Essays on Soliloquy

Marcellus in Act I states that “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” and this sets the tone of the play as well as the struggles of Hamlet. Hamlet is wrecked by feelings of uncertainty over his father’s death and his mother’s incestous marraige to his uncle Claudius. Although Hamlet wants to avenge his father’s death and restore honor to the royal house, he struggles with his innate goodness and morality. He knows he has nothing to go on except the ghost’s words and looks for proof that his father was indeed murdered. Hamlet ...

Are there any circumstances in which you would allow yourself to be cloned?

Even though the potential to clone human beings is a dangerous undertaking, certain unique circumstances may influence my personal decision to necessitate a clone of myself. First, Kuhse (219) observes that human cloning holds promise to alleviate modern day medical issues. Consequentially, since I have a heart for the suffering and the under privileged, I would allow myself to be cloned so as to provide vital organs for transplants in order to save countless lives. I would however only allow myself to be cloned when sure of my motives which must be hinged on saving lives and not on ...

Introduction

William Shakespeare is one of the prolific authors in literature, because he employs many devices that give his character depth. These devices can be manifested in the speech of the characters; as an author, Shakespeare effectively plays on words to give them multiple meanings which can be left to the reader’s interpretation. One example of this is in his play Othello, a story about the titular character and his conquests amidst the attempts of a traitorous comrade named Iago to destroy him. In this play, Iago delivers a series of soliloquies which reveal a lot about his character— ...

Act III, Scene 1

In the soliloquy, Hamlet thinks what is the better option “to be or not to be” (line 64). This is one of the most important questions of existence, as the main character is considering whether to continue the life or to commit a suicide. He is indecisive whether it is nobler to feel pain of all the hardships of the life or to finish the struggle. On the one hand, “to die, to sleep” (line 72) means to make a pause and to have a rest after all the sufferings the person already faced in his or her life. ...

Hamlet is a play written by Willian Shakespear which deals with loss and revenge, religion and love. Prince Hamlet is a tragic hero who dies, but fulfills his mission which is to avenge his father who was killed by his brother, Claudius. Instead of looking forward to a bright future with Ophelia, Hamlet engages himself in a mission full of acting, deception and hypocrisy. The final result is the tragedy which ends with the death of all of the main characters. Hamlet is a tragic hero who is successful in realizing his goals and who dies due to being ...

In typical Shakespearean fashion, we have a soliloquy about Claudius in Hamlet that has left readers in tangles about the emotions and feelings that must have been going through this central character. The scene begins with Claudius in obvious turmoil for being responsible to sending King Hamlet to purgatory as a direct result of killing him before his sins could be atoned for. Claudius obviously understands the spiritual significance of this, as he is working to atone for his own sins. As a result, we now see Hamlet in turmoil as well. If he were to avenge King Hamlet’ ...

The Effectiveness of Literal Device in Stories

The critique text discussed in the paper is an article called, “A Palace in the Old Village.” The author of the book is Tahar Ben Jelloun. Having published it in 2009. It is an award-winning story of a man who stayed in France for Forty years and is planning to go back to his old country, Morocco. It is a very touching book with the author using many literary devices in it. The book is poetic, and thus, it can be heartbreaking to the reader due to its technicality. The author knows how to tell a story to the ...

Introduction

“Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister” is an 1839 poem written by Robert Browning. The main subject of the poem is a Spanish monk living in a cloister who exhibits resentment against a fellow monk living in the same quarters. Browning uses the Spanish monk to weave a stupendous web of hypocrisy and deceit. The monk expresses a variety of opinions that he shares together with those of the other monk. However, a close examination of the poem reveals that the monk’s assertions are not genuine. This monk tries to convince the audience or the reader of the poem is he is a moral and ...

What Hamlet Is Asking Himself

The soliloquy begins with the question to be or not to be. For any character playing the part, it is the most vital question. It does not simply mean whether the character should commit suicide or continue to live in a certain way. The basis of the question is still open to interpretation. The self-dialogue shows the dilemma that face Hamlet when deciding whether to end his life or continue with his miserable existence. He also has the dilemma of whether or not to kill his father’s killer and commit murder, or let the situation remain as it was ...

