Originating
in Hellenic tragedy as speech uttered by a single character alone and generally
addressed to the audience, the soliloquy survived throughout the Middle Ages as
a dramatic device that has bridged the gap between the play’s fiction and its
audience’s reality, often with some didactic purpose in mind. Normally, a
soliloquy is a dramatic technique of speaking alone on the stage. It is a
dramatic convention of exposing to the audience - the intentions, thoughts and
feelings of a character who speaks aloud to himself explaining earlier events
and actions that have occurred offstage or filling in other necessary
background while no other character remains present on the stage. Although
close, it is different from an aside, another dramatic technique frequently
applied in plays. In an aside, more than one characters are involved but here
the speaker’s speech is only audible to the speaker himself or herself rather
than to other characters on stage whereas in a soliloquy only one character is
present and his speech is audible to the audience as well as to him. However, major
soliloquies from the four famous tragic plays entitled Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth and King Lear by William Shakespeare, a
literary giant in English Literature of the Elizabethan Period, the most
creative age of English literature cited and they are being described below one
by one. In Hamlet, Hamlet, the protagonist, through his soliloquies reveals his
heart that is hesitant in execution of any task. From his soliloquies, the
readers come to learn that the major task of his life is to take revenge for
the death of his father but he delays whereas in Othello, Iago, the
Machiavellian character of the play, discloses his heart to the audience to better
understand his character. He appears to be the most honest and loyal person in
the play like the old man in The Faerie Queen by Edmund Spenser with a prayer
beads in his hand who gives shelter to the Red Cross Knight and Una during a
stormy night. However, Iago has ultimately misguided Othello to murder his flower
like innocent chaste wife. And regarding Macbeth, through his soliloquies, we can
certainly reach a conclusion that Macbeth is an innocent person in the play but
the innocence is adulterated by his wife’s greed for power. Gradually he is
misled to murder own King Duncan who has trusted him most and given his
security of life whereas in King Lear several major characters’ inner thoughts
are soliloquised with greater significance. In the play the heart of the king
is replete with sorrows whose root lies in the misconduct and maltreatment of
his elder daughters and another character called Edmund a devil like Lucifer, a
character from Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe where as his brother, Edgar,
is honest one. The soliloquies
spoken either by the protagonists or by the non-major characters are directed
to the audience, rather than seeming like conversations with himself or
herself. Indeed in Shakespeare, soliloquy is an integral part of the action and
does much to advance the action of the plays. Some of the famous soliloquies
located in the aforementioned plays along with their significances have been
elucidated below.
Hamlet
by William Shakespeare is a tragic play and in the play, Hamlet is the Prince
of Denmark as well as protagonist. Just before the
soliloquy, his uncle Claudius, the acting King, is trying to make him
understand that to mourn excessively for someone dead for a long period of time
is a fault to heaven, nature and against dead and it is absurd too as we all
have to die one day. Therefore, his uncle urges him to accept death as an order
of nature. However, Hamlet’s first soliloquy reveals his immense disgust and
surprise at the hasty marriage of his mother, Gertrude with his uncle,
Claudius, and at the world in general soon after the death of his father.
Further, his speech also bears the testimony that he develops extreme hatred
for women folk and loses his faith in them too. He considers the world to be an
unweeded garden with no significance of life and in a grievous tone says: “. .
. O God! God! / How weary, stale,
flat and unprofitable, / Seem to me all the uses of this world! / .
. . Frailty, thy name is woman!
– .
. . / O God! A beast that wants discourse of
reason” (1:2:132-151). He is immensely saddened at the sudden death of
his father, whom he admired as a good king and faithful husband to his mother.
His grief over his father’s death is compounded by his mother’s hasty marriage
to Claudius. Hamlet believes that even a beast that has no power of reasoning,
would mourn longer than she had. It is quite strange to believe for him that
his mother has changed so radically within a month or two that she married for
the second time. He considers this marriage to be incestuous. The worst part is
that he cannot tell them how he feels. This soliloquy kindles an interest in
the readers and provides a glimpse on Hamlet’s thoughts while informing the
audience of the history of his family’s tribulations. And his speech also
exposes his treatment of women.
Just before the soliloquy, Hamlet is searching for the
truth regarding his father’s death whether his father has died a natural death
or he has been murdered. At this time, a ghost resembling his father appears
before him and informs that a poisonous serpent stings his loving father to
death and surprisingly the serpent is no other but his uncle, Claudius. The
ghost adds that his father is poisoned to death. However, in the second
soliloquy, Hamlet calls on the audience ‘the distracted globe’ to hear his vow
to take revenge on his uncle Claudius. Now he promises to erase all the
unnecessary lessons in his brain in order to remember only the commandment of
the ghost. He is enthusiastically committed to the ghost to act on the
commandment. On hearing the news, his soul cannot rest until the revenge is
taken. The audience here learns Hamlet’s promise to make Claudius pay for this
unnatural crime. Already the audience is excited at Hamlet’s promise because it
is giving them something to look forward. Hamlet wants to commit the
commandment of the ghost by memory and his determination is exposed here as: “I’ll
wipe away all trivial fond records, / All saws of books, all forms, all
pressures past, / That youth and observation copied there / And thy commandment
all alone shall live / . .
. O most pernicious woman!
