William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is the greatest playwright and poet in the period ofEnglish Renaissance. In his dramatic life, he wrote 39 plays, 5 long poems, and 154 sonnets,which eulist him among the masters of the worid literature. His works are so attractive that,for over four centuries, people have made the avaiancbe of criticism on them. Tounderstand his language is one basic way to approech him. Amnong his language, the use ofsoliloquy is a very important element through which we may gain access to betterunderstanding of his playwriting and his spocific plays.My paper gives a collective study and technical examination of the soliloquies prior toShakespeare and in Shakespoares plays through detailed analyses of some typicalsoliloquies in Hamlet. This dissertation is dividsd into five parts.In part one, soliloquy is defined, compared with other terms in the speech of a play asa convention. Briefly, by definition, a soliloquy is a speech delivered by a character in aplay (or other literny composition) while he or she is aione on the stage, providing thenecessary information, expressing his or her innermost thoughts and feelings. Tounderstand the defimtion fully, distinctions between this term and a couple of other formsof addresses such as monologue, aside, prologue, and epilogue are mede.In part two, I trace the origin and the development of the soliloquy device prior toShakespoare. The study is limited to a brief description of the prominent characteristics ofsoliloquies of the succeeding ages up to Shakespeare. The origin of soliloquy dates back toGreek tragedies, Roman tragedies, and Elizabethan tragedies. The dramatists in ancientGreece employ soliloquy device as a prologue toopen their plays. In Roman tragedies,soliloqules are applied more than before. Seneca continues the tradition of the expositionsoliloquy In Elizabethan tragedies, soliloquies are employed extensivety and with masterlyskill. The works of two pre-Shakespearian dramatists, Thomas Kyd and ChristopherMarlowe, may represent the achievement in this respect.In the third part, the classification of the developing stages of Shakespearessoliloquies in different plays is discussed. yiewed as a whole, the soliloquies inShakespeares plays can be divided into four stages, with dominant characteristics at eachstage. Fbetly, at the expository stage, we are usuaily introduced to the characters and theirsituation by reference to preceding events. Secondly, at the informative stage, soliloquy isused as a device for telling the story or providing information fundamental for the audience.Thirdly, it is at the psycbological stage that Shalcespeares soliloquies reach the peak oftheir development. The soliloquies often dramatize the inner struggles of the characters.Fourthly, at thg didactic stage, the soliloquies are intended to teash something either toother characters or to the audience.In part four, the author is to talk about the functions of the soliloquies in Shakespearesplays. To give a systematic study, I sununarize the functions into the following threecategories: (l) the revelation of the characters. Viewing a performance of a drarna, theaudience usuaily comes to know the character through three ways, i.e. through thecharacters telling his own identity, through the characters explaining his disguise andthrough the characters selfcharacterization, (2) the exploration of the charactersinnermost thoughts and feelings. Among all of the soliloquies in Shakespeares plays, thisfunction is the most striking and is of great importance. This function is also performedthrough three ways, i.e. the depiction of the working of conscience, the suggestion of theborder between sanity and insanity, and the depiction of passions. Of these methods, thedepiction of passions is discussed in detail; (3) the acceleration of the development of plots.In a play, it is important for the playwright to employ soliloquies to accompany thedeparture of a character or his arrival or to bridge a short interval between an exit and anentraxice. Thus we have the entrance soliloquy, the link, and the exit soliloquy. The entrancesoliloquy prevents the simultaneous appearance of A at one door and B at the other Thelink serves to join episodes and indicates a passage of time. The exit speech serves a mechanical purpose: it facilitates the departure of the last spealcer in a scene.The fifth part deals with some of the toical soliloquies in Hamlet to find out the keyto the Princes problems. In what he says about himself and his surroundings through hissoliloquies, Hamlet sets before us a mirror reflecting the deep convulsions and agonizingstruggles in his consciousness. This mirror is worthy of careful examination, for throughwhich we can see the mental struggles of our Prince, i.e. the activities of his inner world inconflict with the outer world. Furthermore, we can trace the development of Hamletscharacter under trying circumstances through his struggles to keep his integrity and toregain strength, and we can also gather clues to the challenging problem of hisprocrastination. Hamlet is an idealist possessing hunianistic ideas in the Renaissance period.In essence, his inner world is pure, upright, generous and sensitive, besides being highlyhuniamstic and idealistic. However, the outer world is full of flattery, disloyalty, murder,treachery and spying. It is obvious that the conflict between his imier world and the outerworld is inevitable. These conflicts are due mainty to his dissatisfaction with the outer sideworld, to the incompatibility between his ideais and realities, rather than to the weakness ofhis character or disregard for himself As for the problem of Hamlets procrastination, threemost famous opinions represented respectively by Goethe and Coleridge, Bradley, andWerder are listed. The author points out the shortcomings of these opinions and indicatesthat the Princes delay in action is determined both by the difficult circumistances in whichthe Prince finds himself and by the conflictwithin his soul.In the concluding part, I give a general review of the main points discussed in thispaper and indicate that by analyzing the soliloquies in Shakespeares plays we may arriveat a better understanding of his techifiques in playwriting and get a suggestive solution tosome of the critical problems.