With the school year fast approaching, what better way to celebrate than to take yet another look at Hamlet's major speech in Act III, scene i of Hamlet? This way, you can get a leg up on any potential Hamlet discussions. This time, let's take a look at an oft-neglected element of Hamlet's speech- the fact that Ophelia is in the room with him while he delivers it.
Given how Hamlet completely enraptures us with his speech, it's easy to forget that Ophelia is standing just a few feet away from Hamlet while he delivers it. This is unique as, during all of his other soliloquies, Hamlet is completely alone. And interestingly, his speech is not marked as an aside (the Elizabethan drama equivalent of an interior monologue). In fact, Hamlet doesn't even give asides except to briefly insult those around him.
This speech is also different from Hamlet's other soliloquies in terms of its contents as well. In his other soliloquies after discovering the truth of his father's death, Hamlet focuses exclusively on his hesitation in accomplishing his mission of revenge, trying to figure out what's holding him back. While that element does show up in this speech, it only does so in a vague, abstract way, where his other speeches are very explicit about this. One possible reason for this may be that he's trying to mold this speech to be applicable to Ophelia as well (not to mention, Claudius is hiding in the same room).
In the previous scene (Act II, scene ii), Hamlet has already revealed his ability to overhear what other characters say and then react to them. In that scene, Polonius, Ophelia's father, discusses with Claudius his plan to use Ophelia as a sort of spy on Hamlet. And when Hamlet enters, he subtly warns Polonius to keep Ophelia away from him.
So, Hamlet can tell, before entering the scene to deliver his speech, that not only Ophelia is there, but that Claudius and Polonius are also hiding in the room. Knowing this, he can then tailor his speech to stay away from any specific details about his father (Claudius still hasn't figured out that Hamlet knows about the murder).
And, by keeping his speech more abstract and universal, he also increases its effectiveness on Ophelia (and us, but that's something else). Indeed, immediately after finishing his speech, he greets Ophelia without so much as a pause. He then asks her to remember his sins in her prayers ('orisons'). While this is usually seen as lewd, the sin he could be referring to is suicide, which he has just discussed at great length. And, of course, Ophelia drowns herself at the end of Act IV. While she may have been singing 'snatches of old tunes', she was probably thinking 'To be or not to be'.
