Hamlet's Impractical Thinking As An Obstacle to Quick Revenge HAMLET
Shakespeare's Hamlet revolves around the title character's undeniable obligation to immediately avenge his father's death by killing Claudius. Yet much time elapses before Hamlet finally does slay his evil uncle, leading to a fundamental question: what causes the hero to delay before eventually managing to salvage some retribution? The answer is that Hamlet's reoccuring state of impractical contemplation renders him incapable of any decisive action that could have brought quick revenge. A key moment in the play comes in the first act, when the ghost of Hamlet's father informs the prince of his duty: "If thou didst ever thy father love/...Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder." [1.5: 29, 31] With these words, the Ghost puts the play in motion, for the rest of the story will be governed by Hamlet's quest for this revenge. Furthermore, the spirit emphasizes the need for Hamlet to act quickly: Doomed for a certain term to walk the night And for the day confined to fast in fires Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature Are burnt and purged away. [1.5: 14-18] The message is clear: if the prince is to truly ease the suffering of his father's spirit, he must avenge the murder immediately.
In the end, Hamlet does kill Claudius, but this revenge is bittersweet, for it comes too late. Hamlet's tendency to think more about impractical matters than practical ones thwarts his attempt to ease the pain of his tormented father. The prince's numerous soliloquies, though immortalized and treasured in literary history, render him incapable of any decisive action, prolonging his bid for quick revenge. Ironically, Hamlet seems to be well aware of his major problem, criticizing the debilitating effect of too much thought: Our first experience with Hamlet's tendency to wander into the realm of the abstract comes even before he meets the Ghost. In Act I, Scene iv, as Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus await the spirit, they observe Claudius, who is drunk. His scholarly mind always searching for new intellectual morsels, Hamlet uses the king's seemingly commonplace actions as the springboard for a discussion of the causes of evil in men. What stands out is how quickly he forgets about practical matters žin this case, meeting the spirit of his dead fatherž in order to ponder over a vague, philosophical question. As the play develops, it is this very trait that prevents him from achieving the prompt revenge he has promised. Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable; in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god: the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals žand yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? [2.2: 327-332] The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
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Approximate Word count = 1125
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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