Act 1 Scene 2 Of Hamlet's First Soliloquy

Act 1 Scene 2 is a key moment that includes Hamlet’s first soliloquy, during which the audience start to understand the complexity of Hamlet and his personal state of melancholia. Shakespeare’s use of syntax, fanatic language and striking imagery develops the tension within Hamlet’s relationship with Gertrude, while feeding the reoccurring theme of misogyny. Shakespeare uses intense juxtapositions and the theme of corruption to strengthen the characterisation of Claudius, through the eyes of Hamlet. The use of a wide range of language and analytical techniques help to strengthen the passage as a whole.

This passage is crucial in the characterisation of Hamlet. Firstly, the immediate metaphor of dissolution and the vocabulary associated with agony, “too too solid flesh would melt/Thaw and resolve”, is the synecdoche and portrays …show more content…
The passage importantly characterizes Hamlet as a victim within the play. Shakespeare’s imagery of rot and decay, “Tis an unweeded garden/That grows to seed, things rank and gross in nature” symbolises Denmark as a neglected, machiavellian state that corrupts the characters within the play; furthermore victimising Hamlet. This sentence is followed by a caesura “possess it merely.”, in order to allow the audience to reflect upon the deeper question of whether Hamlet will be the play’s antagonist or protagonist. To characterise Hamlet as a symbol of vulnerability, Shakespeare uses a semantic field associated with religion and Christianity “Everlasting had not fixed/His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter”; the exploration of the suicide and its standing in religion helps to represent the strength of Hamlet’s despair and lack of hope, whilst the caesura allows the audience to further reflect upon this. The use of this imagery allows the audience to re-evaluate the behaviour of this protagonist in the context of his religious values. Hamlet’s