subject: Opinions about Hamlet's Monologue [print this page] Opinions about Hamlet's Monologue Opinions about Hamlet's Monologue
Hamlet is one of Shakespear's most famous four tragedies. It tells a story about a Denmark prince Hamlet who avenges his father and himself on his uncle Claudius who kills Hamlet's father, that is his brother, through long-considered schemes and well-designed tricks.
This scene is Hamlet's internal monologue which is especially well-known for the familiar sentence "to be, or not to be". Nowadays, this sentence is also used in several kinds of situations. It describes people who is in a dilemma. So is Hamlet.
In this monologue, Hamlet is terribly confused about what he should do. Should he take actions to kill his uncle for his father, or pretend to be negligent and careless so as to hold himself back from revenge? Then he spends all days thinking about this matter. He considers about suicide so that agony can stop bother him continually and the sense of responsibility for his father, for his love, for his citizen and for his country will set him free forever.
However, when he thinks about death, he is stumbled again by the unknown world, the undiscovered dream after death and also the unpredictable thoughts of people alive. Actually, Hamlet himself then is obssessed with the fear of responsibility for his country. He fears that no matter his suicide or his vengeful behavior will result in serious and harmful consequences for his nation.
At the end of this monologue, Hamlet mentions Ophelia, his lover. He hopes that she will pray God's forgiveness for him. Then the question what Hamlet wants to confess to God on earth comes to my mind. Does he feel miserable about his hesitating mind and behavior? Does he feel guilty for his coward and timidness? Does he fear the new king, death, trouble, bloody facts, or the future of his nation?
After sevaral times of reading, I do think that he takes all the factors above into accounts. Facing the crafty newly-enthroned king, Hamlet needs to consider about the disparity between his uncle and he. It is obviously reasonable for anyone to spend a long time thinking over the avenging plan. In addition, he always tries to consider about the influence of his actions on his country, no matter how extremely miserable he will feel and how suffering he will be responsible for. To be frank, I think Hamlet deserves a prince's identity, for he really makes every effort to deal with everyting in harmony in order not to hurt other unrelated ones, through it is impossible to reach this circumstance.
