Hamlet's delay for revenge

A detailed Summary of Hamlet's delay for revenge


"Revenge should know no bounds" - Claudius

In William Shakespeare's 'Hamlet', Hamlet vows to avenge his father's death at the hands of Claudius, however, he procarastinates throughout the play and doesn't seek revenge until the end, when Hamlet finally acts by his instincts, and kills his father's murderer. Hamlet is stopped in seeking revenge by a number of factors throughout the play. He needs to know if the ghost is telling the truth before he seeks revenge. He fears purgatory - as told about the horrors of it by the ghost. He needs to get himself together before seeking revenge, and he procrastinates through discovering that revenge is easier said than done.

"Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder"

When his father's ghost came to him and told him to avenge his murder, Hamlet was eager to take immediate action. However before seeking revenge he needs to know if the ghost is telling the truth about his murder. "May sweep to my revenge." Hamlet feels that if the ghost isn't telling the truth and he acts, he too will become a murderer. "Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all." In order to determine if Claudius is truly guilty, Hamlet produces a play in which the plot is paralle


Throughout the play, Hamlet is shown to be unstable. His mind is full of thought of talking to his dead father, discovering incest, murder, and past adultery that he can't arrive at any logical resolution. He is unbalanced and cannot bring himself to act; he needs to get himself together first, before seeking revenge. Hamlet tells Horatio after he has been told about his father's murder, that he is going to put an antic disposition on to observe Claudius more easily behind the mask of madness. In this state, Hamlet gets wound up in grief that he really becomes emotionally disturbed and incapable of action. Hamlet is totally confused.

As seen, in Hamlet, Hamlet promised to avenge his father's death, the mission of revenge is something he takes no pleasure in. At first he seemed almost anxious to kill his uncle, but as the play continued, he considers his task in more serious terms. Hamlet procrastinated through factors of not knowing if the ghost was telling the truth through his fear of purgatory, through his 'antic deposition', and through protecting his mother.

If hamlet killed Claudius, Gertrude would be alone, as she is married to him, it would affect her as well. Although he is angry with his mother, he also doesn't want her

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Approximate Word count = 836
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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