Hamlet condemns himself to life in this soliloquy. He realizes that by escaping his earthly body through death he will still remain in the prison of painful thoughts. Hamlet, the thinker, cannot escape his conscious self and in that realization decides, “to be.” The foundation of his choice is solipsistic in nature. His decision is not one based on anything but his own reality.
Hamlet looks at Ophelia and tells her that her face is false. He accuses her of wearing a different face than that given to her by God. It is this kind of trickery in Denmark that causes Hamlet to lose all confidence in the truth of the world around him.
Hamlet relies upon an outside and all-knowing source to tell him the truth about what transpires in the world in which he lives. Hamlet, before avenging his late father, doubts the existence of the ghost and feels the need to prove the veracity of his word. He goes about doing this by creating a mock play that will withdraw a reaction from the ill-perceived Claudius. Hamlet, after observing the guilt-ridden expression of his uncle, concludes that the information he received from the conscious and spiritual world was truth.
Hamlet speaks with irony in this quotation. He refers to the play as a false representation of the real world. Hamlet, however, sees the “real world” as false. Hamlet’s reality exists in his conscious self.
Hamlet claims his independence. Hamlet, through this statement separates himself from others. Hamlet’s mind is safe from those earthly creatures that coexist in his falsified world.
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