(1:5:91-105)
In the Act II, Hamlet pretends to be a mad man. So
Polonius, King Claudius and Queen think that Hamlet becomes insane because of
the rejection of love by a fair lady, Ophelia. But to justify the truth of the
matter, they have arranged a secret meeting between him and Ophelia to overhear
their conversation behind the curtain. But Hamlet as a clever one acts as if he
were mad for the love of Ophelia. Afterwards, Hamlet comes to learn that a
troupe of travelling players are coming to him to stage a play, The Murder of
Gonzago, which can be regarded to be a mouse trap because it is arranged in a
way that has a similar scene of his father’s murder. He wants to know whether
King Claudius reacts or not watching the scene. If he does, Hamlet will be sure
that Claudius is the murderer of his father. Towards the end of the Act II,
Scene II, in his third soliloquy, Hamlet admits to the audience that he is a
coward, ‘a rouge slave’, ‘a dull and muddy mettle’d rascal’, ‘a pigeon hearted
person’ and so on. At one stage, he compares him with John, a day dreamer
because he is just wasting his time thinking rather than taking any action.
Even he is surprised at his own inaction. Time and again he thinks that it is
high time for him to take revenge on King Claudius but he hesitates to take any
action against him because the ghost resembling his father may be an evil
spirit. Therefore it can misguide him to his miseries. So he has to justify the
information supplied by the ghost regarding the death of his father because he
just cannot rely upon the information of the ghost alone. Now he needs the true
evidence. However, the play which is going to be staged soon is not only the
source of entertainment but also it works like a trap and King Claudius’
reaction to it will prove his involvement in assassination of Hamlet’s father.
The soliloquy also provides us with the information that Hamlet is proceeding
forward with his plan to take revenge on his villainous uncle Claudius. In addition
to it, from the soliloquy, we come to learn that Hamlet is very thoughtful and
he always procrastinates. In other words, he acts very slowly. Regarding his
action, Hamlet can be compared with Alfred Prufrock, a character from T.S.
Eliot’s poem, who thinks a great deal more than his action and he is always
afraid of consequence of his action. So for his inaction like a day dreamer, he
is chiding himself in this way: “But I
am pigeon-liver’d and lack gall / . .
. I should ‘a fatted all the
region kites / With this slave’s offal. Bloody, bawdy villain! / Remorseless,
treacherous, lecherous, kindles villain! /
. . . Why,
what an ass am I! (2:2:572-578)
In
the fourth soliloquy, Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, is in a dilemma whether to
commit suicide or to accept the pangs of the world stoically or to fight back
against them. Then Hamlet is frightened of the consequences of the life after
death and its punishment. He puts logic that if there were no punishment of God
for suicide, nobody would tolerate injustice, the insults of the world, the
arrogance of the undeserving superiors, the sufferings of the unrequited love,
the delay of law, adversities and the cruelty of a tyrant. It is such fear that
robs of courage to commit suicide and transforms us into a coward. Here the
audience observes that he is incapable of committing suicide as well as taking
revenge, as he is always contemplative. The long soliloquy bears the testimony
of his procrastinating nature in execution of anything. “To be or not to be – that is the question; / Whether
‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The
slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, / Or to take arms against a sea of
troubles,” (3:1:56-60, 77-81).
Soon after King Claudius’ reaction to the poisoning scene in the play The Murder of Gonzago, Hamlet is
sure enough about the King’s involvement in the murder of his father. On the
other hand, King Claudius is now very worried about Hamlet’s growing madness.
Now Polonius together with King Claudius plans to overhear secretly the
conversation between Hamlet and his mother, Queen Gertrude. So Polonius is left
behind to listen to the conversation between them. Afterwards, in the
soliloquy, King Claudius sits for prayer but he cannot pray although he has
strong desire to do so. Here he discloses his sinful heart to the audience. And
now his heart is so heavy with sin that he cannot pray properly. At one stage
of his self revelation, he says that there is no point of saying prayer as the
use of prayer is to guard us against sin or to secure forgiveness for us when
the sin has already been committed. He also adds that his guilt is foul and its
foul smell reaches even God because he has committed a serious crime by
murdering his elder brother. Now his heart is so heavy with the guilt-ridden
past and he does not know how commence praying to God but he is in a dilemma
whether his sin of foul murder be forgiven or not. He has committed the sin in
order to enjoy power as well as Queen. He believes that in a corrupt world,
justice can be purchased with money and thus a criminal can escape from
punishment. But there is no escape from the penalty fixed for a crime and there
we have to pay the full penalty. King Claudius reveals his heart in the
following manner: “O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven; / It hath the
primal eldest curse upon ‘t – / A
bother’s murder! Pray can I not, / Though inclination be as sharp as will.” (3:3:37-40)
Earlier
Hamlet wants to take revenge on King Claudius but various reasons put an
impediment on his way to do so. In the similar way, this time Hamlet cannot
take revenge on King although Hamlet has a fair chance for it but he delays
saying that King Claudius is now praying to God. If he strikes a mortal blow on
him during this time he will directly go to heaven. So he just cannot accept
it. Therefore, he is looking for another suitable chance to take his revenge.
Now he needs to save his sword against him for more fitting moment when he is
heavily intoxicated or in a violent fits of anger, or enjoying illegal sexual
pleasure, or is gambling, or is doing something else which cannot secure him
forgiveness from God. However, Hamlet now exposes what makes him delay in
taking revenge: “Now might I do it, pat, now ‘a is a-praying; / And now I’ll
do’t – and so ‘a goes to heaven, / And so am I reveng’d. that would be scann’d:
/ A villain kills my father;” (3:3:73-78, 89-96)
Another
important soliloquy is delivered by Macbeth. The soliloquy has been inspired by
the sight of the army of Fortinbras on its march to Poland. These men, “led by a delicate and tender
Prince” go cheerfully to risk death for an eggshell and make mouths at the
invisible events. The sight strikes him with shame because he remembers that he
has much cause for action . . . a father killed, a mother stained . . .
and he expresses his resolve that from that time forth: “How all occasions do
inform against me, / And spur my dull revenge!
