Hamlet Soliloquy Act 4 Scene 4

In the sixth soliloquy of Hamlet, written by Shakespeare, Hamlet finally begins to realize his procrastination. In this soliloquy we discover how Hamlet is purely a follower; he needs to compare himself to another person in order to realize his own flaws. This constitutes his madness as he is seemingly an intelligent man, as suggested by some of his previous soliloquies, but yet is unable to see his own wrongdoings until after it becomes too late. In his sudden realization, he confesses his procrastination and it all becomes clear that he was aware of it the whole time. It thus can be concluded that Hamlet has been fooling us, as all of his wise choices seem to come after some unusual circumstances and not solely from his intellect.

Hamlet starts off with a terse statement indicating that he was given “all occasions” (32) and yet did not act upon it, which is marked by his “dull revenge” (33). Rather than to slowly ease his way to his point, he chooses to start out strongly, in turn, revealing how quick he must have came to this realization. It suggests that it must have always been at the top of his head at one point or another as its sudden appearance came at the very beginning of the soliloquy. He goes on to compare himself to that of a “beast” (35) asking the rhetorical question of “What is a man/If his chief good and market of his time/Be but to sleep and feed?” (33-35). By questioning his own worth, its shows his acceptance and admittance to the matter. He acknowledges and attempts to better himself as the first step to recovery is recognizing one’s problem. As to comparing himself to the likes of an animal, which suggests his sense of uselessness and self degradation, at the same time, confirms his feelings of guilt and thus illustrates the intense emotional impact it must have had on him upon his realization. As the soliloquy continues, Hamlet begins to become more specific, throwing out references to his previous mistakes, that is, by delaying Claudius’s death. He claims, at the time, to be “thinking too precisely on th’ event” (41). This is a reference to his so called logical thinking in the fifth soliloquy, admitting that he indeed was thinking too heavily on the event given such a perfect window of opportunity. He further continues to beat himself up by classifying his decision as “one part wisdom/And ever three parts coward” (42-43) meaning that his seemingly logical thinking in his fifth soliloquy of extending Claudius’s life was all in fact mostly composed of fear rather than good judgment. His last confession came as he claims that it was all in his power to do justice as he possesses the “cause”, “will”, and “strength” but yet chose not to follow through. It can thus be concluded that at the time he possessed all these qualities to justify his actions, but he was supposedly unaware of it as he was blinded by the reasons he admits above: fear. All in all his list of regrets when combined with the terse statements, shows his organization and well thought out statements which in the end gives evidence of his awareness during the whole ordeal up until this point of confession.

Upon analyzation of Hamlet’s previous soliloquies, it can thus be conclusive that Hamlet has been fooling us about his intelligence this whole time. Such is evident in the third soliloquy as he portrays his envy of the actor’s passion, commenting on their abilities to “force” their “soul” to take part in fictional plays of “dream” and “passion” (510-511). Hamlet at that moment begins to realize his own flaws, but