“Procrastination is opportunity’s natural assassin” –Victor Kiam. Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Hamlet, illustrates this idea through the character of Hamlet. Hamlet is given multiple chances to avenge his father’s death, however, fails to do so due to internal struggles, lack of proper planning and timing skills, and his indecisive nature. These flaws ultimately lead to Hamlet’s demise and the death of several other characters.
Firstly, Hamlet’s paranoia causes him to become anxious about how the Danish people will react, if he proceeds with killing King Claudius; “Who calls me villain, breaks my pate across, Plucks off my beard …Who does me this?” (Act II.ii.584-587). This leads to Hamlet deciding whether he should continue with the
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First of all, when the ghost of King Hamlet reveals that Claudius murdered him, Hamlet’s indecisiveness leads him to question whether the ghost is telling the truth or not. Hamlet then organizes a play in which he states; “If his occulted guilt, Do not itself unkennel in one speech, It is a damnèd ghost that we have seen” (Act III.ii.81-83). Even half way through the play, Hamlet still questions the legitimacy of the ghost’s revelation. Secondly, Hamlet’s indecision is displayed when he has the chance to kill Claudius while he is praying; “And so am I revenged. —That would be scanned. A villain kills my father, and, for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven” (Act III.ii.78-81). Hamlet is indecisive in the fact that he wants to avenge his father’s death but he also wants to send Claudius to hell to suffer, preventing him from killing Claudius at that moment. Lastly, Hamlet fails to decide whether to act deliberately or impulsively. When it comes to King Claudius, Hamlet thinks thoroughly and precisely on how to murder him, but for other characters such as Guildenstern and Rosencrantz, Hamlet does not hesitate sending them off to England to get executed; “Why, man, they did make love to this employment. They are not near my conscience. Their defeat does by their own insinuation grow” (Act V.ii.61-63). Because of
In the play by William Shakespeare, the ghost of King Hamlet approaches his mourning and depressed son, Hamlet, who is still affected by his death. The ghost explains to Hamlet how he died and demands that Hamlet avenge his death. Note how the ghost approaches Hamlet when he’s the weakest and still mourning to persuade and manipulate him into taking revenge for him. In Act one Scene 5 the ghost states, “If thou didst ever thy dear father love-/ Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.” The way King Hamlet words his request is more as a challenge; in which Hamlet’s love for his dead father can only be proven by carrying out whatever his father wishes. The ghost influences most Hamlet’s behavior, which not only affects the plot, but also the relationships with other characters. The ghost influences the relationship between Hamlet and his mother, Gertrude. He becomes angry at Gertrude because of her fast marriage with his uncle Claudius. Through the use of innuendos, antic disposition, and metamorphic plays, Hamlet makes it his duty to get King Claudius back for killing his father. Hamlet agreed to avenge his father without second thought. As the play advances, Hamlet begins to doubt the apparition. In act 3 Hamlet begins to have second thoughts and states, “The spirit that I have seen/ May be a devil…” This shows Hamlet’s inner conflict between listening to his father and avenging his death or following his ethics. To be sure that Claudius
The entire play of Hamlet by William Shakespeare, is based around the young prince Hamlet who has lost his father and is trying to avenge his death in any means possible. With this duty over his shoulders, it causes him to overthink every decision that he is trying to make and ultimately leads to his demise. Although everyone overthinks some situations, Hamlet would be known to have Generalized Anxiety Disorder in common time because whenever he starts to come up with a plan he starts to think and gets anxious. Hamlet is seen to overthink when his father’s ghosts comes back to guide him, trying to come up with a way to kill Claudius, and while he contemplates suicide. In everyone of Shakespeare 's tragedies the tragic hero always has a flaw, in this case it was Hamlet’s inability to act on his actions in a timely manner.
This, in turn, exploits Hamlet’s similar flaw of ego and furthers the conflict, but what’s more, it illustrates Claudius’ sheer audacity and lack of repentance. He continues to try to cover up the sin and appease Hamlet into complacency rather than confess and ask for forgiveness. In a mark of pure arrogance, Claudius tells Hamlet to “throw to earth / This unprevailing woe and think of us / As of a father”, conceitedly requesting that Hamlet merely forget the murder and replace his father with the murderer himself (I, ii, 110-112). Similarly, instead of directly confronting Hamlet about his mental condition, the king more or less hires Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on the prince, again cementing his smug mindset. The king does not believe he can be caught or, rather, that Hamlet is competent enough to figure out his plan and foil him. Claudius, too, thinks only of himself after Hamlet’s inadvertent killing of Polonius, pondering “how shall this bloody deed be answered? / It will be laid to us” instead of considering the ramifications of the murder with respect to Hamlet (4.1.17-18). The other two paper-thin traps the king hatches only reinforce his failure to see beyond the apparent; his attempt to deport Hamlet to England and have him killed reeks of treachery and, luckily, Hamlet realizes the king’s subterfuge, crushing the plot and flipping it back on him. Claudius remains steadfast in his efforts to remove Hamlet, going so far as to set up a
Since the early scenes in the play, Hamlet has been determined to kill Claudius because Claudius murdered Hamlet’s father in order to become king of Denmark. His anger internally drives him to avenge his father’s death, which is portrayed in Act III Scene III when Hamlet says, “And so I am revenged... A villain kills my father; and for that/ I, his sole son, do this same villain send/To heaven” (Lines 77-80). As the play progresses, it is difficult for Hamlet to kill Claudius due to numerous obstacles that arise.