. . . / O,
from this time forth, / My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth.” (4:4: 31-32,
65-66). The soliloquy is another protest against the dullness of his passions against
his bestial oblivion. Hamlet subjects himself to a process of heart-searching
and self-analysis and concludes that thinking too precisely on the event is at
the root of the trouble. Thus, the soliloquy is of far-reaching significance
for an understanding of Hamlet’s character. It shows that Hamlet, though he is
leaving Denmark, has not relinquished the idea of obeying the
ghost. It contains that assertion, which so many critics forget that he has cause,
will, strength and means to do it. In other words, the soliloquy makes it clear
that the difficulties in his way are entirely internal. On the other hand, it
convinces us that Hamlet has learnt nothing from his earlier delay. Its motive
is precisely the same as that of, “O, what a rouge, etc.” utterance. It
expresses his bewilderment and shame at his inaction.
The
soliloquies in Othello are all important. But some critics have objected that
in this play all the important soliloquies have been given to a villain, and a
villain is never likely to admit his villainy to himself. But Iago’s
soliloquies are essential because he is a complex character and it would be
quite confusing if he does not reveal his motives, aims and objects through his
soliloquies. Apart from this, Othello, the Moor of Venice, is not a reflective
sort of person and too many soliloquies on his lips would have looked improper.
Thus while in other tragedies of William Shakespeare, it is the heroes who
participate in soliloquies most often but in Othello it is the villain Iago who
does so. Besides, Iago’s soliloquies are of much interest in Othello. In
addition to that, there is an important soliloquy spoken by Othello himself
towards the end of the play. The major soliloquies have been explained below.
Iago
in his first soliloquy in the beginning Act of the play exposes his treacherous
heart to the audience what he is going to do to reach his goal of life. It is
known from the speech of Iago that although Othello, the protagonist of the
play, has secretly married Desdemona, the daughter of Branbatio, he may be rebuked
and humiliated severely by the government but he is such an important general
that cannot be dismissed from his position for the sake of its own security and
safety because he our of very important reasons has been engaged in the Cyprus
wars. The wars have already commenced and in this typical period, no other accomplished
general can be easily found. Iago expresses his hatred for Othello but he would
like to conceal his real emotion for a better cause and says: “Though I do hate
him as I do hell-pains, / Yet for necessity of present life, / I must show out
a flag and sign of love. / Which is indeed but sign.” (1:1:143-146). Therefore,
we see that he hates Othello very much like hell-pains. Despite that, for the
sake of present circumstances, he disguises his hatred and pretends to have
love and respect for him. He confirms that it will be a mere show and nothing
more. However, from the soliloquy, it is crystal clear that he is a mysterious
character and when the plot of the play will progress, we will better learn
about his crudeness of heart which is inspired by the greed of power, pomp and the
passion of jealousy.
Iago
in his second soliloquy exposes his malevolent nature to the audience. Earlier
he promises Roderigo that he can easily manage Desdemona whom Roderigo loves
very much. But after Desdemona’s romantic affair and elopement with Othello,
Roderigo becomes very much frustrated and finding no other way alternative, he
comes to Iago, a Machiavellian character in the play like Mosca in Volpone by
Ben Jonson, for help. Iago in a very clever manner tells him that he can assist
him in this regard if he is provided with money. So Roderigo in order to get
her provides Iago with a good amount of money. However, Iago here in the
soliloquy, considers Roderigo a fool and is exploiting him for his own purpose.
Here we can learn for his speech that he always makes such fools his purse. In
addition, we also come to learn that he hates the Moor, Othello, very much and
wants to take revenge upon him because Iago’s request of being Othello’s
lieutenant has been declined and instead Michael Cassio is appointed his
lieutenant. Furthermore, he regards Othello as a foolish man too whom can be
easily controlled by nose as asses are as he is a man of open nature. He also
intends to poison Othello’s ears against Cassio by telling him that he is too
familiar with his wife in order to gain position of Cassio. In this way he
would mar his happiness. William Shakespeare draws a picture of wicked heart of
Iago through the soliloquy as it reads: “Thus so I ever make my fool my purse;
/ For I mine own gain’d knowledge should profane, / If I would time expend with
such spine / But for my sport and profit.”
(1:3:375-378, 390-394)
Iago’s
third soliloquy which comes at the end of Scene I, Act II, he turns to the
audience and explains to them his real mind. He regards Roderigo as a trash and
is simply using him as his tool by convincing him to pick up a quarrel with
Michael Cassio, who is the only impediment on his way to the position of a
lieutenant so that Iago can gain the position. Soon after the conversation
between Roderigo and Iago, Iago starts speaking about his next mischievous
plan. Here from his soliloquy the audience come to learn that Iago is like Dr.
