Hamlet is a well-known tragedy written by William Shakespeare

It is about a Prince of Denmark who at the beginning of the play is murdered by his own brother named Claudius. Claudius then takes the throne, and in the process marries the old king's wife and Hamlet's mother, Gertrude. Hamlet then, later on in the play finds out about his fathers unnatural murder. But instead of revenging his father's death, he dilly dallies a lot therefore elongating the play, but in the end avenges his father's death by justly slaying his murderous uncle Claudius.

Although many other characters as well as Claudius die by the end the play this includes Hamlet himself. In all the plays of William Shakespeare's tragedies, there are main characters or is a main character. These main characters almost always have fatal flaws, for example, Othello's was jealousy, Macbeth's was ambition, and Hamlets fatal flaw was delay. A fatal flaw is fault or problem usually in the main character or protagonist, which causes them to act (or in Hamlet's case not to act) in a certain way that will affect the plot of the play.In "Hamlet", the fatal flaw of Hamlet is that he is by nature an indecisive and procrastinative person, this inability to act or to decide is what drags out, prolongs, and makes "Hamlet" such a long play. You can also tell that Hamlets character is quite a thoughtful one as during the play he speaks a total number of seven soliloquies, the most spoken in any one of William Shakespeare's plays.

What a soliloquy is is basically when a character speaks to him or her self-letting out their feelings when they are alone on stage. (Sometimes the person speaking the soliloquy is not actually alone, but may be being spied on.Hamlet" is a particular type of tragedy, aptly named a revenge tragedy, wherein the revenger (Hamlet) starts with just and good intentions, but becomes influenced by the evil that they must perform, and the revenge in the end revenge always destroys the revenger. In Hamlet's case, this is done and fulfilled by another character named Laertes, who avenging his own father's death (who Hamlet killed by accident [which is a common cause of murder in revenge tragedies] mistaking him for Claudius) kills hamlet with a poisoned sword. Revenge Tragedies were quite popular in the 1600s.This was a time of change and instability with Queen Elizabeth the first dying and without a rightful heir to the throne, there was a lot of doubt over who was to be the next king of England.

There was talk of Mary Queen of Scots taking over the English throne or even James the sixth, Mary's son. England was also in disarray over the conflict between the two dominant religions in England and Scotland at this time which were the Protestants and the Catholics, all these religious changes led to uncertainty about who was actually in charge i. e. God - Soliloquy number one- Act 1, Scene 2 (Hamlets 1st soliloquy)Hamlet's first soliloquy in the play takes place in the main hall after the crowd disperses following the king and queen.

Here in this soliloquy he is letting out the pain and anguish of his father's death. The king and Queen have just asked and persuaded that Hamlet cast off his black garments and come out of mourning for his late fathers death, which is why Hamlet is so distressed and distraught, but for his mothers own sake he will grant their request. On the very first line of Hamlet's soliloquy, he quotes a sentence that immediately shows how he feels and reveals his state of mind at the moment.It says: "O that this too too solid flesh would melt, thaw and resolve itself into a dew.

" He is here stating that he wishes his body would just melt away so he could be no more. It shows I think how much he loved his father if he does not want to live in a world without him. Then following this he quotes: "Or that the everlasting had not fixed his cannon gainst self slaughter. O God, O God, How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world. " I would say that in these few lines he has clearly shown his lack of enthusiasm to carry on living.

In fact, he says that if the Everlasting (God) had not fixed his cannon gainst self slaughter (if God had not made a law against suicide) then he would have committed the act long ago. It is because Hamlet believed in heaven and hell, and suicide was a sin so he would surely go to hell for it. He also states that the uses of the world to him are "stale flat and unprofitable" Here he probably means that whatever he may have wanted to do, or where ever he may have wanted to go, now to him seems totally worthless and pointless.He shows how angry and frustrated he is by telling himself off "fie on't, oh fie".

He also referred to the world as being an unweeded garden; "tis an unweeded garden which grows to seed". He means that the world as he knows it is a neglected place, with everyone only interested in sex (or incestuous pleasures). He then moves on to judgementally criticize talk about how and why his mother should have waited a much longer time to mourn and not have remarried so soon after his father's death to his uncle Claudius.I think that Gertrude's rash decision may have been so that she would still be able to keep her place as queen. Hamlet thinks that his mother does not know the meaning of the word mourning.

