Hamlet's monologues

Hamlet’s monologues as stages of the drama structure

In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet monologues (or soliloquies) are important as they allow the audience to get an insight into the minds of the characters that often lie or spy and hide their true feelings and motives from one another. This is particularly true of Hamlet.

Claudius and Ophelia also deliver monologues, but theirs are not of the same length and intensity as those of Hamlet. Hamlet’s soliloquies highlight his increasing isolation at court. With the exception of Horatio, Hamlet confides in no one else: His mother does not seem to understand him, his stepfather wants him murdered, and his college friends betray him. Thus, he turns inward, which is reflected by his many monologues where he talks to himself.

None of the first four acts is without a monologue by Hamlet. Hamlet’s seven important monologues inform the audience about his authentic feelings and his plans. Each of them thus reflects a separate stage of the drama plot.

Hamlet’s monologues in the exposition (Act 1)

Monologue during the wedding of Gertrude and Claudius (Act 1/Scene 2)

Hamlet’s first soliloquy is an emotionally charged speech full of interjections, exclamations, and apostrophes. He expresses how much his mother’s marriage to his uncle Claudius weighs on him. The events at court cause him to feel disgusted with the world: “How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable, Seem to me all the uses of this world! Fie on’t! ah fie!” (1.2.136-138).

Hamlet is disgusted by the fact that his mother married Claudius so soon after his father’s death: '“Within a month: Ere yet the salt of most u...