(A Discussion of the Connections in Hamlet’s Soliloquies in Shakespeare’s, Hamlet) “A soliloquy is a popular literary device often used in drama to reveal the innermost thoughts of a character... used to convey the progress of action of the play by means of expressing a character’s thoughts...without acknowledging the presence of any other person”(LiteraryDevices Editors). Many famous playwrights use and have used soliloquies to progress the action of their plays as described by the editors for literarydevices.net. One of the most famous playwrights to use this literary device is William Shakespeare. Shakespeare used soliloquies in a multitude of his dramatic plays. “The most famous Shakespeare soliloquies (and indeed, the …show more content…
Hamlet gives a soliloquy in Acts 1, 2, and 3. Shakespeare uses the Act 3 soliloquy spoken by Hamlet as a completion to the soliloquies spoken in Acts 1 and 2 in the play, Hamlet, by finishing thoughts unlike in the first two soliloquies which shows the use of reasonable thinking, re-evaluating the idea of suicide presented in …show more content…
In the Act I soliloquy, Hamlet first addresses the idea of suicide when he says, “Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon 'gainst self-slaughter.”(Act 1 Scene ii Lines 133-134). This idea is once again brought up in Shakespeare’s most well-known soliloquy, Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” soliloquy in Act 3 Scene i of Hamlet. As said by Nicole Smith, “...there is little doubt that he is thinking of death. Although he attempts to pose such a question in a rational and logical way, he is still left without an answer of whether the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” can be borne out since life after death is so uncertain.” Smith made this observation to go along with lines 81-84 in Act 3 Scene i. Due to this, the Act 3 soliloquy clearly re-evaluates the idea of suicide found in Act 1, working as a continuance or completion of the