Is it not monstrous that this player here, / But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, / Could force his soul so to his own conceit / That from her working all his visage wan’d; / Tears in his eyes, distraction in’s aspect, / A broken voice, and his whole function suiting / With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing! / For Hecuba?
Act II, Scene 2 · Hamlet
Context
Hamlet marvels that the Player could produce real tears and emotional distress while performing a fictional story about Hecuba.
Analysis
The piling of physical symptoms—'visage wanned,' 'Tears in his eyes,' 'broken voice'—catalogs how completely the Player's body responds to fiction. Hamlet is astonished that imagined passion ('a dream of passion') can produce real effects, which makes his own inability to act on real grievances feel even more shameful.
Essay Tip
Use this to argue that Hamlet is paralyzed by self-consciousness—the Player can act because he is performing, but Hamlet cannot act because he is aware of himself acting, which traps him in a loop of self-observation.