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”.
Hamlet has one glaring tragic flaw. That flaw is his inability to act. However, anyone can write on this flaw with ease, so I am going to chose another. Hamlet has the curse of his mind, he over thinks things too many times. This “over thinking” is what ultimately his downfall in the end is.
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
Logic is man 's most valuable asset; it is what pushed humanity past other species and helped develop humankind into what it is today. Without such logic and reasoning, humanity would not have evolved into the strongest and most powerful beings alive. It is what has enabled us to dominate the world, create civilization, unlock the secrets of the universe through math and science and reveal the true nature of man through art. One of art’s most beloved benefactors, William Shakespeare, crafted his most famous character, Hamlet, to be the living embodiment of this God-given reason. However, we learn throughout Hamlet’s eponymous play the irony in the
Hamlet, a play by William Shakespeare, tells the story of a young prince Hamlet attempting to exact revenge on his murderous uncle. While attempting to avenge the death of his father, Hamlet and the other characters in the work are given flaws. The flaws exhibited by the characters throughout the course of the play ultimately lead to their untimely deaths. Although he convinces himself that he is simply waiting for the perfect moment to kill his uncle, Hamlet’s major flaw is his uncanny ability to procrastinate. There are multiple instances where Hamlet is given the opportunity to get his revenge but he always manages to talk himself out of committing the act.
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)
Shakespeare’s Hamlet is an interesting play in many ways. The character Hamlet is particularly intriguing in regards to his fatal flaw. Hamlet’s fatal flaw is a specific trait that forces him to postpone killing the king and it is this trait that drives Hamlet mad (Shakespeare 1.4.23-38). This Shakespearean tragedy is open to many interpretations of Hamlet’s fatal flaw. Two recent film productions of the play, Kenneth Branaugh’s Hamlet and the Zeffirelli’s Hamlet, each show a different fatal flaw in Hamlet. Branaugh shows his fatal flaw to be that Hamlet over thinks everything. Zeffirelli accentuates the Oepipus Complex in Hamlet meaning that Hamlet is jealous over his mother. Branaugh and Zeffirelli both use different methods to
Hamlet has now secured in his mind that the Ghost was telling the truth, and so can have no doubt that revenge is what Claudius deserves. His delay however does not subside, so what can be his reason now? Much of his hesitation it seems comes as a result of his own self-doubt. He feels he lacks the powerful warrior image; the one which his Father and so many more do possess.
Hamlet's tragic flaws are his inability to move forward and his amount of procrastination. For example once King Hamlet told him to seek revenge on his mother and Claudius he prolonged it for months. Hamlet spent more time grieving and less time moving on. He also put on a play called ¨The Mousetrap¨ to procrastinate even more for the killing of Claudius and his mother Gertrude. Understanding the play lead to Claudius's guilt of killing King Hamlet once Claudius had to stop the play, so that would be an understable point of view but Hamlet still is procrastinating to kill him. So do we know if Hamlet killing Polonius in Act 3 Scene 4, worried Hamlet about death to other or did he feel okay about it. What we do know is, Claudius was worried
Hamlet's fatal flaw is his inability to act. Unlike his father, Hamlet lets his intelligence rather than his heroism govern him. When he has a chance to kill Claudius, and take vengeance for his father's murder, he hesitates, reckoning that if he kills the man while he is at prayer, Claudius would have asked for pardon from the Lord and been forgiven of his sins, therefore allowing him to enter Heaven. Hamlet decides to wait for a better opening. His flaw of being hesitant in the end leads to his own death, and also the deaths of Gertrude, Ophelia, Laertes, and Claudius.
The Ghost’s appearance troubles Hamlet again in a different way at the end of Act Two, when Hamlet questions whether or not the apparition he has seen is really the ghost of his father. He believes that it is likely that what he saw was really an evil spirit trying to trick him into sinning, for, as he says, “the devil hath power / T’assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps…abuses me to damn me” (2.2.628-32). His concern is legitimate; however, it causes him to delay further due to his worries about sin and what could happen to him should he decide to take action if the Ghost is in fact evil. When Hamlet attempts to work himself into a frenzy by insulting himself and climactically cursing Claudius with caustic epithets, he is incapable of maintaining his emotion and he orders his brains to turn about, bringing himself back down to logic and reason. He feels that he cannot act without some sort of proof of the truth of what the Ghost has said, and therefore he arranges to “catch the conscience