Hamlet's Thought Process

Some of the most prominent lines in Hamlet  are Hamlet’s soliloquys.  These are instances in the play when Hamlet is speaking to himself, giving the audience the ability to know his thoughts.  In these soliloquys we are able to see and feel Hamlet’s thought process and his changing mood. One such instance is in Act II Scene ii. At this point in the play Hamlet has come to believe that Claudius killed his father, he comes to believe this through a ghost visitation.  In these lines at the beginning he is mourning his inability to act,

“Now I am alone.

 O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!

Is it not monstrous that this player here,

But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,

Could force his soul so to his own conceit

That from her working all his visage wann'd,

Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect,

A broken voice, and his whole function suiting

With forms to his conceit? and all for nothing”! (II.ii.529-537)

As Hamlet continues his tone shifts to an idea he has to catch Claudius and gain greater assurance of Claudius’ evil act. Hamlet states:

“Fie upon't! foh! About, my brain! I have heard

That guilty creatures sitting at a play

Have by the very cunning of the scene

Been struck so to the soul that presently

They have proclaim'd their malefactions;

For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak

With most miraculous organ. I'll have these players

Play something like the murder of my father

Before mine uncle: I'll observe his looks;

I'll tent him to the quick: if he but blench,

I know my course.” (II.ii.570-580)

Hamlet’s thought process can be followed throughout his soliloquys. You can see his want to act quickly according to what the Ghost has said. However, you can also see his inability to act and follow through on what he knows he should do. Hamlet finds a way that allows him to pass the burden of what he has to do for a little while, by setting an interim goal. However, Hamlet needs to remember to look at the means and the ends. If the means are aligned with the ends than what we are doing is worthwhile. In speaking in these terms Hamlet’s decision to catch the king through performing the play could be considered the means of the play justifying the ends. But as we see later on, Hamlet will put another obstacle in along the way.