A critical part of this scene is the arrival of a group of actors at the castle. Hamlet listens to one of the players perform a speech about the death of Priam and Hecuba, the royalty of Troy. Hamlet decides that the players shall perform The Murder of Gonzago, slightly altered with a speech penned by him; the narrative of this play is very similar to the events of Hamlet's life, including the murder of a king.
Hamlet's soliloquy begins with him cursing himself for his inaction. He wonders how an actor could present such forceful passion over a work of fiction that has no personal significance to him while Hamlet himself is unable to act. Hamlet is in possession of great feeling, but lacks conviction. He considers his own apparent apathy, asking:
...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' th' throat
As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this?
Hamlet wants someone to strike him or attack his character, for he believes he deserves it. If he was not such a coward, he would "have fatted all the region kites / With this slave's offal"... meaning that he would have fed the intestines of Claudius to vultures. Hamlet, thus, brands himself "an ass" for failing to revenge his father.
He starts to think that the play may be just the thing to get Claudius to confess his crimes, believing that murder will always announce itself eventually:
May be the devil, and the devil hath power
T' assume a pleasing shape.
Suspecting that perhaps the Ghost who has told him of this murder might be toying with him "to damn" him, Hamlet plans to watch Claudius' reaction to the play-within-a-play. He believes that in doing so he will be able to determine his uncle's guilt is real—to "catch the conscience of the king."
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