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31 maj 2020 · Claudius begins his soliloquy by describing his ‘offence’ – killing his brother, Old Hamlet – as ‘rank’, i.e. foul-smelling and offensive. His crime is the very first murder in the Bible: Cain’s murder of his brother Abel, from the book of Genesis, and the subsequent curse placed upon mankind.
- My Offence is Rank Soliloquy
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Hamlet is not...
- Hamlet
Posts about Hamlet written by InterestingLiterature. By Dr...
- William Shakespeare
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) If...
- My Offence is Rank Soliloquy
Read Shakespeare’s ‘O, my offence is rank it smells to heaven’ soliloquy from Hamlet below with modern English translation and analysis, plus a video performance.
15 sie 2011 · In these seven soliloquies, Hamlet shares his inner feelings, thoughts, and plans for the future. These soliloquies are the pivotal pillars of the drama and are still considered some of Shakespeare's most brilliant writing. You will likely recognize lines, such as the famous "To be or not to be ..."
Hamlet enters and sees Claudius praying. He is grateful to at last be alone with the man, believing now is the chance to kill him and take his revenge. Hamlet, however, finds himself in a conundrum—if he kills Claudius while the king is praying, Claudius’s soul will go to heaven.
Analysis. Claudius, Gertrude, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern gather in the hall of Elsinore. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern tell Claudius that though they’ve tried to talk to Hamlet about the root of his madness, he’s unwilling to answer them and remains “aloof.”
Hamlet's speeches constantly bring us from his own situation to the broader dilemmas that face all of us. In Claudius's case, it's as if he can't escape the particulars of his situation: he killed his brother, and it's as simple, and difficult, as that.
In this video, Paapa Essiedu explores his first soliloquy in Act 1 Scene 2. You can see Paapa performing the soliloquy at the start of the video before he explains some of the things he looks for in a speech to help him understand how the character is feeling.
