Essay about Hamlet 11

Although Hamlet shows himself as indecisive and insecure, towards the end of the story he does show some act of courage; enough to finally go and kill King Claudius. At first, he finds himself procrastinating at the matter, because he comes up behind King Claudius while he’s praying. He originally planned on killing him right then and there, but wait! Hamlet stops and lets his inner coward win over yet again. After a series of deep thoughts, he does decide to kill his uncle, and realizes that he must go through with his plan quickly, before Hamlet himself is killed.

Hamlet will always be well known for his delay in killing Claudius. After the interaction with his fathers ghost. The ghost informes Hamlet that he must get revenge and now kill Claudius. But from the start hesitation was in effect. There are many different theories of why Hamlet delayed revenge the most well know are finding of a perfect moment and him questioning death and the ghost itself. Hamlet was never unfaithful, he always want to go, but that he had never finished thinking the matter out.

Hamlet had the opportunity to kill Claudius at the chapel but restrained himself, he believed it was too good of a death for Claudius and that if he were killed his sins would be forgiven. This shows his lack of action and proves he is a procrastinator. In his soliloquies he constantly criticizes himself for the obvious avoidance of responsibility saying, "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' the throat, as deep as to the lungs? who does me this?" (Act 2 Sc. 2, 571-575)

Hamlet really wanted the revenge on Claudius but was really on the fence of what to actually do to follow through with then plan. Claudius was brave to feel so free, as Hamlet had opportunities to take advantage of him and had plenty of hate towards him for more than one reason. The action Hamlet may want and outcome of it, may be completely different as to what his father would do or like him to do.

Hamlet doesn’t think it would be just to kill Claudius now because it would be basically sending him “to heaven” which Hamlet does not want. He wants to take what he perceives as the nobler path of catching Claudius in sin and send him to eternal damnation, where Hamlet’s father supposedly roams. To what seems like noble justice to Hamlet leads him to continuously postpone his revenge. Hamlet is not interested in making himself king, rather he is more interested in killing Claudius the, truthfully, unchristian way. Hamlet does not want Claudius to repent and absolve of his sins. Although Hamlet calls Claudius a “villain”, it makes the reader ponder if the executioner of the villain is always the “hero”. So far in the play, Hamlet does not show any characteristics of a traditional hero as he broods and shows temper tantrums. Using his false sense of righteousness, Hamlet waits for the right chance to exact his noble “revenge”.

There are several theories about why Hamlet, the main character of Shakespeare's masterpiece, Hamlet, delays in killing his Uncle, King Claudius. As the son of a murdered noble, Hamlet is obligated to avenge the death of his father.

`Hamlet' is no doubt one of the greatest literary works ever written. William Shakespeare presents in it complexity of human nature and examination of human behavior. After reading this drama one of the main questions we have to ask is ` Why does Hamlet delay?'. Why does he wait so long before taking revenge on Claudius for killing his father? While answering the question about postponement we have to take under consideration few aspects.

The first speculation behind Hamlet’s delay is his cowardice behavior. Hamlet is a coward due to his lack of action in killing Claudius. In Act 2 scene 2 Hamlet devises a plan in which he will use the players to perform an extended version of the Murder of Gonzago. In this version of the play the actors perform a scene created by Hamlet that depicts his uncle killing his father. Unfortunately, he is overcome with a wave of emotions after seeing the actors perform a different play. In the midst of his anger he states, “Unpregnant for my cause, And can say nothing—no, not for a king Upon whose property and most dear life A damned defeat was made. Am I a coward?” (ii.ii.596-598). Hamlet feels guilty for not having as much passion for killing his father as the post actor has for a fictional death. Because of his hesitation Hamlet believes that he must be a coward. Finally, Hamlet is given a clear opportunity to kill Claudius. After Claudius is exposed during the play he flees and is shortly followed by Hamlet. Hamlet discovers Claudius defenseless, on his knees praying, and with his back towards him. Hamlet states, “Now might I do it pat, now he is a-praying, And now I'll do it” (iii.iii.78-77). Instead of taking advantage and killing Claudius he hesitates out of fear. He states that the real reason why he didn't kill Claudius is because if he did Claudius would go to heaven. In reality his fear stems from the uncertainty of whether or not he is doing the right thing.

