Deliberation in Shakespeare

    Shakespeare's plays are fueled by decisions made by the characters. Sometimes these decisions are automatic reactions to their circumstances, but most Shakespearean decisions require heavy deliberation on the part of the characters. In addition to propelling the plot and giving us an insight into Shakespeare's characters, these monologues are moments of discovery particularly suitable for auditions. These monologues rest solely on the power of the actor, needing little scenery or special effects or even involvement from others.

    Below are four of the most powerful moments of deliberation in Shakespeare, along with their immediate dramatic circumstances and the decision reached. The moment when the decision is made is up to the actor's interpretation; however, each monologue come with a textually-based interpretation that appears highlighted in yellow in the text of the monologue and is explained in the third section, Decision reached.

In these three monologues, characters from Shakespeare's tragedies weigh the importance of loyalty against human life.

1. Macbeth in Macbeth

DRAMATIC CIRCUMSTANCES: 

    Lady Macbeth has decided that she and Macbeth will kill King Duncan when the opportunity presents itself. In this moment, Duncan arrives to stay overnight at Macbeth's castle of Dunsinane––and Lady Macbeth is ready to seize the opportunity.

TEXT OF THE MONOLOGUE:

    "If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well

    It were done quickly: if th'assassination

    Could trammel up the consequence, and catch

    With his surcease success; that but this blow

    Might be the be-all and the end-all –– here

    But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,

    We'd jump the life to come. –– But in these cases,

    We still have judgement here; that we but teach

    Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return

    To plague th'inventor: this even-handed Justice

    Commends th'ingredience of our poison'd chalice

    To our own lips. He's here in double trust:

    First, as I am his kinsmen and his subject,

    Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,

    Who should against his murtherer shut the door,

    Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan

    Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been

    So clear in his great office, that his virtues

    Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongu'd, against

    The deep damnation of his taking-off;

    And Pity, like a naked new-born babe,

    Striding the blast, or heaven's Cherubins, hors'd

    Upon the sightless couriers of the air,

    Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,

    That tears shall drown the wind. –– I have no spur

    To prick the sides of my intent, but only

    Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself

    And falls on th'other ––"

(Macbeth, Act I, Scene 7, Lines 1-28)

DECISION REACHED: 

    Although there is nothing explicit in the monologue, Macbeth leans further and further towards deciding not to kill Duncan as the monologue goes on. This change is subtle and open to interpretation, however the monologue is written intentionally with multiple caesuras (in this case, dashes). These dashes can indicate that Macbeth is interrupting his own train of thought, and thus can accompany a change in his decisions. The second dash in the text ("We'd jump the life to come. –– But") along with the turning point word, "[b]ut," suggests that Macbeth begins to decide to not kill Duncan at the highlighted section of the monologue.

2. Brutus in Julius Caesar

DRAMATIC CIRCUMSTANCES: 

    This monologue occurs after Cassius has suggested to Brutus that Caesar has too much ambition and is becoming corrupt. Cassius urges Brutus to consider what is best for the world of the Romans––and believes that he can convince Brutus (if he has not already) to help him kill Caesar.

TEXT OF THE MONOLOGUE:

    "It must be by his death: and for my part
    I know no personal cause to spurn at him
    But for the general. He would be crowned:
    How that might change his nature, there's the question.
    It is the bright day that brings forth the adder,
    And that craves wary walking. Crown him that,
    And then I grant we put a sting in him
    That at his will he may do danger with.
    Th'abuse of greatness is when it disjoins
    Remorse from power; and to speak truth of Caesar
    I have not known when his affections swayed
    More than his reason. But 'tis a common proof
    That lowliness is young ambition's ladder
    Whereto the climber upward turns his face;
    But when he once attains the upmost round
    He then unto the ladder turns his back,
    Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
    By which he did ascend. So Caesar may.
    Then, lest he may, prevent. And since the quarrel
    Will bear no colour for the thing he is,
    Fashion it thus: that what he is, augmented,
    Would run to these and these extremities. 
    And therefore think him as a serpent's egg
    Which hatched, would as his kind grow mischievous,

    And kill him in the shell."

