1. ACT ONE SCENE TWO Throne room in the castle
Hamlet soliloquy
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
ILARIA CORAZZA 4P LSC

2. HAMLET’S SOLILOQUY
FIRST PART
SECOND PART

3. HAMLET SOLILOQUY SPEAKER: Hamlet PLACE: throne room in the castle
SPEECH’S STRUCTURE: soliloquy
THESIS: to express his anger and pains and their causes
ARGOMENTATION: verbal violence against his mother, his thoughts and pangs’ exposition, the contrast between his father and his uncle

4. STRUCTURAL LEVEL Soliloquy  organised into:
his disdain’s affirmation for the mother’s choice;
using of the contrast between his father and his uncle to express his pains and fury;
using of verbal violence against his mother;

5. SEMANTIC LEVEL Frequent use of:
words with double (sullied, seem, possess, appetite..)
 to emphasize his fury;
words related to the semantic level of pain (weary, fraility, tears..)  to emphasize his desperation ;
words that show Hamlet’s fury and his sense of disgust (fie on’t, O most wicked speed..);
positive adjectives (excellent king, loving..)  to magnify his father;
words related to religion level (Heaven and earth, Everlasting, God..);
words connected to the time concept (two months, not two, a little month, dexterity..)  to refer to time fugacity and to the situation’s absurdity;

6. SEMANTIC LEVEL
conditional verbs (would melt..)  to express his desires and personal opinions;
Presence of the words/ expressions:
throne room  interiore place → Hamlet’s interior (his feelings, emotions, thoughts..)
flesh  sexual connotation; to refer to human body;
to melt  to become dust; not to fight to problems → body leads to sin;
dew  to refer to Hamlet death’s desire;
unweeded garden that grows to seed  garden = world; unweeded = not an ordered society; that grows to seed = human being become dust;
things rank possess it merely  people do not perform their task;

7. SEMANTIC LEVEL satyr  his father’s brother makes fun of his mother;
fraility, thy name is woman  referring to his pangs responsable;
a beast that wants discourse of reason  his disdain for human being → world’s evils cause;
incestuos sheets  Gertrude’s agreement with the new Denmark king.

8. SYNTACTIC LEVEL PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL
Incidental sentences to underline his pangs;
exclamations to highlight the situation’s absurdity and his sense of desperation;
invocations to divine dimension;
rhetorical questions to emphasize and support his point of view.
letter “s” recurrence that remember a cry and remind to thought’s flows;
long vowels which recoll a continuos cry, a lament;
strong sounds to underline his fury and his opinion for her mother decision in the second soliloquy part.

9. RHETORICAL LEVEL Metaphors:
→ “ ‘tis an unweeded garden that grows to seed. Things rank and gross in nature possess it merely. “ = world’s condemnation
→ “ Why, she would hang on him as if increase of appetite had grown by what it fed on. “ = eternal love of his mother towards Hamlet’s father when he was still alive
Simily:
→ “ A little month, or e’er those shos were old with which she followed my poor father’s body like Niobe, all tears..” = comparison to Niobe, character of Greek mythology

10. RETHORICAL LEVEL Alliteration : Repetition : Paronomasia : Hyperbole:
letter “s”  a lament, a cry;
letter “t”  sadness.
Repetition :
word “God”  to give emphasis to Hamlet’s invocation;
word “too”  to create an exaggeration and to underline how
body is sinful.
Paronomasia :
“father’s brother”  to specify who his mother married.
Hyperbole:
“that was to this Hyperion”  to magnify his father.

11. LINGUISTIC AND LITERARY CHOICES
Medieval ideals’ recovery :
(point of reference)
sinful body;
suicide’s prohibition by God;
invocation to divine dimension;
comparisons with Greek myths’ characters.
Typical teenagers emotions and situation’s exposition:
feeling of jelousy, sadness, fury;
a parent’s death and the other’s new marriage;
need to be at the centre of the attention.

12. ILARIA CORAZZA
4P LSC