English Literature / Unit 7 ENL 0624 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Reading a Soliloquy
The idea
A soliloquy shows a character thinking, so read it as an argument with itself. First, identify the speaker and the situation that prompts the speech, because a soliloquy answers an event. Second, find the question the speaker poses, stated or implied: whether to act, whether to live, whether to trust. Third, follow the reasoning: each "but," "yet" or "ay, there's the rub" marks a turn in the argument. Fourth, notice the imagery, which carries the feeling: flesh that would melt, a sea of troubles, a sleep of death. Fifth, note where the speaker arrives, because many soliloquies end in a decision or in a deeper doubt. "To be, or not to be" poses life against death, turns on the fear of what dreams may come after death, and ends with conscience making cowards of us all: the argument explains the delay.
In practice
Situation, question, turns, images, arrival.
Where people slip
A soliloquy is not addressed to another character. Answers that treat it as a speech to someone on stage misread the convention.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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