A young Prince is haunted by the spirit of his murdered father. The son has hardly slept or eaten since he heard the news. Stunned with grief he will not be counseled by his lover, family, friends or ministers of the military or the court. He prowls the castle nightly, a somnambulant lost in the coma of his will’s paralysis. At last the smoldering embers of revenge burst into flame and he wakes to restore justice and order to his world. His decision is swift and unequivocal: War on Denmark! This, of course, is Prince Fortinbras whose quest ...

The title has many references in its natural context. This means that it has a lot of cliché’s to it. The soliloquy therefore depends on a specific decipher. In this context, it is the opening line. Gibson’s hamlet is one of the best because he places less emphasis on the opening line. This allows people to focus more on the power and gravity of the soliloquy. People have the feeling of understanding the soliloquy in a better manner. The reader feels like an actor reading the script rather than a man having thoughts to him. It is easier to pay attention ...

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 ...

“Othello” is one of Shakespeare’s most intense plays and reflects the Aristotelian ideas of the perfect tragedy. According to Aristotle, “A tragedy is the imitation of an action that is serious,” (From Poetics, p.1). In addition, the tragedy has a “magnitude [that is] complete in itself; in appropriate and pleasurable language [and] in a dramatic rather than narrative form; with incidents arousing pity and fear,” (From Poetics, p.1). In other words, an outstanding tragedy looks at a single issue that is very important in the play and allows the reader to feel pity and fear for the hero as he heads ...

An analysis of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet as stage production by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

- Thesis Statement The play, Hamlet is one of William Shakespeare’s most celebrated tragedy stories. The play as directed by Greg Doran in the stage production by the Royal Shakespeare’s Company (RSC) presents the intricacies of revenge, betrayal and ruined family relations. - Overview - The play Hamlet was originally authored by William Shakespeare. The play has been reenacted into numerous films and plays that have been staged at different theaters across the world. - The play is a film-for-television adaptation of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s (RSC) 2008 stage production. It was directed ...

Audiences and readers around the world have been thrilled by Shakespeare’s dark and sinister Macbeth for the last four centuries, and not without reason. Various scenes of parts of scenes, character developments and dialogues or soliloquies in Macbeth are particularly powerful, impactful or full of meaning and combine to make Macbeth the great, epic and enduring work that it is and places the characters of Macbeth and, to some extent, Lady Macbeth, in league with some of the greatest, richest and most complex characters in theatre history. The play, after opening upon the three witches in a sinister ...

(Student’s Name) (Instructor’s Name)

" Hamlet is a coarse and barbarous play.One might think the product is a work of a drunken savage's imagination."—Voltaire <http://www.william-shakespeare.info/william-shakespeare-quotes-about.htm> After being considered to be Shakespeare's well-known, most popular and most loved play for some time, many persons would tend to disagree with Voltaire's quote. It can be assumed that Hamlet has retained its popularity for a decent period of time because it deals with very topical and interesting issues. As it relates specifically to Act 1, Scene 2, many critics dispute the significance of this scene to the overall development of the ...

Why does Hamlet delay so long in following the ghost’s command? This is one of those mysteries in literature that seems to have persisted ever since the play was written, remaining unanswered and solved till today. For Hamlet, it is his first long soliloquy, and he rebukes himself for his delay in avenging his father’s death. The reason for Hamlet’s long delay in following the ghost’s command is integral to Shakespeare’s Hamlet, since the play revolves around it, but what is also important is to conclude the morality of such revenge. The fact ...

William Shakespeare is one of the most famous playwrights in the world. His plays are translated in many languages and they are staged more often than any others. Shakespeare is still considered one of the best English writers despite the fact that his plays are more than 400 years old. Characters and plots he developed seem to be modern and up-to-date. He managed to touch the most vital issues of human life – love, friendship, sense of life, existence, antagonism of good and evil, issues of parenthood and motherland. His works are universal and can be adapted to any ...

Question 1

- Chorus Chorus is a literary device that refers to the situation when people do something in unison. It was used in the ancient Greek drama. As seen in Lysistrata when the old women chastised the younger women when they said they would not give in to the demands of their husbands (pg 149). - Dramatic irony Dramatic irony is seen when the audience or readers get to know certain things that certain characters in the play do not know. An example of dramatic irony in ‘trifles’ is when the women find the evidence to show that ...

