Hamlet Commentary on Act 3 Scene 1 Lines 64 - 98
Uploaded by zeo01 on Jul 04, 2004
Hamlet expresses his views through a soliloquy in Hamlet written by William Shakespeare full of decorative language and meaning. The passage describes Shakespeare’s mental stage throughout the play and embodies the superb language Shakespeare uses to convey Hamlet’s thoughts. Through the use of literary devices, Shakespeare captures Hamlet’s suicidal and contemplative thoughts.
The character Hamlet continues his melancholy behavior after seeing actors without any motivation act more aggressively then Hamlet should be doing against the King Claudius. The feelings are expressed in a soliloquy, which more often than not reveals the character’s true thoughts because it is a speech of his inner thoughts. He is mentally disturbed shown by the famous line, “to be or not to be-that is the question.” Here he is contemplating whether to live or to end his existence. The words are succinct and sweet because they follow a rhythm characteristic of Shakespeare’s poetic blank verse.
He debates whether it would be nobler to suffer through the pains of life or to take the ultimate challenge and choose death. Hamlet wants to choose the most honorable path, including avenging his father’s death. He is not afraid of it and is willing to “take arms against a sea of troubles” by ending his life. Hamlet then continues thinking about death and simplifies it as sleeping. Ending all the woes of his life is greatly desired especially ending the memory of his tragic father’s murder and his mother’s betrayal.
Hamlet begins to focus on sleeping and dreams. The line “To die, to sleep, to sleep, perchance to dream” is written in iambic pentameter. The reader will notice it immediately because of the way the syllables sound and way Shakespeare plays with the words. It is a good introduction into what Hamlet believes to be the main obstacles keeping him from death, the unknown. People do not know “what dreams may come” and is reason why people suffer through the calamities of life. The lines between 85 to 90 sum up the conclusion for people’s relationship toward death. They would rather suffer through known turmoil than to suffer the grief of the what lies in the undiscovered and unknown. The irony that Shakespeare’s Hamlet points out is “conscience does make cowards of us all.” We are born cowards and live through...