O, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,
Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God, God,
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on 't, ah fie! 'Tis an unweeded garden
That grows to seed. Things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely. That is 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 ñ why she, even she
(O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason
Would have mourned longer!), married with my 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 gallËd 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.
Hamlet is clearly in pain, but about what? Is he simply mourning the loss of his father, the king? At first, it would seem that, yes, it was only the death which plunged him into despair, but later it is evident that this death has brought up some repressed emotions about the state of the world which he is a part of. The beginning lines have Hamlet asking why God had made suicide taboo among society. The concept of suicide becomes a recurring theme as he contemplates suicide again later in the story within another soliloquy.
He then discusses his tremendous disgust with his mother's inappropriate actions regarding her over-hasty marriage to Hamlet's uncle, Claudius. It has been less than two months since his father died and already his mother has been married for about a month. He curses her for appearing to be so incredibly in love with the old King, yet almost immediately fall so deeply in love with his brother. This soliloquy is also the first place we hear the term "incestuous sheets" in regards to his mother and his uncle's marriage.
Nick,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you mentioned Hamlet's reference to suicide, as it becomes a prevalent theme later, but it also gives foresight into another part of Hamlet's character: not only does he have no regard for his own life, but he seems to consider himself capable of passing judgement and controlling the lives of others. Yes, he is at odds with the state of the world, but he receives that fact on a personal level and there is some element that he is playing a game, that he must be silent and reach his goals in order to win. He has a child's level of maturity, yet he deems himself fit to handle matters beyond the providence of the average man, even handling duties as befit a king, rather than a prince. For all his misery, his ambition seems to be an overwhelming force. I appreciated the different perspective on the same passage I wrote on! Nice work!
I agree that the death of his father has really made Hamlet emotionally unstable. This is the first time the topic of suicide is brought up and is eventually an important theme of the play. The fact that his mother has already remarried has made Hamlet even more unstable. This is the first time that we see Hamlet in a distraught state and I think this solilquy shows a lot about his mental side.
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