Tamkin, a character from Seize the Day by Saul Bellow. Iago like Dr. Tamkin
fools people around him for his personal gain. However, his plan is to corrupt
Desdemona, wife of Othello, as Othello corrupts his wife. He in a oath taking
manner discloses his corrupted heart: “And nothing can or shall content my soul
/ Till I am even’d with him, wife for wife; / Or failing so, yet that I put the
Moor / At least into a jealousy so strong.” (2:1:87-90). He again exposes that
he loves Desdemona and would like to satisfy his feelings of revenge and lust
by corrupting her. He adds that if he fails to do so, he will put poison of
jealousy into the ears of Othello that his wife has an illicit relationship
with Michael Cassio and it will cause such a disease in his heart that no power
of reasoning will cure it. By doing so, Iago will be successful to make
Cassio’s impression lower down towards Othello in order to win the heart of
Othello and he will make him thank, love, reward him. He further adds that he
will keep on plotting against his peace and quiet till Othello becomes man.
In
his fourth important soliloquy towards the end of the Scene: III, Act: II, we
find Iago in a jubilant mood. He has already secured the dismissal of Cassio.
His plan of action is now clear to him. He now talks of action and not of
thinking. He will make the Moor jealous of Cassio; the more Desdemona pleads
for Cassio, the more she will lose her credit with the Moor. “For whilst this
honest fool / Plies Desdemona to repaire his fortunes, / And she for him pleads
strongly to the Moor, / I will pour this pestilence into his ear: / That she
repeals him for her body’s lust.” (2:3:340-344). The full villainy of Iago now
becomes clear to the audience for the first time. He is out to wreck the
happiness of the “sweetest innocent” that ever lived, and without any fault of
her. He is a devil who has put on a saintly appearance to achieve his goal.
While appearing to advise Cassio for his own good as a sincere friend, he is in
reality contriving the ruin of Othello and Desdemona. His hellish motives and
super-cunningness are thus revealed to the spectators.
In
his fifth soliloquy in the middle of the Scene III, Act III, Iago tells us his
intention to drop the handkerchief of Desdemona in the room of Cassio in order
to poison the ears of Othello against Desdemona. This will appear that Cassio
and Desdemona are in an illegal relationship. But truly they are innocent. Here
he like the Satan in Paradise Lost by John Milton wants to destroy the
innocence of God’s creations. However, the handkerchief is very important for
Desdemona as it is given to her by her husband, Othello, as a token of his love
for her and she has been requested to preserve it carefully so that it cannot
be lose anyhow. Iago somehow manages to know the consequence of losing the
handkerchief. For this reason, to fulfill his evil purpose, Iago frequently
asks his wife, Emilia, to steal it and tells her that he has use of it. So he
intends to plot against Desdemona and Cassio leaving the handkerchief in
Cassio’s room. For, “Trifles light as air / Are to the jealous confirmation
strong, / As proofs of holy writ.” (3:3:325-327). Thus we know why he has
become so anxious to get the handkerchief. He knows the nature of jealousy and
will make good use of the handkerchief. His poison is already working and the
Moor is much changed; it will be ocular proof needed to convince him of
Desdemona’s guilt.
In
his last soliloquy, Iago reveals his awareness of the danger which threatens
him both from Cassio and Roderigo. Therefore, he would be glad if they kill
each other. They are the only impediments on his way to glorious success. That
is why, he has set Roderigo to murder Michael Cassio. He wants Cassio removed
from the scene, for, “He hath a daily beauty in his life / That makes me ugly.”
In these lines critics have seen a hint of moral sense in Iago; but such an
appreciation of virtue and goodness will be inconsistent with his character as
a whole. He wants Roderigo to be killed because he has threatened to expose him
to Desdemona.
Othello
is very emotional and still feels very strongly about Desdemona. This is first
observed through repetition. In the beginning of his soliloquy, Othello says:
“It is the cause,” (5:2:1-3) and later repeats “put out the light,” (5:2:7-10)
three times each. The repetition shows that Othello is trying to force himself
to kill Desdemona because he really does not want. He repeats the words to
justify his actions. In addition, the repetition emphasises Othello's emotion
which is very regretful of the action he is about to do. Further on in the soliloquy,
Othello repeats “one more” three times, in reference to giving Desdemona a
kiss. This repetition also emphasises Othello's emotion in that he does not
want to kill Desdemona, but feels it is for the best. Othello's conflicting
feelings are shown when he says: “So sweet was ne'er so fatal” (5: 2:23). By referring
to Desdemona as “sweet” and “fatal,” two opposites, Othello shows his conflict
over how he feels about her.
Although
Othello still loves Desdemona, he shows his determination to kill her. The
first item Othello compares Desdemona to is a light when he says: “Put out the
light, put out the light. / If I quench thee, thou flaming minister, / I can again
thy former light restore / Should I repent me” (5:2:7-10). In comparing
Desdemona to a light, Othello says that he will "put out the light,"
or "quench her," both actions of killing. On the other hand, since
Desdemona is represented by light, and without light, life is dark, by killing
Desdemona, Othello will darken his life. This shows that Othello needs
Desdemona and therefore that he loves her. Next Othello compares Desdemona to a
rose in the quote, “When I have plucked the / rose, / I cannot give it vital
growth again. / It needs must whither” (5:2:13-16). When a rose is plucked, its
life is taken away, which reflects Othello's intention of killing Desdemona.
Othello realizes that if he kills Desdemona, this process is irreversible. In
contrast to that, by comparing Desdemona to a rose, he shows his love for her
because a rose is a symbol of beauty and love. This comparison is an indication
of Othello's love for Desdemona, but also his wish to kill her. In this
soliloquy, Othello is speaking to the sleeping Desdemona about what he intends
to do with her. The soliloquy is filled with devices such as repetition,
pairing of opposites, and metaphors, which add intensity to his basic
intention. This scene is the one most filled with tension in the entire play
because he loves her but feels he needs to kill her.
