• He is immediately suspicious ‘my father’s spirit in arms? I doubt some foul play’
• He cannot wait for the night to come so that he can see the ghost for himself ‘ till then sit still my soul’
• This adds to the dramatic tension

At the end of Act2:2 Hamlet delivers another soliloquy after seeing the players perform

• This enables us to see his inner most thoughts, in it he is angry at himself over the failure to act
• The player has just delivered a passionate performance in which he sheds tears for Hecuba
• Yet Hamlet, with real reason to be passionate, seemingly lacks the passion to act
• Hamlet concludes that he is a coward ‘It cannot be but I am pigeon-livered and lack gall’
• This soliloquy helps to create a sense of dramatic irony because Hamlet declares his intention of staging a play to test the kings guilt
• While Claudius expects The Mousetrap to be a piece of innocent entertainment, we know that it means much more than that to Hamlet ‘they play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king’

Hamlet’s most famous soliloquy is delivered in Act 3:1. This is where we see Hamlet at his most philosophical

• He wonders whether he should ‘take up arms against a sea of troubles’
• This soliloquy is important because it helps us to understand the essence of Hamlet’s personality- he is a thinker rather than a man of action
• This soliloquy is also important because Hamlet identifies the key reason for his inaction ;Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, and thus the native hue of resolution is sicklied o’er with pale cast of thought’

His next soliloquy follows The Mousetrap, the play (within the play) which confirms the king’s guilt.

• This soliloquy seems to suggest that Hamlet is finally poised to act ‘Now could I drink hot blood and do such bitter business as the day would quake to look on’
• It is here that we also learn of Hamlet’s plan to confront his mother and ‘speak daggers’ to her

We again see Hamlet’s reflective nature in his soliloquy in the Prayer Scene

• Hamlet now has concrete proof of the king’s guilt when he comes upon him praying.
• However, he once again procrastinates, claiming that to kill Claudius when he is in prayer would send the villain to heaven
• The audience suspects that Hamlet is simply drawing back from the idea of cold-blooded revenge

The sight of Fortinbras boldly marching through Denmark on his way to Poland prompts Hamlet next soliloquy

• Hamlet wonders if his failure to act is the result of cowardice or caused by ‘thinking too precisely on the event’
• Once again we see his own guilt & anger at his own inaction
• In contrast to Fortinbras ( who is prepared to risk everything for a worthless ‘patch of ground’)
• Hamlet, with far more compelling reasons to act (a father killed, a mother stained), seems to be incapable of acting.
• Self-disgust leads to another passionate outburst as Hamlet rededicates himself to gaining revenge ‘O from this time forth my thought be bloody or be worth nothing’

Claudius also has a number of soliloquys, the most important of which is delivered in the Prayer Scene

• This is important because it reveals a side to the king that we had not seen up to this point
• He is painfully aware of the enormity of his crime & is filled with guilt ‘O my offence is rank, it smells to heaven’
• We see his inner torment as he longs to pray for forgiveness, but is unable to because he is unwilling to give up all that he has gained through his crime, notably the crown & queen ‘My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts never to heaven go’
• Claudius knows that while he may avoid justice on earth, he will ultimately face divine justice ‘But ‘tis not so above, there is no shuffling, there the action in his true nature’
• This soliloquy is important because we now see Claudius as a more rounded, more credible character- he is a villain with a conscience