Hamlet

The subject of Hamlet’s sixth aside was very similar to his other six because of his inability to act upon his conviction. His mind was tainted by the thought that if ‘a villain kills [his] father… [Hamlet], his son do this same villain send to heaven’ if he were to avenge while Claudius ‘is a-praying’. In his introductory line to this soliloquy he says ‘Now might I do it pat, now a is a-praying’ and the tone he uses is almost unidentifiable. I was pushed to read more closely into the play and in doing so found many similarities between this particular speech, and the thoughts and actions of Hamlet.

Each of the characteristics of Hamlet’s sixth soliloquy reflected the principal elements of Hamlet and because of that my understanding of the play improved. This is a profound argument that he poses, particularly because he comes from the school of reformation, Wittenberg, and it can only lead us to question whether, as in many other situations, his argument is simply a means of procrastination. Also, despite his reformative education at Wittenberg, he voices the Catholic idea of pre-death rituals such as ‘the purging of [one’s] soul’ as opposed to a salvation gained by faith (Luther). Through his sixth soliloquy I have come to understand better that his procrastination roots from the question: To act, or not to act? He questions the consequences of both and struggles to come to a conclusion, however makes small conclusions of ‘not act’ nearly every time he is reminded of his task to revenge, with the sixth soliloquy as a excellent example of this procrastination.

Irony is brought out moreover in the plain and simple fact that Claudius’ only prayer is that ‘pray can [he] not, though inclination be as sharp as will, [his] stronger guilt defeats [his] strong intent’. Again, Hamlet found a way to excuse himself from revenge. However, throughout the play we discover his soft heart and often his inability to act; by this he was betraying his father’s command to ‘taint not [his] mind’: this betrayal was more than evident in this soliloquy. Hamlet makes a definite decision to ‘trip [Claudius], that his heels may kick at heaven’, ‘when he is drunk asleep or in his rage… or about some act that has no relish of salvation in’t’. Essentially in this soliloquy, William Shakespeare reveals the moral problems associated with committing revenge in a corrupt world. He is frustrated that this opportunity would otherwise have been perfect for revenge, he is sarcastic in the use of the word ‘pat’ (which means ‘conveniently’) and he is also in a state of question, possibly confusion at the ironic circumstance.