actors who, in acting out a scene, expresses emotion in a profound way, causing the audience to feel what he feels even though he has no real reason to do so. Incontrast, Hamlet cannot do the same—even though he has all the reasons in the world to do so. The contrast makes it clear that Hamlet believes himself a coward. He asks a number of rhetorical questions in this instance:

Am I a coward? Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across? Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face? Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i' the throat, As deep as to the lungs? who does me this?

Hamlet states that if anyone should do these things to mock or humiliate him for his intransigence and his weakness, he should not feel offended, for the only reason they would do so is because he has less courage than a harmless pigeon.

Secondly, the soliloquy clearly displays Hamlet's self-knowledge and self-loathing. This introspection makes him realize some bitter truths about himself, such as that he does not have the gall to proceed in his revenge. He metaphorically compares himself to an ass, a fool. He uses sarcasm by mentioning that it is indeed “brave” of him; when driven by heaven and hell to commit his vengeance, he is only able to act by expressing his emotions through words and not deeds. He uses similes by comparing himself to a whore and a worthless, swearing kitchen maid in this regard.

Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words, And fall a-cursing, like a very drab, A scullion!

Thirdly, Hamlet in this monologue clearly shows his utter contempt and disdain for his uncle, Claudius. He cries out passionately:

I should have fatted all the region kitesWith this slave's offal: bloody, bawdy villain!Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain….

Hamlet uses powerful metaphors and adjectives to express his intense disgust. Claudius is the same as the entrails of a slave, a man without morals, remorse, or kindness. He now truly realizes just how much he abhors Claudius.

Fourth, it is during this speech that Hamlet finally decides to actually do something to honor the pledge he made to his father's ghost. He now decides that he will use a play to determine Claudius's guilt in his father's murder. He will have the actors enact a scene similar to his father's foul murder. He will then carefully watch Claudius's reaction. If Claudius should act in a guilty manner, Hamlet will then know exactly what to do. It is interesting that Hamlet uses such a careful, indirect method to determine Claudius's guilt; moments earlier, he expressed reckless determination to punish Claudius.

Finally, Hamlet's monologue reveals that he does not entirely trust the ghost. He declares:

The spirit that I have seen May be the devil: and the devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps Out of my weakness and my melancholy, As he is very potent with such spirits, Abuses me to damn me….

Hamlet believes that the ghost might just be a devil who has taken on the guise of his father in an attempt to use his emotional condition and his frailty to do evil, leading him on a path to damnation. Hamlet believes that he needs better grounds to take action. He declares that in this regard, the play will be a better guarantee in proving Claudius's guilt.

...the play's the thing Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.

In Hamlet's soliloquy at the end of Act 2, Scene 2, Hamlet is working through his internal struggle. He struggles with the inappropriate relationship between Gertrude and Claudius and laments over the fact that he has not done anything about it. He is essentially "beating himself up" over the fact that his only plan in dealing with this is to wait and let God be the judge of the incest between the two characters. He goes back and forth on whether he should kill Claudius in an act of revenge, but it really is not in his nature to do so. In the end he decides to just wait and observe Claudius some more in order to get more proof. He resolves to have actors perform a play in which they act out his father's murder so he can watch Claudius's reaction to it. He doesn't trust that the ghost he has seen is not playing with his emotions forcing him into actions that are not justified. He believes this play is just the thing to get to the truth and gather more evidence. 

Some literary devices that are used is personification where he states "For murder though it have no tongue, ill speak with most miraculous organ. He uses this to show how he believes Claudius's emotions will reveal his murderous ways. Hamlet also uses hyperbole to describe himself when he says, "But I am pigeon-livered and lack gall to make oppression bitter...Why, what an ass am I! This most brave..." He is being especially hard on himself and is completely conflicted about the actions he should take. 

The soliloquy in act two, scene two, of William Shakespeare's Hamlet is Hamlet's second soliloquy. In this speech, Hamlet defines his inner conflict. Although he wants to revenge his father's death, Hamlet cannot find it in himself to do so. It is against Hamlet's character to murder, even if in revenge. Over the course of the soliloquy, Hamlet becomes more and more frustrated about the situation he faces. After convincing himself to commit the premeditated murder of Claudius, he talks himself out of it again. Still unsure, he decides to find more evidence against Claudius before enacting his revenge.

