In his preface, Alex Newell tells us that since publishing a 'well received essay on "The Dramatic Context and Meaning of Hamlet's 'To be or not to be' Soliloquy"' (PMLA 80, March 1965), he has 'traveled a good deal in Hamlet'. Whereas most middle-aged Shakespearean's will have found that their journeys in Hamlet have taken them to the fringes, if not through the centres, of a range of contemporary theoretical 'isms', Newell's book reveals that he has remained true to his vision of the 1960's.
             The Soliloquies in 'Hamlet': The Structural Design looks at the whole of Hamlet, taking the twelve soliloquies in their dramatic contexts as the key to the play's meaning. The book is divided into six chapters. The first five provide a series of commentaries on the soliloquies. 'Images of the Mind' focuses on the first three: the major 'O that this too too sallied flesh' speech and the more minor 'My father's spirit - in arms' and 'O all you host of heaven'. In Newell's view these opening soliloquies establish the frame of reference in which the tragedy, the tainting of Hamlet's mind, will take place. Caught between Angel and Beast but blessed with the god-given power of reason, Hamlet will eventually succumb to the hellish temptation of revenge - passion and madness overcoming rationality. The centrality of this argument is foregrounded in the titles of the next four chapters. 'Passion and Reason: A Dramatic Nexus', centers on the 'O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I' soliloquy. In measuring himself against both the revenger Pyrrhus (that 'Hyrcanian beast') and the actor who is moved to tears by the passions he is recounting, Hamlet is in danger of succumbing to irrational emotion; in resolving to instigate the 'mousetrap', sanity is restored as an 'essential rationality' replaces the earlier 'manic tantrum'. Chapter 3, 'Discourse of Reason', centers on 'To be or not to be'.
             Though most commentators have found this soliloquy a distin...