Hamlet: Act II, Scene II

I like the soliloquy by Hamlet in Act II, Scene II that starts out with "Now I am alone." That first statement seems almost an echo of the first line of the play (“Who’s there?”), or perhaps a beginning to the answer of that question of identity. And notice the line following -- he declares himself a rogue and a peasant slave. This negative self-view is echoed throughout the soliloquy..

Another interesting line in the soliloquy is the one in which he refers to the play which he had requested the player to give a speech from – “What's Hecuba to him, or him to Hecuba//That he should weep for her." (line 557). The line is a reference to a play by Euripedes in which Hecuba’s husband is murdered (note that the Euripedes play also begins with a ghost). Hecuba’s response to the death of her husband ("life on earth has no more charm for me") is a stark contrast to Hamlet’s mother’s seemingly nonexistent grief.

The line, “what’s Hecuba to him, or him to Hecuba/ That he should weep for her" questions the nature of grief: from the weeping of the player who gave the speech at Hamlet's request, to the absence of the Queen's grief, to Hamlet's own grief. In the one case, a player is caught up in the part he plays, and becomes an emotional reflection or action of that part ….versus Hamlet’s grief -- over his father, mother, his own position?-- in any event, REAL grief, and yet Hamlet cannot act on this real grief  as the player was able to act on an imaginary grief. ("Yet I, // ...unpregnant of my cause,//And can say nothing!"). The nature of real grief demands to be expressed internally—whether Hamlet respects that or not.

Interesting last line, about the catching of conscience... ambushes and traps sometimes catch more than the intended prey?