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A soliloquy is a dramatic device where a character reveals their private

thoughts aloud while alone on stage. In Shakespeare's Hamlet, the
protagonist delivers seven lengthy soliloquies. The first conveys Hamlet's
grief over his mother's hasty remarriage and his wish for suicide. The second
comes after seeing his father's ghost, where Hamlet resolves to avenge his
father's murder. The third finds Hamlet reproaching himself for delaying in
enacting revenge. The famous "To be, or not to be" soliloquy depicts Hamlet
debating whether it is better to live or die.

Date uploaded
Mar 21, 2011

Original Title
A soliloquy is a device often used in drama where by a character relates his
or her thoughts and feelings to him

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SaveSave A soliloquy is a device often used in drama where ... For Later

soliloquy

is a device often used in drama where by a character relates his or her

thoughts andfeelings to him/herself and to the audience without addressing
any of the other charactersSoliloquy is distinct
frommonologue andaside.Soliloquies are similar yet distinct to a monologue;
an exclusive view of a character's dramatizedaction within a play-world,
typically addressing another character or group of characters.

What is soliloquy?

(14

th

century)

The term is from the Late Latin

soliloquium

, coined by St. Augustine, theBishop of Hippo, from the Greek

monologia

which was derived by combining

solus
, meaning“alone,” and

loqui

, meaning “to speak Soliloquy - a speech delivered by a character in a play or

other literature while alone, oran utterance by a person who is talking to
him/herself, disregardful of or oblivious to any hearers present. This
technique is frequently used to disclose a character’s innermost feeling, such
asthoughts, state of mind, motives, and intentions or to provide information
needed by the audienceor reader.

Dictionary meaning:

M S N Encarta1. Taking when alone the act of speaking while alone,

especially when used as a theatricaldevice that allows a character’s thoughts
and ideas to be conveyed to the audience2. Secon in play a secon of a
play or other drama in which a soliloquy is spoken

Literary meaning

: Oxford concise Dictonary of lierary erme

Oxford “Literary terms” soliloquy ( sol-li-kwi) a drama c speech u ered by

one characterspeaking aloud while alone on the stage. The soliloquist thus
reveals his or her inner thoughts and feeling to the audience, either in
supposed self-communion or in a consciously direct address.Soliloquies
oen appear in play from the age of Shakespeare, notably in his hamlet and
Macbeth. A poem supposedly uered by a solitary speaker, like Robert
brewing soliloquy of the Spanish cloister(1842), may also be called a
soliloquy. Soliloquy is a form of monologue, but a monologue is not asoliloquy
if (as in the dramac monologue) the speaker is not alone verb soliloquize

What deferent of soliloquy and monologue

A soliloquy is a dramatic device in which a character is alone on

stage revealing his privatethoughts to the audience. It is what one would
call thinking out loud and usually gives useful informationthat the character
could not usually just "come out and say."A m o n o l o g u e i s v e r y s i m i l a r
t o a s o l i l o q u y i n t h a t i t c a n b e s p o ke n w i t h t h e c h a r a c t e r
u n d e r t h e impression of being along, or it can be spoken to others. It is
often a fairly long, dramatic speech
Historical back round

Rare in Classical drama, Elizabethan and Jacobean playwrights used it

extensively, especially fortheir villains, as they manipulated the plot and
commented on the action, such as in Shakespeare’s

Macbeth

Hamlet

, and Iago in

Othello

.A well-known example is Hamlet’s soliloquy which begins with:O, that this

too too sullied flesh would melt,Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!Or that
the Everlasting had not fix’dHis canon ’gainst self-slaughter! . . .Act I, scene ii
: lines 129 – 132see: device, interior monologue, monologue

Shakespeare soliloquy in Hamlet’s

In many soliloquy here in Hamlets like a the Grief Gnawing at His

Heart

Resolution to Avenge His Father’s Murder,

Self-Reproach,

On the Horns of a dilemma, evading the Responsibility, The idea of

Delay emphasized by the soliloquies, Excessively
Speculative, Irresolute, Scholarly, Poetic, Nothing about his
relations with Ophelia in These Soliloquies,Three Powers of the Soul
Dramatized, Over-analysis of motives, Poetic quality.
The Grief Gnawing at His Heart

In the course of the play, hamlet has seven long soliloquies. The rst of
these occurs before hehas seen the ghost. In the soliloquy, hamlet reveals
the grief that has been gnawing at his mind. Hewishes that religion did not
forbid suicide so that he could kill himself and be rid of this grief. He
feelsdisillusioned with the
world: How weary, stale, at and unprotable, Seem to me all the uses of th
is world!He deplores the fact of that his mothers should have remarried
barely two month aer the death of herrst husband. The soliloquy shows
hamlet’s meditave nature.

Resolution to Avenge His Father’s Murder

Hamlet’s second soliloquy comes just aer the ghost leaves him, a er
charging him with theduty of taking revenge upon the murderer his father. “a
most pernicious women” and to his uncle as a“smiling, damned villain”. We
again note his generalizing tendency when he says that “One may smile,and
smile, and be Villain”

Self-Reproach

In his third soliloquy, Hamlet bitterly scolds himself for having Failed to
execute hisrevenge so far. He calls himself “a dull and muddy- mettled
rascal” for this failure, accusinghimself of being “pigeon- livered’ he refers to
his uncle as “ a boloody, a bawdy villain,remorseless, treacherous, lecherous,
kindles villain” he than dwells upon his plan to stage a play,saying:The play’s
the thingWherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.

On the Horns of a dilemma

Hamlet’s fourth soliloquy, his most famous and most celebrated, is the most
philosophical of all.Here we have a mental debate, with speaker on the horns
of a dilemma; “to be, or not to be: that isqueson”. Hamlet asks himself
whether it is nobler to suer the crueles of fate silently or to put up aght
against the misfortunes of life. Hamlet ‘s delay in car ng out his purpose,
and shows at the sameme the mental torture that he has been undergoing
because of that delay.

To be, or not to be, that isthe queson:

Whether 's nobler in the mind to suerThe slings and arrows of outrageous
fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of troublesAnd by opposing end them

Decision to “speak Daggers” to His Mother

In his fifth soliloquy, Hamlet describe his mood as one in which he could
“drink hot blood, anddo such bitter business as the day would quake to look
on”in this mood he can even kill his mother, but hewould not follow nero’s
example “let me be cruel, not unnaturally. He therefore decides to
“speakdaggers” to his mother but use none.

The idea of Delay Emphasized by the soliloquies

Hamlet’s soliloquies are foremost in bringing the idea of his delay to our
noce. The stress ondelay shows also Hamlet’s pre-occupa on with his
role. His life is one to be lived under the imposi on of a great task which his
seems unable to full.

Excessively Speculative, Irresolute, scholarly, poetic

The soliloquies of hamlet undoubtedly throw a ood of light on his character

and personality. Asoliloquy is a device by which Shakespeare reveals to us
the inner working of a character’s mind, the

secret thoughts and cogitaon of a character, and the deepest recesses of a

character’s soul. Hamlet’ssoliloquies surely serve that purpose.

Three powers of he soul DramatzedAccording o one critc

, the rst six soliloquies of Hamlet dramaze the three powers of thesoul-
namely, memory, understanding, and will and show how his memory and
understanding areopposed to his will, while the seventh soliloquy is
concerned with all three powers of the soul thoughthe ba le in hamlet’s
mind is never decided at a conscious level.

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