Essay about Indecisiveness in Hamlet

Throughout the play, Hamlet shows many examples of being an indecisive person and being unable to do anything he wants to, as if something stops him. An example would be in act five, when he decides to confess his love for Ophelia on her grave. He took too long to tell Ophelia or anyone for the matter about his love for her. Another example would be his mother remarrying, and Hamlet not being able to confess his true feelings about King Claudius being his new father. In the first four acts, Hamlet goes on about his life being miserable and in some kind of melancholy mood. He can’t find a way to deal with it, so he keeps all of his negative feelings to himself. This “depressed” funk he is in interferes with his will to act upon things that

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 is many things: scholar, speaker, actor, and prince. His greatness shows in all of activities, save one: his inability to act. Hamlet is not able to avenge his father's death without considerable delay. There is a flaw in Hamlet's character that causes him to postpone the murder of Claudius - this flaw is Hamlet's idealism. While idealism is normally a good trait, in this case, because of the unusual circumstances, Hamlet's idealism causes great conflicts within him.

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

In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the titular character struggles to engage in his desired plan of revenge. Hamlet shows throughout the play that he is inconsistent, indecisive, and unsure of himself, as well as his actions. The play focuses on Hamlet’s revenge; however, he continuously fails to happen at opportunistic moments. Throughout the play, Hamlet insists that he intends to avenge his father’s death through the murder of Claudius, but Hamlet fails to act on occasion because of his indecisive personality.

Indecision, by dictionary definition is simply the inability to make decisions quickly. However, indecision itself is not actually such an intelligible term, but rather an overly complex one that dips into the intricate nature of the human mindset. This becomes even more accurate when the act of indecisiveness is paired with compelling circumstances. Oftentimes human beings are required to act irrationally because their circumstances force them to do so. Our opinions and actions seem justifiable, yet they may also come across as deceitful and immoral. The overriding internal conflict of choosing between personal desire and what is morally correct becomes the central aspect of many human trials. William Shakespeare, the writer of many well known

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.

Hamlet soon resolves to take action. He sets up a play to trap Claudius so he can find out if the ghost was telling the truth. This is his intelligence and craft. He will not impulsively commit murder because of the word of a ghost who seemed to be his dead father. When he meets with his mother later, he is very angry and emotional and kills Polonius believing it was Claudius. Hamlet shows himself to be a man of action before thought in this case. He is rather cold that he is not terribly sorry about this accidental death but does show genuine concern for his mother which leads him to fits of intense emotion.

Although Hamlet knows well enough that he must avenge his fathers’ death, the action of revenge does not come easily to him. Hamlet throughout Hamlet is contemplating the revenge for his father’s death. Hamlet is indecisive, hesitant, and contemplative yet at other times impulsive. He is still, as it is, being influenced by his reason taking into consideration that Hamlet is a scholar. He does not act upon his feelings immediately but decides to investigate further on the suspicions he has about Claudius and his fathers’ death. This attitude tends to make Hamlet procrastinate and only until he has done away with his scholastic characters will he actually play out his Acton.

In the light of your critical study, does this statement resonate with your own interpretation of Hamlet?

Hamlet had every reason in the world to kill his uncle turned stepfather, Claudius. Once he would have been able to explain the truth about his uncle’s dirty deeds, nobody would have been upset with his actions. So the question remains, why did Hamlet take so long to take action? For the majority of the play, Hamlet thinks up and talks about all the ways he could get revenge, but it isn’t really until act three that Hamlet takes the first step in exposing Claudius’ treacherous ways. “If the prince had gone naturally to work in the first act, the play would have ended right there,” said Thomas Hammer (Nardo 61). Hammer couldn’t have been more accurate. Without Hamlet’s

With Hamlet’s tragic flaw being his inability to act, he is plagued throughout the play by his immense intelligence and philosophical nature, which causes him to overanalyze each situation, rendering him unable to carry out any action in response. This is evident in the play by the frequent delay of acting out his father’s revenge due to the uncertainty of the evidence pertaining to his uncle’s crime. Hamlet’s inability to act creates a discourse between hamlet and his consciousness, generating an abundance of stress, which causes him to become increasingly frustrated as the play progresses. This frustration leads to him at moments in the play to behave in a rash and impulsive way or acting in an inappropriate manner, contradicting his methodical and reserved disposition. It is the consequences of these “inappropriate” actions that resurfaces at the plays end, to haunt the character, as Hamlet’s inability to act while using his renowned logic and intelligence ultimately leads to his eventual demise at the plays conclusion, due to his inability to act both “effectively” and “appropriately” in critical situations.

Hamlet from William Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, is unable to commit to a decision throughout the play. His indecisiveness does not allow him to act quickly on any decision, leaving them lingering until it’s too late. Mentally, he thinks too much. Physically, he does not take enough action. Emotionally, his thoughts cause him to do irrational things. His delayed reaction to take revenge on Claudius results in everyone in the royal family dying. Hamlet’s weakness as a person is his inability to commit himself to action.

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.