It becomes clear that Hamlet did truly love Ophelia, yet hid it because he was a coward. The “ White Lie” is not only depicted through Hamlet denying his love but also putting a front up for the selfish betterment of his life style. After his outrageous lecture on self worth that Hamlet gives Ophelia, she grows incredibly mad, which ultimately leads to her death. Although the intentions of his lecture were clearly to hurt Ophelia and gain power over her, once he realizes she is dead he feels the need to express his actual love for her. His change of attitude grows confusing as he professes his dear love after her awful death, “ I loved Ophelia.
In the play Hamlet acts mad. He is not crazy however but is merely pretending to be. Before he begins this act he tells Horatio and Marcellus what he is about to do. Polonius notices that there is too much sense in Hamlets charade for him to be truly crazy. Hamlet makes sure his uncle is guilty of murder before enacting his revenge.
Hamlet’s ‘madness’ shows through in this conversation in other ways also. Sudden topic change (‘Where’s your father?’), erratically differing the length of his utterances and Ophelia’s obvious surprise and misery at Hamlet’s state (‘O, help him, you sweet heavens!’) all help to build up a picture of an unbalanced mind. Also significant are Hamlet’s rambling loose metaphors ‘I have heard of your paintings too, well enough.’), tick-like repetition (‘well, well, well’) and change in politeness levels from line to line (‘I humbly thank you’ as opposed to ‘Ha, ha’). This adds a dramatic unpredictability to the scene and provides shows of emotion with which the audience should be easily able to attach to. This inconsistent way of speaking contrasts with the beautifully worded and formed soliloquy, as does the verse format contrast with the adjacency pairs written in prose form.
He asks Laertes a similar question, ``Make up my sum. What thou do for her?” (V, I, 281). The difference between Claudius and Hamlet is the reason that they bring up these two questions. The purpose of Claudius’ question is that he wants to use the suggestion therapy to tell Hamlet not to take revenge on him, but the reason Hamlet asks Laerte is based on his anger to Laerte’s emphasis on the grievance. The second difference that can be contrasted is the purpose of their acts of murder.
By the end of the soliloquy he comes up with a plan, to make sure that Claudius definitely killed late Hamlet, and the Ghost is not a damned spirit here to taunt him. While this does seem like a legitimate plan, most of the situation could have been avoided had he killed Claudius with no thought of consequences like any other character, such as Laertes would have. Instead he uses the play as a plot in which “the play's the thing/Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.”(2.2.611-612).
Why does Shakespeare give so much prominence to Hamlet’s delay in killing Claudius without clearly presenting the reason for it? There is one thing that the audience must notice in order to bring value to this question. Shakespeare makes it clear that Hamlet is aware of a delay in killing Claudius as demonstrated when Hamlet has the chance to kill Claudius but does not. This awareness gives the reader reason to believe that the delay is not just an occurrence in the play to further the story line. Hamlet is a moral and intelligent man, he is aware of what is right and wrong and it is due to this morality that he delays the murder of Claudius and ended the cycle of revenge.
“Why, then, ’tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to me it is a prison.” (Act 2, scene 2). As the result of his over thoughts he is delaying his revenge. . At one point at act 1 scene 5, Hamlet starts to analyze the Ghost speech to seek revenge (Act 1, scene 5, page 30). When the Ghost and Hamlet finish their dialog Hamlet agrees to seek revenge against Claudius, but still doesn’t act.
On the hand, there lies Claudius. The reader has just learned that he was willing to kill his own brother to become king. Murder is a horrible thing, but killing your own brother for your own selfish needs is far beyond horrible. When learning this, in combination with feel bad for Hamlet, the reader is left hating Claudius for what he has done. Additionally, this is a very important scene in the play.
The struggle to act upon his father’s murder is a key factor in Hamlet’s disillusionment with the world. The Elizabethan period was a time that demanded revenge and this is even true in our present time to some extent. An eye for an eye approach was considered socially correct which Hamlet initially suggests ‘May sweep to my revenge’. Since Claudius has become the new king, he is considered a false king and imposter to the throne by Hamlet and this leads to the collapse of the natural hierachy that was in place. He states ‘tis an unweeded garden’ alluding to the fact that a false king leads to corruption which finally leads to the collapse of the hierarchy.
It seems that Hamlet does not want to extract revenge and he regrets promising the ghost that he will do so, “O cursed spite,/That ever I was born to set it right! (I.v.28). Hamlet has many opportunities to kill Claudius throughout the course of the play. Hamlet considers killing Claudius while he is confessing his sins. Hamlet then does what he is good at and reconsiders his actions.