In the Elizabethan dramatic tradition, soliloquy
became widely use as a vehicle for subjective utterance and became an important
dramatic convention. Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, Dr. Faustus all contain
important examples. Much like a monologue, a soliloquy and its
imaginative space convey a great deal of information about characters’ their
inner most thoughts, feelings, passions and motives. In Macbeth too much of the psychological and philosophical
interest of the play reside in them. The soliloquies of Macbeth and Lady
Macbeth are more like interior debates, a fascinating aspect of Macbeth’s
motivation.
Lady
Macbeth delivers the following soliloquy after going through the letter which
Macbeth has sent to her describing his meeting with the three Witches and the
partial fulfillment of the prophecy they have made. She promptly responds to
the suggestion in her husband’s letter and beings to cherish a hope that her
husband would be the next king. But actually, she expresses her apprehension
that her husband may not make the proper use of the shortest route to the
kingship. The shortest route is the murder of King Duncan. She thinks that her
husband has naturally inherited traditional feelings which a child acquires
through the milk that it sucks from its mother’s breast. In other words, her
husband has too tender and gentle a disposition to accept murder as the most
obvious and the quickest means of attaining the crown. For this reason, she
comments on her husband’s nature: “Yet do I fear thy nature; / It is too full
o’ th’ milk of human kindness / To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be
great, / Art not without ambition, but without / The illness should attend it.”
(1:5:17-21) Ambitious of becoming great he certainly is, but he does not have
that wickedness in his nature which should accompany such an ambition. He
certainly wants to attain the position by virtuous means. He is not treacherous
and yet he would like to attain the kingship to which, in a legal sense, he is
not entitled. Lady Macbeth can perceive that the mind of her husband must
already have suggested to him the thought of murder as a means of attaining the
crown. However, the fear of consequences might be discouraging him to accept
readily this suggestion from his mind. He may even be wishing to commit the
murder but may feel discouraged by fear. Now she therefore calls upon her
absent husband to come to her speedily so that she may speak to him in such a
way as to impart her firmness of resolution to him. She will like to lash her
husband with heroic and brave words from her tongue. She knows that certain
prophetic voices have already promised him the crown and she is always beside
him to help him remove any impediments on his way to success. From the
soliloquy, we come to learn not only about the nature of Lady Macbeth but also
about Macbeth’s goodness of heart which has been destroyed by her. As soon as
she reads the letter by her husband, she jumps to the conclusion that to gain
the kingship, Macbeth needs to murder King Duncan.
The
second important soliloquy of Lady Macbeth is delivered only a little later, when
a messenger brings the news that King Duncan is about to arrive at her house as
a guest. In her soliloquy, she says that this visit will cost Duncan his life. She then calls upon the supernatural
spirits to take away her womanly weakness and to fill her with the greatest
possible cruelty. So she prays to the three witches that: “Come, you spirits / That
tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, / And fill me, from the crown to the
toe, top full / Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood,” (1:5:41-44). She also
adds that she wants her blood to be thickened so that no pity may flow through
her veins to her heart. She does not like any pity to come between her cruel
purpose and its fulfilment. She also calls upon the supernatural spirits: “Come
to my woman’s breasts, / And take my milk for gall you murd’ring ministers,”
(1:5:48-49). She next calls upon the dark night to cover itself in the thickest
smoke of hell so that her sharp knife may not see the wound which it will make
in Duncan’s body. This soliloquy strengthens the
impression which we have previously formed of Lady Macbeth’s being a
strong-willed and ambitious woman. The more noteworthy idea about her is that
she shares with her husband the power to express herself in very vigorous and
effective language. The forceful, almost violent, language she uses in the
soliloquy appeals to us.
Shakespeare uses ample soliloquies in Macbeth to show the soul of the
tragic hero trapped in the conflicting desires and motif. In the very first
soliloquy of Macbeth, we find him contemplating over the murder of King Duncan
and its possible consequences. Just before the murder of kind King Duncan,
Macbeth ponders over the very thought of it and says: “If it were done
When ’tis done, then ’twere well / It were done quickly: If th’ assassination /
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch / With his surcease, success .
. .” (1:7:1-7). If there is an end of the matter
as soon as the assassination is committed, then it should be done immediately;
if it is not followed by a net of evil consequences, and bring success
immediately, if it will lead to no punishment in this life then he will risk
judge in the after life. What seems clear is that Macbeth is constantly
changing his mind. His imagination is in the grip of a powerful tension between
his desire to see himself as a king and his desire of the immorality of the
immediate consequences, which he knows will be disastrous.
In the next soliloquy just before the murder of Duncan, Macbeth sees the fearful vision
of a blood stained dagger leading to him to Duncan’s chamber. He
addresses the hallucination of the dagger. He tries to grasp it but cannot and
knows it is the product of his overheated brain. “Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible / To
feeling, as to right? Or art thou but / A dagger of the mind, a false creation
/ Proceeding from the heat oppressed brain?” (2:1:36-41). It is important to
stress the imaginative tensions in Macbeth’s character before the murder and to
appreciate his divided nature. That is why, summing up his motivation with some
quick judgment about his ambition is something one should resist. That resolves
the issue too easily. In fact, Macbeth, in a sense, is tricked into murdering Duncan, but he tricks himself. That makes the
launching of his evil career something powerful and complexity about
the nature of evil in the play.
