Question

Reread Hamlet’s fourth soliloquy below; it is found in the play in Act 4, Scene 4. Then answer the questions on this page and provide director’s notes that indicate how you would instruct an actor to speak and behave while delivering this soliloquy.

Hamlet. … How all occasions do inform against me
And spur my dull revenge! What is a man
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.
Sure he that made us with such large discourse,
Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability and godlike reason
To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
Of thinking too precisely on th' event—
A thought which, quartered, hath but one part wisdom
And ever three parts coward—I do not know
Why yet I live to say, “This thing's to do,”
Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means
To do 't. Examples gross as earth exhort me.
Witness this army of such mass and charge,
Led by a delicate and tender prince,
Whose spirit, with divine ambition puffed,
Makes mouths at the invisible event,
Exposing what is mortal and unsure
To all that fortune, death, and danger dare,
Even for an eggshell. Rightly to be great
Is not to stir without great argument,
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
When honor's at the stake. How stand I then,
That have a father killed, a mother stained,
Excitements of my reason and my blood,
And let all sleep, while to my shame I see
The imminent death of twenty thousand men
That for a fantasy and trick of fame
Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
Which is not tomb enough and continent
To hide the slain? O, from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!
Total score: ____ of 20 points
(Score for Question 1: ___ of 2 points)
1. What emotions do you think Hamlet experiences over the course of this speech?
Answer:
Type your answer here.
(Score for Question 2: ___ of 2 points)
2. What conclusion does Hamlet reach, or what does Hamlet realize, over the course of this speech?
Answer:
Type your answer here.
(Score for Question 3: ___ of 2 points)
3. How do you want the audience to feel about Hamlet and his situation after hearing this speech?
Answer:
Type your answer here.

Answer 1

Question number 1:

The emotions Hamlet experiences are mainly the feeling for revenge on his father's death. He is obsessed by his thoughts that lead him to madness. When he realizes that his father is dead and his mother is already married, his feelings make him feels torn between revenge and guilty for all the questions he makes to himself, and all the consequences of his acts.

Question number 2:

Hamlet concludes that he is no more than a coward, guided by his obsession for revenge at any cost when he thinks of too many men dying for a fantasy. On the other hand, he thinks that anyone has ambitions and enemies to fight against, so he decides that his thoughts must be directed to his objectives, even though they are all bloody, or nothing in his life would be worth.

Question 3:

The audience should be impacted by the revelation of Hamlet's personality, the exposure of his inner feelings and all the drama he carries inside him.

Director's notes:

In order to get to this impact on the audience, the actor should feel honored for representing a great character from Shakespeare and put his soul in each dialogue. The actor must work on an immersion in the character so he can convince the audience of the drama that is being showed.

Answer 2

Answer to Question 1: Hamlet becomes increasingly furious with both himself and whoever harmed those who he cared about. A visceral sentiment of vengeance consumes him as he realizes his mind won't be at peace if he simply stands around fearfully inside his aristocratic eggshell, and the sentiment won't snuff out until the ones responsible for his anger are punished.

Answer to Question 2: Hamlet believes he will become a beast if he gives himself into an avenging wrath, but it does not matter to him as long as his grieving thoughts are cleansed. Ignoring the incident would simply preserve his plight.

Answer to Question 3: The audience should feel compasion for the man in duel, and be afraid that a good man who's well aware of his own thoughts and conclusions - a man that has lost nearly everything - gave into the rage.

Director's notes on Proper Soliloquies.

An actor who aims to perform a soliloquy must look around their environment, focus on a significant element of the scene, and procced to describe with detail how the sight makes them feel - repeat the process with the rest of the scene -. The actor should change the tone of their voice between the lines depending on the current feeling of their character; shouting it all should not be neccesary and might be considered exaggerated.