,
crying, “Frailty, thy name is woman”; incest, commenting that his mother moved
“[w]ith such dexterity to incestuous sheets”; and the ominous omen the marriage
represents for Denmark, that “[i]t is not nor it cannot come to good.” Each of these
motifs recurs throughout the play.Hamlet is suicidally depressed by his father’s
death and mother’s remarriage. He is disillusioned with life, love and women.

In his first soliloquy, Hamlet bemoans the fact that he cannot commit suicide. He
wishes that his physical self might just cease to exist, "melt, / Thaw, and resolve
itself into a dew." He complains that his religion prohibits suicide and claims that
he would sooner die than continue watching his mother engage in her vile incest.
These thoughts torment him, but he knows that he can't speak them aloud to
anyone.

Hamlet's preoccupation with hypocrisy surfaces more profoundly in his first


soliloquy. The fact that his mother has joined in an incestuous union with her
husband's brother less than a month after his father's death overwhelms Hamlet. A
simple beast without the reasoning skills of a human being would have shown
more respect for a dead mate, moans Hamlet. Worse yet, Hamlet must question her
judgment. Hamlet sees Claudius as a satyr — a beast-man driven by his appetites
— whereas Old Hamlet was Hyperion, the sun god himself. How can he trust a
woman who would trade a god for a goat? In addition to his cynicism toward
women, Hamlet's self-portrait begins to emerge in this soliloquy. When he says
that his Uncle Claudius corresponds to his father, King Hamlet, no more "Than I to
Hercules," Hamlet discloses his pacifistic demeanor. Hercules was a warrior who
acted on impulse and charged enthusiastically into battles without questioning the
ideology of the fight. Unlike Hercules, Hamlet drowns in words and perpetually
struggles toward understanding. Knowing his weakness, Hamlet decries his
inability to commit suicide, revealing his devotion to the laws of Shakespeare's
religion. Hamlet refers to Gertrude's marriage to Claudius as incestuous, though
history and cultural practices often encourage marriage between a widow and her
brother-in-law. Elizabethan laws had only recently been changed to ban such
unions. Hamlet's pain and embarrassment over his mother's incest — a marriage
that besmirches her entire culture — is great enough to make him long for the
comfort of death but not great enough to allow him to reject "His canon 'gainst self
slaughter."

Othello
That Cassio loves her, I do well believe ’t.
That she loves him, ’tis apt and of great credit.
The Moor, howbeit that I endure him not,
Is of a constant, loving, noble nature,
And I dare think he’ll prove to Desdemona
A most dear husband. Now, I do love her too,
Not out of absolute lust—though peradventure
I stand accountant for as great a sin—
But partly led to diet my revenge,
For that I do suspect the lusty Moor
Hath leaped into my seat. The thought whereof
Doth, like a poisonous mineral, gnaw my inwards,
And nothing can or shall content my soul
Till I am evened with him, wife for wife.
Or, failing so, yet that I put the Moor
At least into a jealousy so strong
That judgment cannot cure. Which thing to do,
If this poor trash of Venice, whom I trace
For his quick hunting, stand the putting on,
I’ll have our Michael Cassio on the hip,
Abuse him to the Moor in the right garb
(For I fear Cassio with my night-cape too)
Make the Moor thank me, love me, and reward me
For making him egregiously an ass
And practicing upon his peace and quiet
Even to madness. 'Tis here, but yet confused.
Knavery’s plain face is never seen till used
Iago's second soliloquy is very revealing. It shows him shaping a plan out of the
confusion of his emotionally charged thoughts. Iago examines his own thoughts,
especially his hatred for Othello: "The Moor, howbeit that I endure him not" (269)
and finds a common thread in the "poisonous mineral" of jealousy that still swirls
around the rumor that Othello has enjoyed Emilia. Iago could get his revenge by
seducing Desdemona: "Now I do love her too . . . / But partly led to diet my
revenge, / For that I do suspect the lusty Moor / Hath leaped into my seat, the
thought whereof / Doth like a poisonous mineral gnaw my inwards" (272-278).
Iago uses the word "love" here in a very cynical way, making it a combination of
lust and power seeking. At first he sees his seduction of Desdemona as his revenge:
"Till I am evened with him, wife for wife" (280). Then Iago realizes that the
unsubstantiated jealousy that torments him is the very weapon he can use against
Othello, who will be even more susceptible. Iago will lead Othello, via jealousy, to
madness: "Make the Moor thank me, love me, and reward me, / For making him
egregiously an ass, / And practicing upon his peace and quiet / Even to madness"
(289-293). Alone, Iago delivers his second soliloquy. He says that he thinks it
likely that Cassio does indeed love Desdemona, and believable at least that she
might love him. He says that he himself loves Desdemona, though mainly he just
wants to sleep with her because he wants revenge on Othello for possibly sleeping
with Emilia. If he's unable to sleep with Desdemona, though, he reasons, at least
the confrontation he's engineered between Roderigo and Cassio will cause Othello
to suspect Desdemona of infidelity and drive him mad.

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