"... and the devil hath power/ To assume a pleasing shape..."

The ghost provides Hamlet with a dilemma. Supernatural forces are not always to be trusted. Hamlet does not know whether the ghost is telling the truth or not, which is why he has 'The Mousetrap' performed by the visiting players. If Hamlet had killed Claudius solely on the ghost's advise, he would certainly have been put to death himself. There would probably have been a civil war to choose a new king. Being the humanitarian that he is, and taking account of his responsibilities as a prince and future king, Hamlet would most likely want to avoid a civil war. Even though Claud

Any other character in the play would have taken more drastic measures than Hamlet did (confiding only in his best friend, and even keeping the truth from his mother until the end of Act III). Although not every one of them might have come to killing Claudius, Hamlet seems not to do anything. Again, he thinks too much, but why?

Hamlet may be a thinking man, this does not mean he actually likes to think. Although he may have liked to think in the time preceding the play, when the time has come for him to take action, he cannot because of this pensive urge. His capacity of thinking becomes a handicap rather than a quality. And this is not even the most painful (some would say tragic) part of Hamlet's character. The biggest problem is that he is aware even of this. Not only is he incapable of acting without thinking, he knows this is the case, which makes the burden even heavier. Hamlet cannot face reality. It is already a traumatic experience for him when he has to believe the words of the ghost, and actually the ghost's demanding him to act on this information is too much for him.

Hamlet hallucinating is very obvious during his visit to his mother after Polonius' death. Hamlet sees what appears to be the ghost of his dead father. Yet when Hamlet asks his mother if she can see it also, she says she cannot and that he is truly mad. Hamlet is also very paranoid, and not necessarily without cause. He is being spied on and plotted against throughout most of the play. One example of this is when Ophelia is sent to talk to Hamlet while the king and Polonius listen in; Hamlet asks where her father is. Hamlet's ramblings are most apparent during his long soliloquies. He talks for ages and his mood goes through observable and drastic changes. Hamlet's two illusions of grandeur, I found, were best described by P. Valle in his essay "it hath made me mad": A Discussion on the Identity of Shakespeare's Hamlet in which he explained, "He [Hamlet Sr.] leaves Gertrude to divine justice. Hamlet does not accept this, he passes his own judgement on his mother. He accuses his mother, he attacks his mother. He has gone over God." The sec

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1451
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)