Comments on: ‘O, What A Rogue And Peasant Slave Am I!’ Soliloquy Analysis

By: layla muriby

layla muriby — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 14:49:46 +0000

oh ohpehlia

By: gabriel

gabriel — Mon, 06 Nov 2017 20:06:25 +0000

Of all the online explanations/translations of this soliloquy, this is by far the best. Well done!

By: james hamlet

james hamlet — Tue, 27 Jun 2017 10:48:31 +0000

In reply to Leepersleepington. good for you mate

By: Fortich

Fortich — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 13:00:16 +0000

In reply to mistercooke. Dude. When these people say he, they mean Hamlet. They arent referring to the actor. They mean Hamlet when they say he.

By: Alberto Michels da Silva

Alberto Michels da Silva — Fri, 20 Nov 2015 23:30:05 +0000

Look into all the three soliloquys in HAMLET. They have one word in common that appears nowhere else in the play!
And that is the thing in which I caught the conscience of the Prince!

Replies welcome!
Good night, sweet admirers of Shakespeare.

By: mistercooke

mistercooke — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 03:37:48 +0000

“What a deceitful fellow – a rogue, a peasant slave – he was!” I would have to question your interpretation of this first line. Is Hamlet not condemning and criticizing his own inaction and his loss of passion — for which the Ghost later criticizes him? Is this not the central focus of the play, Hamlet’s tragic flaw, which is that he is too indecisive, too meditative, too self-absorbed? And why would he criticize the acting ability of the actor he was so enthralled with just a few lines before? Shakespeare is open to many interpretations, but I’m not sure this one is plausible. :)

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 13:06:01 +0000

The translation is a bit long, but thanks, it really does help a bit. Also Hamlet’s not as hard if you actually take time to read it! :D but thanks alot!

By: Patrick Gallagher

Patrick Gallagher — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 20:31:31 +0000

Blessed am I that this soliloquy I can understand. Without translation.

By: Leepersleepington

Leepersleepington — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:53:15 +0000

this translation is utterly confusing. This is what Hamlet is saying: I can’t believe what an ass I am, a coward, man who cannot act on what he KNOWS. Look at that Actor, who, in a performance so moving, wept and moved us all…in grief for Hecuba, a woman he never met nor knew because she’s been dead for a thousand years. What would that man, that actor do if he had the cause that I have? he would destroy the audience, and the world. But I, ass that I am, cannot do even what that actor does for my father, my beloved father who was killed by my uncle. And I am left to think that I am just a wimp, a coward and weak. So weak that I just think and talk about the most horrible crime that I have been charged by heaven and hell to avenge. And still I do nothing. Wait. Wait. What i just saw, so moved me to behave like this….that if the guilty party, the King my Uncle were to see a play that mirrored his crime, he would betray himself as the murderer I suspect him to be. See–my problem is that I am NOT an actor, this is NOT a play. What if I am being led by the devil, because I am sad. Because I am weak. to commit murder. To kill my uncle when he is innocent. I know nothing beside what the ghost told me. By staging this play and watching my uncle, I will know the truth. And then, because this is the real world, I will act.

By: Marcus Tori

Marcus Tori — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:39:27 +0000

“shrinking away from his duty like a John-o-dreams”?
“The idea crystallized”?
…
I don’t really understand the translation any more than the original text.