SOURCE: Gilbert, Anthony J. “Shakespearean Self-Talk, The Gricean Maxims, and the Unconscious.” English Studies 76, no. 3 (May 1995): 221-37.

In the following essay, Gilbert employs a theory of the normative pattern of conversational practice formulated by H. P. Grice—a philosopher of language—to evaluate four Shakespearean soliloquies in terms of whether characters are speaking the truth about themselves and their actions, evading it, repressing it, or rationalizing it. Gilbert analyzes Claudius's “O, my offence is rank” soliloquy in Hamlet (III.iii) with respect to what it reveals about the king's resourcefulness and self-awareness as well as his cynicism; Hamlet's “How all occasions do inform against me” speech (IV.iv) with an emphasis on what the critic regards as its evasiveness and ambiguities; Macbeth's “If it were done” monologue (I.vii) as an honest communication of his fear of moral retribution; and Othello's “It is the cause” soliloquy (V.ii...