Hamlet: Why Delay?

A detailed Summary of Hamlet: Why Delay?

In Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, a compound plot is formed at the beginning of the play. Amongst these are the death of King Hamlet of Denmark, and the hasty marriage of Gertrude to the late king's brother, Claudius. The main focus of the play, however, is the task of avenging the death of Hamlet's father. Hamlet, eager to avenge his father, seems to delay the process throughout the play. Although no direct reasoning for this is stated, many assumptions can be made as to what delays Hamlet from avenging his father's death.

In Act 1, the ghost of Hamlet's late father reveals himself to Hamlet and his friends. Although hesitant at first, Hamlet asks what the ghost wants. The ghost proceeds to tell Hamlet that he did not die; but was murdered. The ghost tells Hamlet that Claudius, his brother, poured poison into his ear while he slept. He demands, "If thou didst ever thy dear father love/.../Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder." (1.5.23-25). Hamlet then becomes anxious: "Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as swift/As meditation or the thoughts of love,/May sweep to my revenge" (1.5.29-31). After this is said, at the end of the same act, Hamlet's reluctance for revenge is made obvious, "The time is out of j

Another explanation of this delay could be Hamlet's nature and values. "Our moral impression of Hamlet derives primariily from what he says rather than what he does. It is an almost intuitive awareness of the beauty, depth, and refinement of his moral nature, upon which is thrust a savage burden of revenge and of disallusion" (Ornstein 2). He is always contemplating his options. He is a scholar; always thinking and trying to make rational decisions. "To be or not to be: that is the question:" (3.1.56). Not only is it the question, it is, perhaps the answer; the solution to his dilemma. That question is his rationale behind every decision he makes. It's answer weighs the consequences of his actions. As a result of all of this rationalizing, his actions never take place because he is too busy thinking about what will happen if he does take action.

As he is very potent with such spirits,

Belsey, Catherine. The Subject Of Tragedy. Methuen, 1985: 111-16

Perhaps, Hamlet is struggling with the morality of revenge. As Belsey says, "Renge exists in the margin between justice and crime. An act of injusticeon behalf of justice, it deconstructs the antithesis which fixes the meanings of good and evil, right and wrong. Hamlet invokes the conventional polarities in addressing the ghost, only to abandon them as inadequate or irrelevant. As a philosopher, maybe he feels that he will be committing the very same act he wants to punish Claudius for. Claudius murdered a king. Now, Hamlet wants to murder the king. If the act is carried out then Hamlet would be just as villainous as Claudius. Killing a king is a very serious offense in that era. In the last act, Hamlet, poisoned and awaiting death, is given the perfect opportunity to kill the king. Since Hamlet had a half-hour left to live, morale and philosophy did not matter anymore. He was not going to die knowing that Claudius would be alive after Hamlet's death and reign again. Claudius was fo

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Approximate Word count = 1330
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English