Hamlet, written by the legendary William Shakespeare, is a play which tells of the tragedy of the Prince of Denmark. In the play, the Prince attempts to exact revenge on Claudius, his uncle, for murdering his father, King Hamlet. Set in the Danish Kingdom, the play explores the themes of incest, moral corruption and revenge. As odd as it may appear, it is quite ironical that Claudius decides to kill his own brother, King Hamlet, and take his wife, Queen Gertrude. When the Prince realizes the real cause of his father’s death, he is overcome with seething rage, and ...

A soliloquy is defined as a portion in which characters are involved in talking to themselves without directly speaking to the audience. This have well been used in the play by Shakespeare in most his books to reveal more about the character. In the book Macbeth soliloquy is used to relate the character and their true emotions which make it easier to relate it to the audience. The most forceful example is Macbeth’s dialogue with the phantom dagger, here the ‘heat oppressed brain’ created by the power of imagination. The dagger is more than a mere recipient of a speech; it ...

Introduction

This essay focuses on the William Shakespeare’s play No Fear and specifically on the part where the main character Hamlin hears and sees the players of the play he is making. It discusses the effects they have on Hamlin and the reasons for the effects coming up, what the players remind Hamlet of or what they might represent, and why in Hamlet, it initiates a response at the end like the soliloquy. When Hamlet hears and sees the players it affects in a way that it makes him sad, it angers and it irritates him at the same time. ...

Introduction

This paper describes Medea as a classical and famous work translated by Rex Warner. The book covers a short, concise and strongly unnerving story of Jason’s wife, Argonauts leader, and an unsettling revenge plot against her unfaithful husband and her child. Nurse, a slave in Medea’s house, helps the audience to understand the account of misogyny or a forewarning of the retaliation of a wronged woman. Medea as the main character is described as a “Machiavel without a country to rule" (4). At the beginning of the scene, Medea is portrayed as a suicidal woman. She prefers to herself as a wretch, an intolerable mother ...

Hamlet written by William Shakespeare has one of the greatest and widely recognized lines in literature, “to be or not to be”. Many have pondered over what this one line actually meant, but because it’s open to interpretation there are many perspectives. Many at times, it is assumed that this phrase contemplates suicide. The point where the protagonist uttered this line was a truly tragic moment, and he felt his life to be full of burdens and sorrows. Therefore, it is understandable if he wanted to commit suicide. Many also claim that Hamlet was pretending to be mad, so ...

A Thin Line Between Justice and Fear: An Exploration of Hamlet’s Inaction In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, there are many situations that make the reader wonder why Hamlet doesn’t take action in a timely manner. Hamlet seems to struggle with taking action due to moral and religious reasons. Aside from constantly thinking and considering things, he is also clever in coming up with excuses not to act. Because of this, Hamlet is not able to fulfill his father’s wish of being avenged. It can be argued that Hamlet is a coward, which Hamlet himself proves from ...

Consider how the personality of the flawed and unique individual unfolds during the play.

What devices does Shakespeare use to win our sympathy for the main character? Does Shakespeare suggest that the individual can make a difference?

Abstract

In the first section of this paper I deal with the way Hamlet’s character emerges throughout the play, and the way his character exemplifies changes known collectively as the Renaissance are examined. The second section deals very closely with Act Three, scene one and how Shakespeare creates sympathy – and even empathy for Hamlet. The political corruption of the Danish court is ...

In John Ford’s 1960 film The Grapes of Wrath, ex-convict Tom Joad and his family cross the country looking for work during the Depression, only to find themselves undergoing increasingly bad situations. Henry Fonda’s performance of Joad is a powerful, intense performance that blends into the background and stands out at the same time. In this essay, some of the acting techniques used by Henry Fonda in The Grapes of Wrath are examined, including representational acting, motivation, given circumstances, physical character work, concentration and focus, and soliloquies.

Henry Fonda equips Tom Joad with a very naturalistic, down-to-earth swagger, a very strong ...

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is arguably one of the most famous plays in world culture and, although it was first performed over four hundred year ago, it is still frequently staged and speaks anew to succeeding generations of theatre goers. It will be argued that Hamlet portrays what is in contemporary society still a devastating problem – the problems concerning the privacy and scrutiny of what we now call celebrities. Hamlet is, in terms of sixteenth century Denmark, a celebrity. He is the son of the recently deceased king and might even be regarded as his father’s natural successor. Towards ...