In Hamlet's second soliloquy, we get a better understanding of Hamlet’s character which is very earnest and complex. Whose real enemy throughout the play is his lack of incentive and his ability to prevent progress.
Hamlet during the soliloquy is sent into a crestfallen frenzy of guilt and shame. Firstly because, he vowed to his father's ghost to quickly avenge his father’s murder, and expresses anger at himself for not giving his father the justice he deserves. He compares himself to one of the visiting actors who while acting communicates feeling in a significant way, making the crowd feel what he feels despite the fact that he has no genuine motivation to do as such. In contrast, Hamlet can't do the equivalent despite the fact that he has motivations to do as so, Saying “ What would he do/have he had the motive and the cue for passion / That I have?”.
He speaks constantly of his ineffectiveness stating that he is “Unpregnant with cause” and frequently uses diction that belittles himself calling himself 'scullion', 'whore', and 'drab' for not doing more in respect of his father's death, “ A dull and muddy-mettled rascal” proclaiming that he deserves abuse because he believes himself to be a coward and a “villain”; for saying nothing about a king, “upon whose property and the dearest life a damned defeat was made”; for not killing Claudius and being slow to do such. It paints Hamlet’s character as one of extreme conscious, someone who knows that something is undeniably evil but cannot take himself to commit an evil-In this case a calculated murder-to resolve the issue. This soliloquy was meant to give the frantic Hamlet more motivation or a push to finally kill Cladius or at least convince himself to not just be idle any more, the exclamation points especially at times where Hamlet is describing himself or Cladius gives us the conclusion that he is trying to convince himself to just act. Beating himself down talking of Cladius as if he was a monster, dehumanizing him saying that he’s a “ Bloody bawdy villain! / lecherous, kindless villain.” and how could Hamlet let a monster who killed his father not be punished. During the soliloquy, Hamlet asks himself many rhetorical questions such as “Am I a coward” he tries to make sense of why he is immobile in doing anything.
But Hamlet even though he wants to get the revenge he starts to bring up doubt for his father's ghost showing that he doesn’t fully trust it, although he sympathized with it so much in the earlier acts, this shows Hamlet to be a very counter-intuitive and selfish, using this as somewhat of a way to prolong his idleness without feeling guilty, using the possibility of the ghost being fraudulent a “devil” as Hamlet said, and if he proves this these endless negative feelings can go away and so he doesn’t have to worry about the injustice that was his father’s murder.His frantic rambling then turns into a more productive one, and he begins to think of a possible way to get Claudius to confess his crimes. Although the trouble of creating the play could be seen as possibly a way to beat around the bush. It does make Hamlet a bit less indolent. Waiting on a guilty Cladius to confess to his evil hopefully so that it will be easier for Hamlet to go through with his revenge. Saying that he will “Catch the conscious of the King”
Shakespeare shows the hardest situation and greatest agonies for Hamlet. He creates a complex character by showing how Hamlet is eager but fearful of revenge, and respectful to the ghost too but suspects its intention. Also, this dual character he created is fascinating but is ironic because through Hamlet he delivers the idea that having wants or relations in two extreme directions and being unproductive with all the passion that he holds at the same time.
The reason for this soliloquy was to light a fire in Hamlet, to finally get him to start doing what he wanted to do this whole time-something, which was, in this case, a play. From this point on Hamlet is more active aside from not killing Claudius when he had the chance in Act 3. The soliloquy paints an obvious depiction of a man riddled with guilt and at the brink of going mad. Shakespeare’s use of exclamations was used as Hamlet’s bellow to vocalize his guilt and the shame for it. The uses of these exclamations mixed in with the general distressing words that Hamlet uses to describe himself as well as Cladius make the tone of the monologue seem painful but at the same time dark and gloomy. The imagery throughout the soliloquy such as “ drown the stage with tears” adding to the cumbersome tone of the monologue. Hamlet’s soliloquy in Act 2 Scene 2 serves as a motor for Hamlet trying to finally get revenge for his father. But It shows that Hamlet, although he desires revenge is slow in acting it out his mind is tangled between action and inaction and follows the later more often, Making his indecisiveness his worst enemy.
Shakespeare’s use of literary devices personifies Hamlet’s disgust with himself. As well as the disgust he feels for Cladius. He uses disgusting imagery through Hamlet to further this. Hamlet is a tragic character who’s real enemy was himself.