The
following soliloquy is spoken by Macbeth just after he has committed the murder
of King Duncan and has a brief conversation with his wife, Lady Macbeth. She
asks him to go and smear the guards outside Duncan’s bed-room with Duncan’s blood but he feels too frightened to go back
and look at what he has done. Afterwards, Lady Macbeth thereupon accuses him of
lack of courage and undertakes to do the job herself. When she goes away, he
hears a knocking at the door and wonders who is knocking. Here we find that
Macbeth is surprised at the state of his mind in which every noise terrifies
him. Then he looks at his hands which give him a shocking sight. His hands, he
says, can pluck out his eyes which feel offended to see them. He asks himself
if all the water that is to be found in the great god Neptune’s ocean will wash
his blood-covered hands clean. His answer to the question is ‘no’. The blood on
his hands will redden all the water to be found on the surface of the globe.
Even the blood on his hands will change the green-coloured water of all the
oceans to a uniform red. He says in a fine soliloquy: “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this
blood / Clean from my hand?
No; this my hand will rather / The multitudinous seas incarnadine / Making the
green one red”. (2:2:59-62). In brief, the soliloquy shows a sense of guilt is
now weighing heavily upon Macbeth’s mind. Indeed, his conscience chides him for
what he has done. In addition to that, this is one of the most revealing
soliloquies of Macbeth giving us a clear picture of the inner state of his
mind.
The
soliloquy is spoken by Macbeth towards the close of the play when a piece of
news has come that the English forces are moving towards Macbeth’s castle of Dunsinane. Macbeth rebukes the servant who has brought
the news and scolds him for looking fear-stricken. He says that the present
crisis in his life will either make him happy forever or dethrone him. He feels
that he has lived long enough and his way of life has fallen into the withered
condition of old age. He compares himself to a leaf that has turned yellow with
the coming of autumn. He no longer expects to have honour, love, obedience and
a large number of friends with his old age. In the place of such comforting
things, he is getting only curses form people. These curses are being whispered
with a deep feeling. So he speaks poignantly in the soliloquy: “I have lived
long enough. My way of life / Is fall’n into the sere, the yellow leaf, / And
that which should accompany old age, / As honour, love, obedience, troops of
friends, (5.3.22-25). Actually, the soliloquy reveals the inner state of mind
of Macbeth who is at the final stage of his career. The tide has now turned
against him and he can see his downfall is approaching rapidly. In other words,
these lines express a mood of complete disillusionment and despair with life.
As
soon as Seyton, an officer attending on Macbeth, brings the news of his wife
death, Macbeth hears the wailing of some women and Macbeth accepts the news with
a horrifying calm and commented on the hollowness of life: “Out,
out, brief candle! / Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player / That struts
and frets his hour upon the stage, /
. . . It
is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing.”
(5:5:23-28). This famous speech acknowledges fully the empty mockery his life
has become. His life has become an insane farce, not because he no longer has
any power or physical security, but because he has ceased to care about
anything, even about his life. In addition to that, in order to define his
heart’s emptiness, he compares his life as well as the whole human existence to
a candle which burns for a transient period of time and ultimately goes out.
Then he compares life to a walking shadow that accompanies a human being for a
short while. Next, he compares life to a pitiable actor who walks about proudly
on the stage of a theatre, and he disappears from the stage after playing his
part. Finally Macbeth compares life to a short story told by an idiot, a story
full of sensational incidents and furious passions, but having no significance.
However, the theatrical metaphor quoted in the last soliloquy resonates
throughout play. Macbeth has, in a sense, tries to seize control of the script
of his life, to write it in accordance with his desires, in the clear
knowledge. Thus all of the soliloquies of Macbeth become a close scrutiny of
study of evil and of a conflicting soul of Macbeth’s personality.
Shakespeare’s King Lear includes more soliloquies than other works of him. King Lear as a tragedy displays the downfall of the
protagonist, King Lear, because of some inherent defects in his character.
However, in the play the first soliloquy is spoken by Edmund, an illegitimate
son to Gloucester. The soliloquy is spoken soon after the King’s
distribution of his properties between the two elder daughters, Goneril and
Regan, on their exposure of love for their father while Cordelia, the youngest
daughter is misunderstood and left empty-handed as she has not been able to satiate
the ears of her old but unwise father who is very fond of flattery. She says
that she loves her Majesty according to her bond – no more nor less. Such an
expression has enraged King Lear, father to her. Afterwards, Edmund’s
self-revealing soliloquy, spoken with winning vigour and replete with wit
appeals to the modern mind. If one is not perceptive, he may find himself
agreeing with him, just as some find themselves admiring the Satan of Milton’s
Paradise Lost, Book I, with his eloquent declaration of personal liberty.
Morality is largely a matter of time and geography. Today, many would agree
with Edmund that custom or tradition should be ignored. Certainly any
fair-minded person would like to see all individuals, either legitimate or
illegitimate by birth, judged in terms of their own abilities and performances.
