Cavin Pledger's SOAPSTONE

Cavin Pledger
Mr. Lee
World Literature
20 January 2011


SOAPSTONE analysis of Hamlet’s Soliloquy
The speaker of Hamlet’s soliloquy is Hamlet. The occasion is Hamlet meeting with the King and Queen to discuss his mother’s marriage. The audience is higher class Elizabethans. The purpose of Hamlet’s soliloquy is to express his disapproval of his mother’s marriage. He feels his mother should not marry his father’s brother and that his father was a great King and deserves to be mourned longer. “O god, a beast that wants discourse of a reason would have mourned longer!” (I ii 14-15). By comparing his mother to a beast it is evident Hamlet feels like his mother has no heart or compassion for his father.
The subject of Hamlet’s soliloquy is his mother’s marriage to his uncle. Hamlet’s mother plans to get married only two months after Hamlet’s father dies. He strongly feels she should wait longer
The tone of Hamlet’s soliloquy is very upset and distraught because of his mother’s decision; “O, most wicked speed, to post with such dexterity to incestuous sheets!”(I ii 17-18). Dexterity meaning clever, Hamlet feels his mother is marrying his uncle for reasons other than love, this adds to a skeptical tone. Hamlet even calls his mother incestuous. Because incest was considered very immoral during Elizabethan times, Hamlet calling his mother incestuous adds to a very scornful tone.