A critic has commented that this is the moment when the “ash grey surface” of Hamlet’s calm “breaks and seethes”. Using this soliloquy as a starting point, examine the ways in which Shakespeare presents Hamlet’s feelings and actions in Act 1,

Every thought in Hamlet's first soliloquy, is painful. This is the first time we see Hamlet expressing his true melancholy thoughts aloud. He wishes that he could just evaporate into the thin air, and begins by saying, "O, that this too too solid flesh would melt / Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!" (1.2.129-130). Hamlet wishes that suicide wasn’t a sin, and that God did not have a law against it, “that the Everlasting had not fixed / His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter.” (1.2.131-132). From this, we can clearly see that Hamlet is deeply depressed, and has thoughts about taking his own life, as he is disgusted with it, and the world appears to him "weary, stale, flat, and, unprofitable." (1.2.133). This image of corruption, and decay contributes to the Hamlet’s pessimistic mood of gloom and evil. It is very clear that Hamlet is grieving over the death of his father. Hamlet’s intensely depressive, almost desperate thoughts and feelings, “O God, God,” (1.2.132) are c...