Some plays take the audience for a ride as the main character changes. The main character, Hamlet, is upset about his father's death. Hamlet goes makes himself worse throughout the play and eventually contemplates suicide and murder. This paper will analyze Hamlets thoughts and speeches through the first half of the play.
Hamlet begins the play upset over his father's death. He is also upset about his mother's quick remarriage to his uncle, Claudius. It is hard for the audience to tell which he is actually more upset about. Claudius and the queen find Hamlets mourning excessive, and they confront him about it just prior to his first soliloquy. At this point the thought of suicide has already entered Hamlets mind, "Or that the Everlasting had not fix" His canon "gainst self-slaughter!" (S,10). This makes the reader think he is upset over his fathers death and let down by the world, which he is. He goes on to tell how great a man his father really was. He then begins talking about how quickly his mother remarried, "a beast that wants discourse of reason would have mourn"d longer." (S,11). This shows how upset he is in his mother. Eventually this will lead to a dislike of all women. He compares his mother to a beast and then criticizes her for marrying his uncle.
After his first soliloquy Hamlet learns of his fathers ghost who has been appearing. He confronts the ghost who is his father, and finds out he was killed by Claudius, his own brother. This is where Hamlets emotional downfall begins.
Through Hamlet's "Rogue and Peasant Slave" soliloquy the audience learns how upset Hamlet is with himself. After watching how much a player mourned over a fictional character he begins to question his own feelings toward his own father who was murdered. He thinks to himself, if the player was put in his position would he have killed his uncle by now? "What would he do, had he the motive and the cue for passion that I have? He would drown the stage with tears and cleave the general ear with horrid speech" (S,48) Hamlet also refers to himself as a coward, "Am I a coward?" (S,48).