(Julius Caesar, Act II, Scene 1, Lines 10-34)

DECISION REACHED: 

    In this monologue, Brutus seems to make the decision to help kill Caesar, contradict that decision, and then make that same decision again. First, he acknowledges that he can think of no past experience where Caesar has acted tyrannical. But Brutus believes that being crowned must change that––and thus makes the decision to help kill Caesar in factual terms: "It is the bright day," "we put a sting in him," and "Th'abuse of greatness is when." Then, at "to speak truth of Caesar," Brutus contradicts himself and goes back to his first point, that he has no reason to believe Caesar will become corrupt. However, Brutus dissuades himself of this belief with more factual-sounding sentences: "But 'tis a common proof," "that what he is," and "a serpent's egg." It is important to note that all of these factual-sounding points against Caesar are metaphorical images, an indication that they are simply invented by Brutus' mind and have no basis in reality.

3. Hamlet in Hamlet

DRAMATIC CIRCUMSTANCES:

    Hamlet aims to kill Claudius in revenge for his father's murder. He finds King Claudius praying and vulnerable, and prepares to kill him.

TEXT OF THE MONOLOGUE:

    "Now might I do it pat, now a is a-praying.
    And now I'll do't. [Draws his sword.]
                                 And so a goes to heaven;
    And so am I reveng'd. That would be scann'd:
    A villain kills my father, and for that
    I, his sole son, do this same villain send
    To heaven.
    Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge.
    A took my father grossly, full of bread,
    With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May;
    And how his audit stands who knows safe heaven?
    But in our circumstance and course of thought
    'Tis heavy with him. And am I then reveng'd,
    To take him in the purging of his soul,
    When he is fit and season'd for his passage?
    No.
    Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent:
    When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage,
    Or in th'incestuous pleasure of his bed,
    At game a-swearing, or about some act
    That has no relish of salvation in't,
    Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven
    And this his soul may be as damn'd and black
    As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays.

    This physic but prolongs thy sickly days."

(Hamlet, Act III, Scene 3, Lines 73-96)

DECISION REACHED:

    Hamlet decides not to kill Claudius at this very moment, because he realizes that if he murders the King while praying, he will send the King's soul to Heaven rather than Hell. This realization dawns on him slowly, in the first half of the monologue––and he articulates that in the short and jarring (highlighted in yellow) line "No." He is still set in his primary intention to kill Claudius, but decides to do it when Claudius is sure to go to Hell. The rhyming couplet at the end of this monologue foreshadows that his decision is set in stone, and that there will be no further deliberation.

In this monologue from Measure for Measure (a problem play), Isabella weighs the importance of her personal value of chastity against the value of her brother's life.

    Perhaps this element of deliberation, a trope of tragedies, is what makes the tone of this play a tragicomedy instead of simply a comedy. For more information on what makes a problem play, see our post on categorization here.

4. Isabella in Measure for Measure

DRAMATIC CIRCUMSTANCES:

    Angelo has just suggested to Isabella, a nun, that he would pardon his brother, Claudio, from his death sentence if she would sleep with him. She now has a soliloquy, the final moment of the act, to make her choice––her chastity or her brother's life.

TEXT OF MONOLOGUE:

    "To whom should I complain? Did I tell this,
    Who would believe me? O perilous mouths, 
    That bear in them one and the self-same tongue
    Either of condemnation or approof,
    Bidding the law make curtsey to their will,
    Hooking both right and wrong to th'appetite,
    To follow as it draws! I'll to my brother.
    Though he hath fall'n by prompture of the blood,
    Yet hath he in him such a mind of honour, 
    That he had he twenty heads to tender down
    On twenty bloody blocks, he'd yield them up
    Before his sister should her body stoop
    To such abhorr'd pollution.
    Then, Isabel live chaste, and brother, die;
    More than our brother is our chastity.
    I'll tell him yet of Angelo's request,

    And fit his mind to death, for his soul's rest."

(Measure for Measure, Act II, Scene 4, Lines 170-186)

DECISION REACHED:

    Isabella decides that she will not sleep with Angelo, and will thereby sacrifice her brother's life. She comes to this decision after lamenting her troubled state as a woman with no credibility in her society. She idealizes her brother, mistakenly believing that Claudio would want her to preserve her chastity at his own expense. She uses that belief to convince herself not to sleep with Angelo, and makes her resolution explicit in the sentence beginning with the yellow highlight. The rhyming couplet at the end of this monologue (like the rhyming couplet at the end of the Hamlet monologue) foreshadows that her decision is final, and that there will be no further deliberation.