Due to his indecisiveness on making key decisions, Hamlet suffers from the tragic flaw of procrastination. Hamlet procrastinated with his revenge of his father’s death, prioritizing his love for Ophelia, and his decisions on deciding to make the kill. Hamlet was procrastinating with his revenge of his father’s death because he was too indecisive on when and how he was going to do it also whether or not the ghost was right. Prioritizing his love for Ophelia, Hamlet did not show his love to Ophelia until she was just a cold, dead corpse being put 6 feet under. Finally Hamlet had the perfect opportunity to get his revenge and yet again his indecisiveness is getting the best of him.
In the soliloquy he says “Thus conscience does make cowards of us all”. This helps my understanding of his struggle to avenge his father. Hamlet’s main problem is that he thinks too much. He reflects and ponders about life and death for endless hours which lead to nothing but depression. His conscience makes him a coward; if he didn’t think so much about committing suicide he would have already killed himself!
Laertes has no time for thoughts or moral reflection; he is hard set on revenge. Ophelia’s insanity is a poignant element in the play and it contrasts strongly with Hamlet’s antic disposition. In scene VII we see Claudius at his most calculating and manipulative. Claudius will use Laertes’ rage to dispose of Hamlet. Claudius and Laertes come up with three plans to ensure Hamlet’s death.
This is a problem because if he wants to save everyone he has to sign his name to a piece of paper saying that he is a witch but he cannot do that because he is to proud of his name to tarnish it with such a thing, and in return he dies and cannot save the community. John proctor is a tragic hero in the novel The Crucible because he won’t let himself ruin his name. Edward Murray says “John Proctor is a physically powerful, distrustful of authority, and strong willed. Struggling against his own fears and guilt, reshaped by a new understanding of self at the end of the play.” In this quote Edward is saying that John is a strong willed person that struggles against his own fears. Meaning that he wants to save the community by admitting to everyone that Abigail is just trying to get back at Elizabeth, but his own fears of what the people will then think of him is holding him back from being the savior of the community.
Due to these beliefs and the complexity of Hamlet’s character, it is inevitable that his thoughts of death would wander outside the lines of his religion. As the play begins, we see Hamlet in the first stages of his escalating melancholy. It is easy to observe that his outlook on life has become bleak. “O! that this too too solid flesh would melt … all the uses of this world.” (I, ii, 129-135) Hamlet’s life no longer serves any value to him.
Through Hamlet’s inaction, he determines that Claudius should not be killed while praying because that would send him to heaven but unlike Hamlet, Laertes is not concerned about eternal retribution but more about a direct repayment for his father’s death: “To this point I stand, / That both the worlds I give to negligence, / Let come what comes; only I'll be revenged / Most thoroughly for my father.” (Act IV, Scene 5: Lines 134-137) Fortinbras on the other hand seeks revenge not through someone’s death but through reclaiming the land his father lost to Hamlet’s father. Fortinbra’s dedication to avenge his father “Even for an egg-shell” (Act IV, Scene 4, Line 53) also sharply contrasts with Hamlet’s inability to kill Claudius. Although Fortinbras is only fighting to reclaim a small amount of land “That hath no profit but the name” (Act IV, Scene 4: Line 19), the revenge he seeks not only deals with the death of his father but also the history of wars over land for the sole purpose of righting of real and perceived wrongdoings. These three characters all seek retribution in different ways, and Laertes and Fortinbras show other avenues that Hamlet could have taken for his revenge if he had just acted and not concerned himself with the morality of
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.
Laertes’ father- Polonius is mistakenly killed by Hamlet. Therefore, at this point, Laertes has a similar situation as Hamlet. Laertes resolves to avenge his father’s death on Hamlet as Hamlet decides to avenge his father’s death on Claudius. However, the way they each avenge for their fathers’ death is opposite to one another. While Hamlet is self-conflicting with plans, Laertes is taking action immediately after he knows of his father’s murder.
This is a dramatic irony as it is Laertes’s actions and confession that “the king is to blame,” that catalyzes Hamlet actions, thus enabling the completion of the impending tragedy. Yet even in his death, Hamlet wants nothing to do with revenge as agreed upon by critic Millicent Bell who states “Hamlet’s concern with revenge is nowhere to be seen when he is dying, noting that, rather thancrying out for revenge, Hamlet asks only to be
Hamlet’s inability to take revenge, his constant procrastination throughout the play builds up his emotional and psychological complexity and results in the deaths of many. In the play there are two foils of Hamlet, Laertes and Fortinbras who are sons seeking revenge for the death of their fathers however unlike Hamlet they are resolute and headstrong in their acts of revenge. Hamlet’s rationality tells him that revenge is a mode of reprisal rather than restoration however he is his father’s son, his namesake and bound to his vengeance, bound to his cause. Hamlet a typical Shakespearean tragic hero of noble stature, who has been cast far from grace, learns of his father’s murder by his uncle and decides to go down the path of revenge. The ghost of Hamlet’s father the late King Hamlet comes to him in warlike apparel and tells him: Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand Of life, of