 As for any literary devices, a simile is found in line 579. Here, Hamlet compares himself to a whore (shown with the use of "like a"). In line 586, alliteration is found. (Alliteration is the repetition of a consonant sound within a line of poetry.) The “s” sound in “been struck so to the soul that presently.” Lastly, a metaphor extends throughout the soliloquy when Hamlet compares his lack of ability to enact revenge to bad actors.

In act two, scene two, an acting troupe visits Elisnore, and Hamlet witnesses a talented player perform a dramatic speech about the murder of Priam. After requesting that the actors perform The Murder of Gonzago, the acting troupe exits the scene and Hamlet is left alone with his disturbing thoughts. Hamlet begins his moving soliloquy by comparing his lack of action and inability to express his emotions to the talented actor's passionate performance. Hamlet calls himself a "rogue and peasant," which emphasizes his insecurities and reveals his guilt and shame. Hamlet proceeds to muse on the actor's ability to evoke authentic emotions while he is unable to express his thoughts or make a decision regarding how he plans to avenge his father's death.

Hamlet proceeds to question why he cannot publicly voice his displeasure or act upon his strong emotions when he has a perfectly valid reason to do so. He then compares himself to an aimless daydreamer and begins to question his masculinity. Eventually, Hamlet comes to the conclusion that he is simply "pigeon-livered" and lacks the mettle to avenge his father's death. Instead of taking action, Hamlet recognizes that he can only "unpack" his heart with words as he continues to lament his unfortunate circumstances.

His thoughts then shift back to the acting troupe and he remembers that "guilty creatures sitting at a play" have often confessed their crimes after witnessing a moving performance. This thought gives Hamlet a brilliant idea to make the players reenact his father's murder on stage in front of Claudius. While they are reenacting his father's assassination, Hamlet will observe Claudius's behavior in hopes of identifying his guilt. Claudius's response will then confirm the Ghost's report and give Hamlet the solid proof he needs to follow through with the assassination.

In his soliloquy of Act II, Scene 2, Hamlet chastises himself for his weakness and inaction in avenging the murder of his father, and he considers a method to confirm the guilt of Claudius.

Steeped in melancholy over the death of his father and what he views as his mother's incestuous act of marriage to Claudius, Hamlet finds himself in a quagmire of thoughts and emotions that immobilize him. In his soliloquy of Act II, Scene 2, Hamlet muses upon the emotion that an actor of the visiting troupe brings forth in his speech about the Trojan queen Hecuba, the prototype for bereft and mourning women. He wonders what this man would do if he "[H]ad the motive and cue for passion" (Act II, Scene 2, line 517) that he has in his current situation. 

Upon further introspection, Hamlet berates himself for his lack of passion and courage:

But I am pigeon-livered and lack gall
To make oppression bitter, or ere this 
I should'a fatted all the region kites
With this slave's offal. Bloody, bawdy villain (Act II, Scene 2, lines 534-537)!

Further, Hamlet calls himself "an ass" for his inaction. He then remembers that sometimes people who watch a play whose plot resembles circumstances of their own lives are "struck so to the soul" (Act II, Scene 2, line 548) that they are driven to confess the crimes they have committed.

Resolved to act, Hamlet decides to have the actors perform a play whose plot involves situations similar to those which have recently occurred in reality. Then, as Claudius watches this play, Hamlet can "catch the conscience of the king" (Act II, Scene 2, line 562).

As with Hamlet's other soliloquies, his third soliloquy moves him toward action and provides more insights into his soul.

Hamlet is intrigued by the fact that this actor, reciting a speech given to him by some playwright, or perhaps a speech he composed himself, is moved to weep upon the recitation.  How can he be so moved by what is only an act?  He pretends to weep for Hecuba and he's certainly never met her or been given any reason to feel emotion for her.  Yet he can move himself to tears over her.

He compares this to himself, unable to take action despite a very real offense, the suspected murder of his father.  Why is it that this actor can be moved so easily and he remains still?