This is because it was the same new shoes that she had to wear to his late fathers funeral that she wore a gain almost a good as new to her wedding with her new husband Claudius, as it clearly states here "A little month, ere those shoes were old which with me she followed my poor fathers body".Hamlet then says how the queen hi mother is not very loyal, and is stating that that the tears she was shedding when her husband's funeral was underway were meaningless. This statement is backed up by the fact that she did not even wait two months to remarry with Claudius. He says also that it is because of the fact she is a woman that she has allowed this to happen: "frailty thy name is woman". You can see that here Hamlet is being very stereo typical and sexist, although it is only because of his mothers behaviour that he now takes this opinion of all women.

I also noticed upon reading this soliloquy, that Hamlet's thoughts were everywhere at once. He would talk about something then cut of, talk about something else then a couple of lines later come back to it and finish off what he was saying, this clearly shows Hamlet's anxious state of mind. He proves my point again by during the soliloquy lowering the time between his fathers death and his mothers quick remarriage every time he comes upon the subject as he quotes here: "But two months dead" following this: " nay not so much, not two" And then finally Hamlet says "a little month".Hamlet also compares his uncle to his father and says that it is just the same as comparing a Hyperion (Sun God) to a Satyr (Half man Half Goat), which is a hyperbole as it, a tremendous overstatement.

Towards the end of the soliloquy he starts to really show his disgust at what his mother has done, accusing her of being much too quick to jump into bed with his uncle. In the third to last line Hamlet starts to use sibilance, where he really starts to spit out his words with disgust especially at the s's as he states here: "with such dexterity to incestuous sheets.However, at the end Hamlet suddenly calms down he must keep for now his thoughts to himself: "But break my heart for I must hold my tongue. " - Soliloquy number two- Act 2, Scene 2 (Hamlets 3rd soliloquy) This second soliloquy of Hamlets is taking place in the hall in which one of the actors have just done a small speech from a play and did his part so well that he actually cried when he came to a sad part of the speech. This Hamlet reflects upon and thinks to himself that by doing this the player has without realising it offended and criticised him, Hamlet for not acting upon the death and murder of his father.

This makes him angry, and he actually curses himself. He then towards the end of the soliloquy that the way to find out whether the ghost was speaking the truth to him, would be to make the players play something like the death of his father. The first line of the soliloquy shows how much has been waiting to be by himself so as to think, for he says goodbye to the other characters and actually says aloud to himself "now I am alone". As if he has for some time now been waiting to be so.

Straight after his recognition of this fact he immediately curses himself "O what a rouge and peasant slave am I", the reason for this seemingly uncalled for and sudden outburst, is that he feels infuriated by his lack of action he has taken on his revenge. This at the moment has just been highlighted by the player's performance. When he, the player recited out a small speech from a play. The player was thus so moved by the tragedy of the play, started to shed tears and go pale, in fact his whole body language reflected how he felt when saying these lines, as Hamlet states here "all his visage waned, tears in his eyes".Hamlet seems not to be able to override the fact that this player can feel more emotion for a fictional character, he emphasises on this by shouting out, with the words taking up their own line: "for Hecuba! " It is easily told that he is shouting at this point because of the exclamation mark at the end of that short sentence.

He also shows that he cannot get the thought out of his head by the fact that he is continually questioning it "whats Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba? He then wonders what the player would do if Hecuba were real, surely more than Hamlet himself, who has reason to act? Hamlet then exaggerates by saying: "he would drown the stage in tears".This is of course a hyperbole. He also states that the man's speech would be terrible in his mourning, and make all those who were guilty, mad, and all those who were free appalled. Such would be the power and eloquence of his words. After analysing the player, he then turns his eyes upon himself. In addition, once again as in the previous soliloquy, he starts to scold and scorn himself.

He calls himself a dull witted rascal and also he calls himself (and justly I think) a daydreamer because he has done nothing about his father's death. "A dull and muddy mettled rascal, peak like John -a -dreams". He starts now to question his conscience, which is to him out to be a coward and not having the guts ("pigeon livered") to do any thing, "Am I a coward? ". Hamlet then reaches a climax and shouts out his words as he describes his callous and murderous uncle, " Bloody, Bawdy villain!Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindles villain! Oh vengeance! ". He then again turns on himself and states how ridiculous and obtuse he looks now, as all he can do is shout words and take no action to put them into. As it here clearly quotes "prompted to revenge by heaven and hell must like a whore unpack my heart with words".

