The dramatic element I want to focus on is mood during Hamlet’s soliloquy in Act III Scene I. Hamlet starts off his soliloquy questioning whether he should commit suicide and end his pain, “To be, or not to be: that is the question (III.i.58).” This question brings toward the mood of uncertainty and gloom—uncertainty because of the after death and being afraid of something “after death (III.I.80)” and the gloom in dealing with what “ills we have (III.I.83).” The diction, relentless monosyllables, and the repetition of the “to be” brings anguish to mind and draws that gloomy mood. Hamlet continues with this mood throughout the act when Ophelia approaches him and denies Ophelia’s request to return his tokens of love by stating he has never given her anything. Hamlet’s denial is followed by him saying he has loved her once and then not at all—uncertainty still very present. Ophelia adds to the current mood that Hamlet has bred because he urges her to enter a nunnery instead of being a “breeder of sinners (III.I.122-123)” as though he is commenting on his own sins. Having the mood change to anger by his own accord, Hamlet rejects women, Ophelia, humanity, and marriage because he feels that women are a vice to men and humanity. Anger is now mixed in with the gloom and uncertainty that is the mood when Hamlet leaves Ophelia standing there and she laments on the uncertainty that is Hamlet’s “noble mind” and the madness that is becoming apparent.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Project Gutenberg. Web.
