What is the meaning of Hamlet's soliloquy in Act 1, scene 2, and what dramatic purpose does it serve?

Hamlet's soliloquy in Act I, scene 2 is about how much he wants to die. He's crying out with the pain of his existence and wishes he could kill himself. Hamlet also describes the reasons he feels this way. These provide much of the dramatic purpose of the speech.

He feels this way because of the sight before him. He sees his mother married to his uncle, the brother of his father, when his father and King had died only recently. He sees Claudius as inferior in all ways to his dead father and is doubly sickened because his mother hangs her affection on Claudius so strongly.