In the statements and quotes just made although long, they showed a range of emotions, mostly anger at himself, vengeance, strength of purpose and careful plotting.Subsequently, Hamlet, towards the end of this soliloquy has an idea. He has heard before that guilty people have by cunning of it been so struck and taken aback that they give themselves away. So Hamlet thinks to himself that he will make the actors play something similar to the death of his father, so that during the play Hamlet can study the king's face to see if it betrays his secret gilt. "More relative than this, the plays the thing, wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.

These last two lines of the soliloquy are a rhyming couplet, which emphasises on Hamlet's confidence and decisiveness of the sure succession of his plan.A little before these last few lines makes a few excuses for his lack of action, probably just to ease his conscience when he says: "the spirit that I have seen may be a devil", which he says is the reason that he did not act too quickly as the spectre may have been lying, which is why to see the truth for himself, Hamlet has devised the play as a trap for Claudius.Soliloquy number three- Act 4, Scene 4 (Hamlets 7th soliloquy) This third soliloquy takes place maybe where Hamlet is in a carriage or on horse back riding on his way to England with escorts from the Danish court, these include Rosencrantze and Guildernstern. When he stops and asks the captain approaching in his direction, who is marching at the head of quite a large army, who they actually belong to. (Which is another prince called Fortinbras).

Hamlet finds out that the reason that the army is actually going to fight is preposterous and absurd.He starts to relate this to himself in the form of a soliloquy after he has thanked the captain for his help and dismissed his escorts to ride a bit ahead him for him to think. The first line of the soliloquy begins by clearly showing that Hamlet is thinking about how the many things that he has seen and seen and seen done that have reflected on his lack of action, all this is shown by this first line and part of the second where he says: "How all occasions do inform against me and spur my dull revenge".He also after this puts himself down by saying: "what is a man if his chief good and market of his time, be but to sleep and feed? A beast no more.

" This meaning that he is ashamed of himself being as they say like a dog; Hamlet is all bark and no bite. As he does nothing about avenging his father's death, as he is too procrastinative, as every chance he has received to slay Claudius he has thrown away by delaying it too much with thought.Which is why he thinks himself of being less than he thinks a man; a beast he says. However, this is Hamlet's fatal flaw. It is what makes the play and drags it on; it gives it an air of suspense, tension and trepidation.

Hamlet, when he is talking about man and beast is referring to the 'Chain of Being' or importance where at the top is God, then the angels, following them is man, after him is woman, and last and least at the bottom of the chain we have the beasts or animals.Hamlet is not sure which part of him was to blame for not avenging his father, the bestial side or the manly side: "A thought which quartered hath but one part wisdom, and ever three parts coward". This quote also shows that Hamlet is thinking quite a bit. He says again how events seem to mock him and make him seem a coward "Examples as gross as earth exhort me".

He refers to the army marching forth before him led by Prince Fortinbras of Norway. Hamlet it seems appears to show some respect for this young man who is in the exact same position as himself.Fortinbras's father is dead and his uncle has snatched the Norwegian throne. Hamlet then says to himself if this young prince can lead a whole army into battle, then who is Hamlet if he cannot slay one man, and on top of that, it is to take revenge on his father's death. He emphasises on this by describing Fortinbras as "a delicate and tender prince".

And as of where Hamlet thinks he stands now he here sums it up: "how stand I then, that have had a father killed, a mother stained and let all sleep".As if to put himself down even further he states how some noble men will argue for silly reasons just for the sake of dignity, pride and honour, as he simply quotes: "But greatly to find quarrel in the straw when honours at stake". He says after this that he is ashamed to watch so many men go to their deaths, fighting for a piece of land hardly big enough to fight on or bury the dead! He hyperbolises as he makes his point clear by saying: "while to my shame I see the immanent deaths of twenty thousand men".While in fact there are actually only two thousand men marching off to war. He ends this soliloquy on a very determined and decisive note which is: "Oh from this day forth my thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth".

He has decided that from now on nothing but revenge and that everything else is unimportant. I noted also that it was a rhyming couplet which ended the soliloquy which adds more emphasis on the last two lines which makes the words and there meaning linger in your head and think that this is it, hamlet will finally put his words into action.