The Soliloquies In Shakespeare's Plays

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is the greatest playwright and poet in the period of English Renaissance. In his dramatic life, he wrote 39 plays, 5 long poems, and 154 sonnets, which enlist him among the masters of the world literature. His works are so attractive that, for over four centuries, people have made the avalanche of criticism on them. To understand his language is one basic way to approach him. Among his language, the use of soliloquy is a very important element through which we may gain access to better understanding of his playwriting and his specific plays.My paper gives a collective study and technical examination of the soliloquies prior to Shakespeare and in Shakespeare's plays through detailed analyses of some typical soliloquies in Hamlet. This dissertation is divided into five parts.In part one, soliloquy is defined, compared with other terms in the speech of a play as a convention. Briefly, by definition, a soliloquy is a speech delivered by a character in a play (or other literary composition) while he or she is alone on the stage, providing the necessary information, expressing his or her innermost thoughts and feelings. To understand the definition fully, distinctions between this term and a couple of other forms of addresses such as monologue, aside, prologue, and epilogue are made.In part two, I trace the origin and the development of the soliloquy device prior to Shakespeare. The study is limited to a brief description of the prominent characteristics of soliloquies of the succeeding ages up to Shakespeare. The origin of soliloquy dates back to Greek tragedies, Roman tragedies, and Elizabethan tragedies. The dramatists in ancient Greece employ soliloquy device as a prologue to open their plays. In Roman tragedies, soliloquies are applied more than before. Seneca continues the tradition of the exposition soliloquy. In Elizabethan tragedies, soliloquies are employed extensively and with masterly skill. The works of two pre-Shakespearian dramatists, Thomas Kyd and Christopher Marlowe, may represent the achievement in this respect.In the third part, the classification of the developing stages of Shakespeare's soliloquies in different plays is discussed. Viewed as a whole, the soliloquies in Shakespeare's plays can be divided into four stages, with dominant characteristics at each stage. Firstly, at the expository stage, we are usually introduced to the characters and their situation by reference to preceding events. Secondly, at the informative stage, soliloquy is used as a device for telling the story or providing information fundamental for the audience. Thirdly, it is at the psychological stage that Shakespeare's soliloquies reach the peak of their development. The soliloquies often dramatize the inner struggles of the characters. Fourthly, at the didactic stage, the soliloquies are intended to teach something either to other characters or to the audience.In part four, the author is to talk about the functions of the soliloquies in Shakespeare's plays. To give a systematic study, I summarize the functions into the following three categories: (1) the revelation of the characters. Viewing a performance of a drama, the audience usually comes to know the character through three ways, i.e. through theIVcharacter's telling his own identity, through the character's explaining his disguise and through the character's self-characterization; (2) the exploration of the character's innermost thoughts and feelings. Among all of the soliloquies in Shakespeare's plays, this function is the most striking and is of great importance. This function is also performed through three ways, i.e. the depiction of the working of conscience, the suggestion of the border between sanity and insanity, and the depiction of passions. Of these methods, the depiction of passions is discussed in detail; (3) the acceleration of the development of plots. In a play, it is important for the playwright to employ soliloquies to accompany the departure of a character or his arrival or to bridge a short in...