Hamlet Delays In Killing Claudius Essay

Many would point to the murder of Polonius and say that Hamlet's action was caused by insanity. According to this believe, unlike all his other actions he was spontaneous and almost thoughtless, but it is not true. Almost directly before his arrival in the chambers of his mother, Hamlet had been upset in his attempt to kill Claudius because he was praying. However, at the time he felt ready to correct his revenge. When he goes to his mother's room not only did he most likely still have this feeling within him, her reaction towards his attempt at an explanation probably increase his anger for Claudius. When his mother calls for help, Polonius's voice muffled from behind the curtains, Hamlet may have thought he was Claudius and therefore killed with no need for additional thought even though it couldn't have been since he had just saw

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.

          By the beginning of Act III, Hamlet is almost ready to kill Claudius, but he still needs more proof that Claudius killed his father, and he also wants to put off the murder because he is a bit of a coward.  Claudius is beginning to lose his composure.  Hamlet decides to set a trap for him in the form of a play.  The subject of the play is the murder of a king by his brother who, in turn, marries the king's wife.  The plot of the play is strikingly similar to the circumstances of King Hamlet's murder, which strikes a disharmonious chord in the conscience of Claudius.  In the middle of the play during the murder scene, Claudius gets up and begs for the play to stop so that he can get some air.  Hamlet is very angered by this because it confirms that Claudius did kill his father.  Later that night, Claudius prays to god to forgive him for his

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 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”.

The Player seems to be saying that Hamlet only made his pledge to avenge his father on the spur of the moment when he was blinded by passion and that now that immediacy of the ghost’s accusation has faded he lacks conviction.

In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, Hamlet, a studious young man and Prince of Denmark, struggles to face the death of his father and the task to kill his father’s murderer, Claudius. He was once known as a charming, smart young man before his father’s death. However, Hamlet experiences depression and anger at the world, causing him to look outwardly on society but failing to look inwardly on himself. The death of his father and the task for vengeance leads him to question whether or not he should follow through in killing Claudius. He becomes a man of thought rather than a man of action. In addition, the delay of King Claudius’ murder leads the readers to believe that he wishes not to kill him; he

Shakespeare's drama Hamlet has become a central piece of literature of Western culture. It is the story of a prince named Hamlet, who lost his father. Soon after that he has to confront multiple obstacles and devises a series of situations to defend the new king's royalty. Furthermore, he had to prove that King Claudius, who was the prince's uncle, had killed Hamlet's father. This story has remained among the most popular and the most controversial plays around the world. It generates controversy for all the doubts that this play leaves with the readers. One of the most questioning situations in the play is the delay of Hamlet in avenging Claudius' for his father's death. As a reader this

uncle were the cause of this execution, they immediately vow to take action on their behalf, despite their own internal struggles. Hamlet’s loyalty to his father is shown immediately after the ghost of the fallen King talks to Hamlet and informs him that Claudius did indeed kill him. Hamlet then impulsively declares that he will retaliate the crime that Claudius has committed. “So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word.” (Shakespeare 1.5.110) Hamlet does not hesitate to commit to this violent scheme, as he adores and misses his father dearly, and is willing to do all in his favour. Although his decision is impulsive, he nevertheless continues to

So Hamlet had plenty of reason to murder Claudius but what took him so long? He had the inner battle of good vs. evil. Hamlet’s ‘good side’ was telling him that no good would come of this. Hamlet believes that things should be naturally good, and that people's motives should be fair. Therefore, he has an immense deal of difficulty in coming to terms with all of the evil that is around him in a damage world. As Hamlet said himself, "'Tis an unweeded garden that grows to seed; Things rank and gross in nature possess it merely" (I, ii, 139-141). He was infuriated with the fact that his mother didn’t wait a month to marry his Uncle. So he has every reason to do it. But still no action has taken place.

By understanding that social taboos do not apply to the insane, perhaps Hamlet concludes that the insane are not treated as full human beings due to their mental state. If he reaches that conclusion, then he would have reason to believe that Claudius might let his guard down in front of Hamlet. After all, Claudius does not know that Hamlet is out to kill him, which, added to Claudius' thinking that Hamlet does not have the mental capacity to understand his speech, makes the possibility of Claudius slipping up and admitting his guilt far greater. Greater, that is, than if Hamlet had not acted insanely. For those same reasons, Claudius might let down his guard physically, giving Hamlet an opportunity to strike him dead, thereby avenging his father.

Unlike Hamlet though, Claudius thinks about his actions because he wants to make sure he makes a decision that will be the best for him. He knows if he just kills Hamlet the people of the kingdom will turn on him because of the love they all share for Hamlet. He sends in Rozencrantz and Guildenstern to find out what is wrong with Hamlet so that Claudius can decide what to do from there. His decision to send Rozencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on and talk to Hamlet is illustrated when he says, “So by your companies/To draw him on pleasures, and to gather/So much as from occasion you may glean/[Whether aught to us unknown afflicts him thus]/That opened lies within our remedy” (II.II.14-18). Claudius and Hamlet are both extremely sly and cunning and posses similarities with their ability to act, but this could merely be because of the education they both have which has brought them common sense and the ability to think before acting. One major difference of their ability to act is when Hamlet acts on impulse and kills Claudius’ advisor Polonius. Hamlet unlike Claudius has so much anger built up inside of him because of his father’s death and it kept building and building until he finally let it out when talking to his mother about Claudius. He heard a noise from behind a curtain which was Polonius’, and without thinking Hamlet stabs him releasing some of his pent up aggression. Hamlet shows the anger he has within when he says, “A bloody deed-almost as

Claudius is only acting out what Hamlet secretly wants to do, take his father’s place as his mother’s lover. This would explain why Hamlet puts off the revenge instead of carrying it out immediately after seeing his father’s ghost. It would also provide a reason for Hamlet’s later insanity.

Here, Hamlet shows despite his need to revenge for his father, he is held back from his constant thought of his actions as well as his moral considerations. It’s been clearly stated that Hamlet has a strong sense of heaven and hell; that he won’t kill his uncle while praying, because he thinks he might go to heaven. Hamlet himself doesn’t want to kill his uncle without being assured that he is guilty. This is why, by the end of the play, Claudius' death is something we applaud, regretting only that he was not killed sooner. The reason of this delay is because of Hamlets’ moral triumph. His morality often keeps him from acting; it makes him mull around in his uncertainty and anxiety, instead of just acting and bringing his struggle to an end.