Writer, Kiernan Ryan, states that the true tragedy of the book comes because of Hamlet’s slow actions as opposed to Claudius’ foil to act quick upon desire; “What’s wrong with all these attempts to account for Hamlet’s delay – including Hamlet’s own conjectures – is the same fundamental misconception” (Ryan). However, by Hamlet having such a delay it causes the reader to feel more related to the character. The toll of the death of a loved one could cause all movement in one’s life to come to a halt. Claudius having such animal instincts to desire the throne so bad is what causes another foil of the book.

In the middle of the play he feels he is prepared to avenge his father’s death and kill Claudius. In his fifth soliloquy before entering his mother’s chamber he decides to be brutally honest with Gertrude, but not lose control. Hamlet is in a  mood in which he could “drink hot blood/And do such bitter business as the day would quake to look on” implying that he could essentially kill his mother with the state he is in at the moment, but he will not (3.2.97-98). During Hamlet’s sixth soliloquy he does not lose his thirst for blood towards Claudius but still manages to pull himself out of his plan. While Claudius is kneeling on the ground Hamlet sees him and makes the choice “To take him in the purging of his soul,/When he is fit and seasoned for his passage?/No.” he does not want to send Claudius’ soul to heaven so he refuses to kill him then(3.3.85-87). This shows Hamlet is still thinking through his plan but he is using his keen planning skills to make sure Claudius gets everything that he deserves to fully avenge his father. Hamlet soliloquies leads him that he is now ready to complete the

In one case he says “A villain kills my father and for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send To heaven. ”(Pg 79 ) When he says this line we are certain he is going to finally kill Claudius and get revenge for his father. Once again Hamlet says he is going to do something and does not. With Hamlet being this hesitant and not taking action a chain of events happen just like what would happen in the modern world. Hamlet would still be alive if he would have killed Claudius the first chance he had.

He questions himself on how he was stuck to doing such an awful task. Hamlet starts to overthink the whole idea of him killing Claudius, and this begins his indecisiveness throughout the whole story. There were endless amount of opportunities for Hamlet to avenge his father’s death. Hamlet’s procrastination would make it harder for him to kill Claudius, because the more he waited, the more he didn’t want to do it. “Contagion to this world.

To begin killing Claudius is completely fair in the eyes of the law; this would a completely fitting punishment for someone who has assassinated a king in this time period. It’s a decent argument to say that hamlet should leave execution to some sort of local authorities or make this kind of thing public however as old Hamlet described it, it would be very difficult to prove Claudius’ guilt. Hamlet is the only one with the knowledge of this father’s murder so he must be the one to carry out the justice that is

He spent a lot of time at war. Although he had anger towards him, he could never show it. He repressed it. For Claudius on the other hand, Hamlet’s feelings of hatred are expressed much more openly. Hamlet internally fights with his feelings towards Claudius. His father has come to him as a ghost, telling him that Claudius is responsible for his murder. Hamlet must avenge his father, but struggles to do so. Subconsciously, Hamlet identifies with Claudius. Hamlet envies Claudius for killing his father and taking his position next to Gertrude. This is everything Hamlet has subconsciously wanted to do. So in essence he cannot kill Claudius because, in part, he would be killing himself.

Hamlet starts a battle of joke with Claudius by acting mad and calling it his antic disposition. The whole thing was a scheme to get closer to Claudius to be able to avenge his father’s death more easily. The tactic was a disadvantage in that is drew all attention upon him. After this the revenge act also structures the middle of the play. One important part of all revenge plays is that after the revenge is finally decided upon, the tragic hero delays the actual revenge until the end of the play. Hamlet does the same thing and he delays of killing Claudius takes on three distinct stages. First he had to prove that