Soliloquies Essay - Claudius Soliloquy in Hamlet :: GCSE English Literature Coursework

Claudius Soliloquy in Hamlet Claudius monologue ab away his remorse over his eat up of Hamlets father is important to the free rein because its the one place where we learn how Claudius feels ab let out what he has done. The rest of the spell is all about how Hamlet feels about what Claudius has done, and I think it rounds out the play to get it from a different perspective. From the soliloquy I understructure see that Claudius feels spoiled for the murder, but non sorry enough. He says, Oh, my crime is rank, it smells to heaven. He wants to pray for forgiveness of his offense, but laments, Pray depose I not, because I am still possessed of those effects for which I did the murder - My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen. He murdered Hamlets father in high society to get those things and he is not willing to give them up. He realizes that accepted repentance would be willing to give then up, and therefore, he is not really repentant. This is why at the end of his pray er, he says Words without thoughts neer to heaven go. Theres no point in saying he is sorry because God knows he doesnt really mean it. So, the best he can do is pray that God will make him sorry, by pleading, mettle with strings of steel, be as soft as the sinews of a new-born babe. wholly of this shows that Claudius is introspective and honest with himself. It also does contradictory things to my opinion of him. Depending on how I look at it, this prayer can make me feel gracious towards Claudius as I learn about the inner torture he is going through and how awful he feels about killing Hamlets father. On the other hand, it also makes me more angry with him because I realize he fully understood how terrible what he did was, but he chose to do it anyway, and now he knows he should repent, but refuses to. As terrible as his guilty feelings are, they obviously arent bad enough to make him change. Claudius still holds out some hope for himself, though, saying All may be well. h ardly he shows there really isnt much hope left, when, a a few(prenominal) acts later, he plans Hamlets murder to preserve the same things he killed Hamlets father to get.