Soliloquies, sounds, states of mind

I'm going to help you with your analysis of the first three soliloquies in Hamlet by suggesting what to look for, and why:

• First, let's go to the instructions I gave you Thursday: in each speech, take note of “pace, tone (or progression of tones), imagery & figures of speech.” An actor looks for beats, or shifts in thought & intention when mastering a speech. You should do the same. For example, Hamlet's feelings start to boil up when the word “month” comes to mind, and becomes the "little month" during which his mother's funeral shoes grew old and her affection transferred to Claudius. As they do, his pace, emphasis and tone change too. Iambic pentameter is marvelously flexible: it can adjust to any pace that word choice and tone dictate.

• Diction—word sounds. Compare the feeling of these lines

O, that this too too solid flesh would melt
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!

To these:

Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
She married. O, most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!

Merely the repetition of “too” (which demands the speaker move deliberately) and the merger of the hard t that ends “melt” with the soft th that begins thaw (which keeps the sound flow subdued and melancholy) are enough to establish the pall of disillusionment and depression that hangs over the speech at first.

But the “flushing in her galled eyes” and the “wicked speed” that posts “With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!” evoke Hamlet’s own galled state (the word applies equally well to the mother’s tearful eyes the son’s resentful irritation with her). Furthermore, the words he (Shakespeare, really) chooses allow him a mixture of gutteral and sibilant sounds that echo his rising anger.

Now consider the opportunity that his opening words in the Act II soliloquy (O what a rogue and peasant slave am I! / Is it not monstrous that this player here…) afford the actor who’s willing to let the stops out.

• Subject matter—Hamlet goes from the dramatically specific (Gertrude’s fickle behavior & his dislike for Claudius, the First Player’s speech & his mission of revenge) to the philosophically abstract (the nature and of being vs. unbeing, the woes of existence, the injustice of the powerful, etc.). Much of the universality of this intriguing personage is concentrated in this speech of 32 lines. Perhaps also much of his deliberative, contemplative n ature is expressed—the thing that stands in the way of revenge “swift as thought.”

In spite of the philosophic nature of the third soliloquy, it would be a mistake to take it all at the same level and pace. It, too, has its beats.

• Summarize your analysis in the form specified by the first set of instructions. We’ll discuss the speeches on Monday and you’ll have the opportunity to “annotate your notes”—write stuff in the margin that express any change in or addition to your perceptions.

• Finally—BE SURE YOU KNOW what words and expressions mean. Your texts have good notes in them. Make use. Don’t be lazy and careless about meaning.

PS: the little multi-Hamlet wandering in circles is a drawing from Gianni di Luca’s 48-page Italian comic book version of Hamlet, published in 1975.