What must be recognised is that Edmund’s words reveal his flat rejection of
moral law and an endorsement of the law of the jungle. The goddess Nature whom
he invokes is not the traditional nature, whose law informs much of the action
in Act I, Scene I. That law makes possible a beneficent, reasonable, harmonious
order throughout the universe. The phrases “plague of custom” and “curiosity of
nations” very well sum up natural law as he sees it: these are no more than
artificial constraints imposed upon society, rather than the recognition of a
sacred bond of human relations. His goddess of Nature is not immoral rather
amoral. For Edmund, it is animal vitality alone which determines superiority or
inferiority. From this point of view indeed “the lusty stealth of nature” may
create adulterously a more worthy issue than can the “dull, tired bed of
marriage.” Edmund takes his place, along with Shakespeare’s Richard III and
Iago, as one of the Machiavellian villains who elevate will above reason in
determining his course of action and thus are guilty of a great perversion of
the idealistic Renaissance moral theory. In addition to that, Edmund appears in
the play with a plan of conspiracy against his brother, Edgar, because Edmund
has not received the same recognition from society which Edgar as a legitimate
child receives and he can no longer accept the insults he often encounters. He
throws a set of questions to society constructed out of artificiality as: “Why
bastard? Wherefore base? / . . . My
mind as generous, and my shape as true / As honest madam’s issue? Why brand
they us / With base? With baseness? Bastardy? – base, base?” (1:2:6,8-10). His
final words as “I grow, I prosper” reveal his real character and intensions.
Soon
after Gloucester’s advice to Edmund to find out the rogue,
Edmund speaks out that: “This is the excellent foppery of the world, that when
we are sick in fortune,” (1:2:111-12). In the soliloquy, he says that this is
the extraordinary folly of the world that when we suffer misfortunes as the
result of our own excessive self-indulgence we blame the sun, the moon and the
stars in the sky for it as if we were villains by compulsion or tools by an
order from above; rogues, thieves and traitors by being born under the
influence of particular stars or drunkards, liars and adulterers by the influence
of the planets – as if all the evil that we do is by the will of God. In what a
clever way man tries to shift his own responsibilities by attributing his
wicked nature to the stars and planets. It is all nonsense. He adds that he is
a crafty fellow even if the purest star, the most virginal star in heaven was
in the ascendant at his birth. The speech unearths his evil heart he has possessed
at birth.
In
the following soliloquy, Edgar, son to Gloucester, has heard himself proclaimed a criminal or an
outlaw who has escaped capture by hiding himself in a hollow tree. To save his
life, he will grime his face and body with filth, cloth himself only in a
blanket and thus he has disguised as a Bedlam beggar and he has been searched
everywhere. So he says: “No port is free; no place; / that guard and most
unusual vigilance, / Does not attend my taking” (2:3:3-5). In addition to that,
the scene conveys urgency and gives some impression of Kent’s time in the stocks. It also represents the
first real speech from Edgar, who hitherto has simply been manipulated. Now, at
last, he acts. The nature of his plight and the forthrightness of his revelation
engage the sympathy of the audience. He explains his intention to disguise
himself as Kent has done at the opening of Act I, Scene IV. Here
an audience’s involvement is enhanced by being ‘in the know’ about disguise; there
is the appreciation of ironies and double meanings in many contexts as well as the
satisfaction of being aware of facts and situations hidden from some of the
characters. He has disguised himself as a Bedlam lunatic because the
extremeness, the filth and the demented ranting offer the best chance of
escaping detection. The underlying significance is that Edgar’s presence in a
wood, his talk of vulnerability and exposure, lodge in our minds an image of
the bleak and comfortless out-of-doors into which Lear is to be thrust; and his
assumed role as Poor Tom prepares us for the actual derangement of Lear and the
final words of him echo the theme of ‘nothing’, the annihilation of selfhood.
For Edgar, this represents an escape route; for Lear, it will be part of harrowing
process of self-discovery.
The
soliloquy spoken by King Lear, the protagonist of the tragic play, we squirm
with Lear as he turns to the detested Goneril, revaluing her allowance of fifty
knights, still measuring love in material terms. So far has he fallen, but now
the momentum is irresistible and Regan supplies the final thrust: “What need
one?” Trapped between them, Lear’s cry of grief beginning: “O! reason not the
need” traces in microcosm the pattern of his breakdown. Actually, it is not
just so many knights that King Lear needs: it is sincere love, understanding,
tolerance and mercy which his daughters in their fine array, deny him.
Beginning in lucidity with observations on human need and identity, he slumps
into broken recognition of his plight, a king no longer: “You see me here, you
Gods, a poor old man, / As full of grief as age; wretched in both!”
(2:4:298-299). Having begged for patience, he now prays for ‘noble anger’ and
he desperately wants to be mighty, but can only weep even as he denies it. Now
disabused of any lingering hope in his daughters, ‘you unnatural hags’
represents his first attack on them both. Like a tearful child, he threatens to
take revenge, but is not sure how. As he denies again the tears that scald his
eyes, the first rumblings of the storm symbolise the tempest within. Thus is
his suffering projected on a more than human scale. We note the recurring image
of shattering in: “. . . this heart / Shall break into a hundred
thousand flaws” (2:4:310-311) and tremble with him that this breaking –
certainly, now – will include his mind: “O Fool! I shall go man.”
When
King Lear asks his daughter, Regan for the shelter of his knights, she directly
declines the proposal of him and calls her father an obstinate person like his
knights and she adds that they including her father should be taught a lesson
only by the injuries they suffer by their folly. She also adds that the knights
with the king are dangerous and he is misguided by them too. He is excessively
hurt at such treatment from his daughters, Goneril and Regan. So he goes out in
the stormy night. Here the outer storm in the play symbolises the distressed
heart of the king. The ungratefulness of the two daughters to the king induces
a great storm in his heart. So he requests the stormy wind to blow and urges
them to destroy everything. He says: “Blow, wind, and crack you cheeks! rage!
blow! / . . . Till
you have drench’d our steeples, drown’d the cocks! / Strike flat the thick
rotundity o’ th’ world! / . . . That makes ingrateful man!” (3:2: 1,2,7,9).