His frustration leads him to the realization that perhaps he can use this power of the actors to his benefit, that he can use the play to show the king's guilt, that Claudius, if he sees his brother's murder reenacted will give some sign to show he did in fact do it.

In Hamlet’s soliloquy at the end of this scene, he berates himself for his relative inaction in regard to his father's ghost's charge that Hamlet avenge his murder. He marvels at the actor he has just seen who cried tears and spoke with a broken voice who, in reality, has no real reason to cry; yet this actor showed more resolve and emotion while acting than Hamlet has done in reality.

He asks himself repeatedly if he is a coward and decides that he has certainly been acting like one. Now, he makes a plan to hire the actors to play something like the scene that really occurred between old King Hamlet and his brother, the new King Claudius, to see Claudius's reaction. If his uncle "blenches," then Hamlet knows that what the ghost told him is true, and he can move forward with his revenge.

Therefore, the theme of this soliloquy is Hamlet's own damaged self-image: he feels poorly about himself because he hasn't really made a move to avenge his father.  He feels his father's goodness, and he's even experienced (and been shamed by) the actor's ability to conjure emotion and action out of thin air. In comparing himself to them both, he feels cowardly and worthless.  Avenging his father becomes as much about respecting himself and his behavior as his duty as a son.

As the pivotal pillars of the drama, Hamlet's soliloquies are what direct the action of the play. For, in them the Prince of Denmark deliberates greatly on his own feelings and what course he should take after the ghost of his father entreats him to avenge his murder.

In his third soliloquy in Act II, after Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have departed, Hamlet chides himself for his procrastination--"O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!"--when he should be acting on his father's request.  Contrasting himself with the player who sheds tears as he recites the tragic lines about Hecuba's grief over the death of her husband from a play about the fall of Troy, Hamlet asks himself why he cannot rise to action with the motives and passion he has that should easily give him cause for vengeance. "But I am pigeon-liver'd and lack gall," he reviles himself. Finally, he turns his anger against Claudius, calling him a "bloody, bawdy villain"; furthermore, he decides to test Claudius by having the players act out something like the murder of King Hamlet and watch his uncle's reactions. This, Hamlet hopes, will convince him to act as he will have proof of the guilt of Claudius:  "The play's the thing." 

Thus, the theme, of this soliloquy is Hamlet's emotion vs. his rationality.For, while his melancholic soul prevents him from acting, after observing the player who is able to summon emotion from the lines of a mere ficitional work, Hamlet's mind reasons that he must shake himself " Out of my weakness and my melancholy" and seek retribution for his father's murder by first verifying that Claudius is, indeed, guilty.

I believe the most important lines in this soliloquy are the following:

I'll have grounds
More relative than this: the play 's the thingWherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.

It is clear that Hamlet has finally become determined enough to prove Claudius' culpability in his father's murder and intends using a play to show him up. Hamlet is convinced that he can use the play, in which he would depict a murder much like that of his father, to expose his uncle. He believes that Claudius will react to the events he intends to depict in the play, thus displaying his scheming and his reprehensible act. Hamlet says earlier in his monologue:

I have heard
That guilty creatures sitting at a playHave by the very cunning of the sceneBeen struck so to the soul that presentlyThey have proclaim'd their malefactions;For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
With most miraculous organ.

Once, he believes, he has the ultimate proof of his uncle's guilt, he would have no recourse but to kill him in revenge. Up to now, Hamlet has not been entirely certain about what to do. He has tarried and is, in this soliloquy, overwhelmed by his failure to act decisively. He contrasts his actions to those of an actor who, he believes, is more capable of evoking a reaction than he has been able to, up to now. Hamlet is profoundly critical of himself here, calling himself 'an ass' who has not made a move though he has had much reason to do so.

Hamlet doubts his courage, asking whether he is a coward who cannot even act against the abuse he suffers at the hands of Claudius, who is a:

bloody, bawdy villain!
Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!

He feels that Claudius has taken advantage of his weakness (his indecision) and his sadness (for his father's demise) and has mistreated him. However, Hamlet now feels more confident and is desperate to finally end his strife and take his uncle's life - a dramatic turning-point in the play.