TheSoliloquiesinShakespeare’s

Abstract：The soliloquy is a literary device that is employed to unconsciously reveal an actor’s thoughts to the audience and can be a powerful tool used to gain access into the deepest thoughts of a character. This paper analyses some famous soliloquies in Shakespeare’s plays to see how they serve to forward the plot to achieve the dramatic effectiveness and to make different characters more distinctive.

Key words: soliloquy； Shakespeare

The soliloquy is a literary device that is employed to unconsciously reveal an actor’s thoughts to the audience and it can be a powerful tool used to gain access into the deepest thoughts of a character. William Shakespeare who is viewed as not only a great writer but a master of language is good at wordplay to achieve the dramatic effectiveness and there is clear evidence that he delights in his skill with words in most of his works. Here the author wants to point out some famous soliloquies in Shakespeare’s plays to see how they serve to forward the plot to achieve the dramatic effectiveness and to make different characters more distinctive.

First, the soliloquies in Romeo and Juliet. The author is interested in the soliloquy given by the Friar who is the only person to whom Romeo and Juliet can turn through out the play. Everyone speaks well of the Friar and he is a pleasant and likeable figure, who is chiefly important as the means to promote the plot. It is in Act II, Scene 3 that we first meet the Friar. He is to play a significant part later, and so Shakespeare uses the soliloquy which opens the scene to show the audience what kind of man the Friar is. After this speech, we get to know him better and know what to expect from him. We are thus prepared to accept his later actions. The first thing we notice is the rhyme of the speech. There is a great deal of rhyme in the play, but such a long rhymed speech stands out. The rhymes are noticeable, and give a certain formality to the lines.

Also we notice that the Friar speaks in a different form from that of the characters in earlier scenes, so we realize that we may have moved to a different world of experience. The rhymes thus serve to underline the fact that the Friar is a religious man, apart from the boisterous world of the rest of the play. At the end of his speech, the Friar reflects that men are like plants: they too have good and evil in them, as plants may contain harmful and medicinal properties. His speech ends as he remarks that if the ‘worser’ predominates then evil overtakes the man. This idea also relates to one of the concerns of the play. From the first long speech to the end of the play, we see clearly that the Friar always speaks unhurriedly and never speaks briefly.