However, there is a stark contrast here with the broken old man who has
stumbled from the stage at the end of Act II. Now Lear is a frenzied grandeur
which arises partly from the extremeness of his situation, and the rage with
which he confronts it and partly from the violent verbs that characterise his
opening speech: ‘blow’, ‘crack’, ‘rage’, ‘spout’, ‘drench’d’, ‘drown’d’,
‘cleaving’, ‘shaking’, ‘strike’, ‘crack’, ‘spill’ and so on. The words and
images must be seen as well as heard: the churches under water, oaks cracked
open, the searing of a frail and aged head, the pillaging of nature’s seed
store. Such is Lear’s loathing of a world which has racked him although his
passion for annihilation is universal; there is no doubting the personal anguish
of ‘ingrateful man’. For this reason, Lear soon after the soliloquy declares
that he is more sinned against sinning. The treatment of his elder daughters is
so cruel that he cannot help calling them the unnatural hags.
There
is an evil plan which is made to put the king to death and the plan is
overheard by Gloucester, father to Edgar and Edmund. He requests Kent to take him to Dover where they will get both welcome and shelter.
Just after the incident, a soliloquy is spoken by Edgar who has disguised
himself as Tom. Through it, he expresses his inner sorrows and sufferings he
has encountered like the king. He says that when we see our superiors enduring
the same hardship that we ourselves suffer from, we do not suffer so acutely
from our miseries. The man who is alone in his sorrow suffers most and his mind
broods over the happiness and freedom he has lost. But when he has companies in
grief, much of his suffering is lightened. Therefore he says: “When grief hath
mates and bearing fellowship. / How light and portable my pain seems now, /
When that which makes me bend makes the king bow; / He childed as I fathered!”
(3:6:110-13). He compares his sufferings to the sufferings of King Lear. Edgar
is deprived of his father’s inheritance because of the conspiracy of Edmund against
him but his father, Gloucester, like King Lear cannot distinguish between crudeness and
purity accordingly Edmund and Edgar and does the same mistakes like King Lear
by disowning his legitimate son. Now he is very unhappy and always remains in
fear of being detected. He adds that he will keep an eye on the events that are
taking place around him and also says that he will not reveal himself until the
accusations are proved to be false and the proof of his innocence will help him
to reconcile with his father and win back his love.
Edmund
in this soliloquy is in a fix and delivers his dilemma of mind: “Which of them
shall I take? / Both? One? Or neither? Neither can be enjoyed / If both remain
alive. To take the widow / Exasperates, makes mad her sister Goneril;”
(5:1:67-71). He is very indecisive in the soliloquy and he cannot decide what
to do now. He describes here that he has sworn his love to both the sisters and
each is suspicious of the other, as the person who has once bitten by a snake
is always afraid of snakes. He cannot decide whom he should marry and asks if
he should marry both the sisters or none of them. He adds that he cannot enjoy
the love of either as long as both of them are alive. Now he arguing with his
mind that if he marries whose husband is dead, Goneril will be mad with
jealousy and as long as Goneril’s husband lives, he can never be able to attain
her. In the meantime, he will use the authority of her husband for carrying on
the battle and when that is over, let Goneril, who wants to get rid of her
husband, plan his death. As for the mercy which he intends to show to Lear and
Cordelia, well, when the battle is over and they will be his prisoners and he
will never have the chance to show them any mercy. He further adds that he must
defend his position and now waste time in empty discussion.
In
concluding the elaborate discussion on the major soliloquies, we come to lean
that most of the characters in the four tragedies as Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth
and King Lear reveal their heart when they are engaged in a soliloquy. In
Hamlet, through his soliloquies, the heart of Hamlet is left open to the
audience that he is very thoughtful before taking any decision. He hits upon
plans one after another but his hesitant mind does not allow him to execute his
deed. And in Othello, Iago’s soliloquies are much highlighted so that his
mysterious character is revealed to the reader or the audience. He overtakes
Mosca in villainy and greed a character from Volpone and Dr. Tamkin a character
from Seize the Day by Saul Bellow. In Macbeth, the protagonist and his wife’s
hearts are go exposed to the audience that Macbeth at first is a very loyal
person and very close to King Duncan but his heart is polluted by his wife, who
is very ambitious and can do anything like Iago for the sake of his interest. She
insists her husband on his committing murder of the king as prophesised by the
three witches at the beginning of the play. She can be regarded one of the
witches in physical shape who pressurises her husband to murder King Duncan.
Finally, in King Lear, some major characters are found to be involved in
soliloquies which also open their hearts to the audience. In the play Edmund’s
criminal self is disclosed as he is found involved in plotting against his
brother and he is also responsible for his father’s lost of sight. What he does
to him is very cruel whereas King Lear is very shocked at the misconduct of his
elder daughters whom he believe to be reliable, responsible, loving and caring
but he is wrong. Again through the soliloquy of Edgar we come to know that he
is an innocent brother to Edmund and son to Gloucester. He compares his fate with the fate of King
Lear. Here we come to learn that both of them are sinned against than sinning. Thus,
through the soliloquies above discussed reveal the hearts of the characters
concerned. Actually, a soliloquy is used in a drama or play or film to expose
the hearts of the characters involved because in them there is no scope of
showing inner thought of a character if it is not told loudly and directed to
the audience and thus it helps progress the plot of a play or drama.
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