Hamlets Transformation as Seen through His Soliloquies

Hamlet is one of William Shakespeares most well-known and critiqued plays because it incorporates so many elements of drama, tragedy, humor, love, resentment and family loyalty. The title character struggles throughout with the death of his father, his place in the kingdom, the new relationship between his mother and uncle, and his love for, and loss of, Ophelia. Each character around Hamlet deals with all of these issues and relationships too they confront feelings of love, hate and need, but none of them struggles more or expresses the emotions he feels like Hamlet does. There is action, intrigue, and comedy in the play, in addition to fierce arguments and passionate exchanges. In the midst of this whirlwind of political and family drama and intrigue, Hamlet changes as a character and a person. As he finds out new information about the family members he trusts and the friends he has confided in, it alters his perceptions of them and of himself. These changes in love and loyalty as well as Hamlets growth and transformation are most evident in his soliloquies, both when speaking to other characters and as asides to him. In his soliloquies, Hamlet reveals his changing emotions, his transformation from a young man to an adult, and sheds light on the life-altering decisions hes making.

One of the first glimpses given into Hamlets perspective to himself and his place in the kingdom after the death of his father takes place very early in the play, after his mother tells him to stop grieving for his father and to look at Denmark with a light heart and new eyes. Hamlet is sad, mourning the loss of his beloved father, depressed, and unsure what his place in the kingdom will be since his father is dead and his uncle has taken over as king after marrying Hamlets mother. Once he has been left alone by his uncle and his mother, Hamlet reflects on the emotions he is feeling about all of these issues. He reflects on his fathers strength as a king and how much the king loved his wife 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 (139-42). In his memory, his father had loved his mother so much that he would have commanded the forces of nature to treat her kindly. Hamlet feels that he was a perfect king and a loving husband, one that would stop at nothing to ensure that his wife was loved, pampered and wanted for nothing. This is also the first of multiple times that Hamlet compares his father to Hyperion, a Titan from Greek mythology that was the father of Helios, Selene, and Eos, or the sun, the moon and the dawn. This reference could be interpreted that Hamlets world essentially revolved around his father, much like the moon revolves around the earth. This loss of life and reason to live is expressed a few lines earlier in the soliloquy when Hamlet says, How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world (133-34). Hamlet clearly feels a huge void in his world without his fathers leadership and guidance to the point that he feels that life is meaningless and not worth living. In contrast to his reflection on his fathers strength and excellence, he views his mother as weak, vulnerable and easily manipulated Let me not think ont frailty, thy name is woman...Within a month, ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears had left the flushing in her galled eyes, she married (1146, 153-56). Here, he is expressing that he feels that his mother is weak without having her husband, Hamlets father, to lean on, and that without him she quickly fell to making bad decisions. He despairs over how little time she took to mourn her late husband and feels that she remarried the kings brother so fast that the tears hadnt even had time to dry on her cheeks. Hamlet isnt really expressing anger here, mostly just sadness and depression over the loss of his father and confusion and disappointment in his mothers decision to marry her former brother-in-law. In spite of feeling all these strong emotions, he ends his soliloquy deciding that he must be quiet about his opinions It is not, nor it cannot come to good, but break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue (158-59). Hamlet feels as though his heart is breaking over what is becoming of his late fathers kingdom, but feels that he must keep quiet even though he knows it will come to a bad end.

Later, Hamlets attitude towards his mother is drastically changed. He has been home for a while and observed his mother and uncles flirtatious and publicly physically affectionate relationship. His sadness over his fathers death and his disillusionment with his mothers new marriage to her former brother-in-law has turned to anger and resentment for them both, and he takes the opportunity to tell his mother his true feelings when the two of them are alone in her chamber. Forcing her to look at a picture of her and her late husband, he again refers to his father as Hyperion and using references to Greek mythological figures by likening his features and personality to, Hyperions curls, the front of Jove himself, an eye like Mars to threaten and command, a station like the herald Mercury new-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill (57-60). His father is given attributes of several Greek heroes and gods and Hamlet tells her that, in being close to heaven that his father was as close to being godlike as a man could be. He reinforces his feelings that she should feel the same way about her late husband by reminding her repeatedly, This was your husband, look you now what follows, here is your husband (64-65). He is reminding her that his father was her husband and trying to force her to see that she is tarnishing his memory with her behavior and marriage to the late kings brother. He feels that she has no justification in saying that she is in love, because at her age that is impossible You cannot call it love, for at your age the heyday in the blood is tame (69-70). He is telling her that she is too old to make decisions based on emotions that she thinks are love because those are the impulsive decisions that a girl half her age would make, and that she is too old to think like that anymore. He tells her that she should be ashamed Oh shame, where is thy blush(82) and that she is relinquishing what was left of her virtuousness in her relationship with her late husbands brother let virtue be as wax and melt in her own fire (85-86). In these lines, Hamlet is essentially calling his mother impulsive, impetuous, lacking in virtue, wanton, and a sinner. These are very strong accusations for him to throw in the face of the woman he previously stated was so gentle and sweet that his father would have stopped nature from treating her too harshly. Here, Hamlet treats her very harshly both verbally and physically, by pushing the picture into her face and making such emotionally charged statements against her. This soliloquy reflects Hamlets growing anger and resentment and foreshadows his violent behavior to come.

Hamlet appears first in the play as a young man, heartbroken over the loss of his father, lost as to what direction his life will take and confused at his mothers and uncles actions. His emotions are personal, spoken to himself, and his decisions are mostly to keep silent about everything that is upsetting him and say nothing. Later, he appears stronger, more decisive, and possessing more conviction. The man in the first soliloquy would never throw a picture in his mothers face and come so close to calling her a whore, but the man in the second soliloquy cant stand seeing the wrongdoing that is continuously happening around him. The progression of Hamlets character is due largely to the action that takes place in between the two soliloquies, including Hamlets conversations with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and his observation of the treatment of Ophelia. Hamlet simply cant take it anymore, and this rage and anger spills over in his speech to his mother. Later he will vent this same anger physically, but the second soliloquy tells the reader that whatever decisions he makes will be made as a decisive adult that feels he is doing what must be done.