Free Essays - Morals and Ethics in Hamlet According to the philosophy of the Elizabethan Period in English literature, the ability to think and reason separates man from animal. It is with this very important fact in mind that one can first begin to interpret the question, "What should fellows such as I do crawling between Earth and Heaven?" William Shakespeare's Hamlet is a troubled individual who, after the murder of his father, is on the brink of insanity. He is having an ethical dilemma over how he should have his revenge on his uncle, Claudius, who killed his father to take the thrown. Hamlet's problem is that he is experiencing human urges of being "proud, revengeful, (and) ambitious (3.1.124)," but Hamlet is of noble birth so he feels that he should not act in this way. When Hamlet says that he is between Earth and Heaven, he is relating Earth to humanity and man's natural urges, and he is relating Heaven to divinity and the way in which nobility should act. By saying that he is crawling, he is referring to an animal-like behavior and it's struggle to survive. Hamlet is now looking for options. He is driving himself crazy over his moral dilemma, and in the process he is losing his ability to think clearly. Therefore, he is turning himself into an animal. There is no simple answer to Hamlet's question. It is a question of morals and ethics, both of which can pose many of life's greatest challenges. If Hamlet knew what to do without having any struggle in his mind, then he wouldn't be human, because it is nearly impossible for man to make completely unbiased decisions. Naturally, he needs to expose Claudius as being a murderer, and he should do this without substituting his own good name and judgement. This is the only real way that he could stand up and rightfully take his place as nobility. However, saying what one should do is much easier than actually following through with it.
He struggles with indecision and hesitation as well as brash and impulsive decisions. This causes him to not get much of anything done. He desired to avenge his father 's death and kill King Claudius, but he never got revenge over Claudius because he became consumed with proving his uncle 's guilt before acting upon it. This caused Hamlet to be unable to murder Claudius before he died. The standard of "beyond a reasonable doubt" is simply intolerable to Hamlet. He is obsessed with questions about the perception of suicide, about what happens to bodies after they die, and about afterlife. He is almost paralyzed by these issues, which causes him to not act and further avoid conflict in his life. The only thing he actually manages to do is go crazy. Hamlet avoiding conflict causes his girlfriend to stop talking to him. It also causes his "friends," Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to deceive him. Even though Hamlet is pensive to the point of obsession, he acts rashly too. An example of this is when he stabs Polonius through the drape, without even checking to see who he is. Is it acts like these make him seem absolutely mad, because he behaves so erratically. He also upsets people around him with his unruly speech and sexual innuendos, and neither of these things help his case. This is yet another example of how avoiding conflict breeds
The second to last decision that Hamlet makes with regard to Claudius is to not kill him, but to allow fate and divine forces to take over his responsibility. He makes this decision mainly as a means of escaping the intense madness under which he finds himself and, instead, entering a much more psychologically peaceful state; denial. Although this reason may seem illogical, Shakespeare clearly emphasizes the importance of such a motivation to escape pain in Hamlet's decision-making. He does so in the Player's scene, which emphasizes that Hamlet is obsessed with disproving Claudius' guilt. The advantage of disproving such guilt is that it resolves Hamlet's pain, showing that the motivation to escape the pain of his obsession is prominent in Hamlet's decision-making. Escaping in denial also seems to be Hamlet's best option at this point since, having previously confronted Gertrude with the premises of Claudius' crime, she failed to respond with recognition of them and disapproval of Claudius.
Hamlet is given reason to believe that his Father was murdered. A ghost bearing the “…same figure like the king that’s dead.” (Bernardo 1:1) informed him that the old King’s death was “Murder most foul…” (Ghost 1:5). When Hamlet eagerly inquires as to the meaning of the Ghost’s words he is told that “The serpent that did sting thy father’s life/ Now wears his crown.” Upon hearing this Hamlet immediately knows that his Uncle Claudius, the new king and his new step-father, is the guilty party. A mature person upon hearing news like this would, most likely, also have gone slightly insane with anger. How ever a mature person, upon regaining some control of his or her faculties, would have taken steps to punish the murderer in a just fashion. These steps would have included informing to populace and the Queen of the New King’s treachery against the old. Hamlet does not do this, instead he schemes and plots ways to kill his Uncle as opposed to giving him the opportunity to exculpate himself. Had Hamlet acted with maturity and expressed his concerns about his uncle the lives of many people would have been spared.
Hamlet knows that he is not God, and that taking a life is a mortal sin. He knew that killing his uncle didn’t mean much good for himself, in both the present life and afterlife. In the present life he most likely would have been given a strict punishment for murder. Another thing to consider is that, Hamlet would be killing a king. Regicide was considered the worst crime someone in Elizabethan era could have committed. No one back then would have looked at Hamlet with respect anymore. Having a murder under his record also wouldn’t have sat when going to your after-life. Even if it was only revenge for killing his father dying, Elizabethans considered revenge to be a sin. Hamlet has clearly never killed anyone in the past and so is trying to do it in the smartest way possible. Hamlet takes so long to deal with Claudius because he wants to avoid blood on his hands; he doesn 't want to directly kill his uncle. This is why he creates the play-within-a-play, hoping that Claudius will confess to the killing of King Hamlet so he won 't have to deal with Claudius
Hamlet’s fatal flaw is his conscience; he needs to question everything, and because of that, he delays. It is learn right away of how Hamlet feels towards the task given to him by his father from his words “The time is out of joint: O cursed spite, /That ever I was born to set it right!-“(I.v.190-191). From his words it is seen that he questions why he himself must carry this burden to clean Denmark; all because of Claudius’s dirty deed. He is reluctant, but he knows he must do this task sooner or later, and readers know he chooses the latter.
Hamlet is almost always performed as a tragedy, and Hamlet's "indecision" is universally accepted as the flaw. "If he had only made up his mind", people argue, "eight deaths could have been avoided." This, of course, is a very easy position for one to take, because we already know that Claudius is guilty. It would be a much more interesting piece if one could be left uncertain of the true facts. Due to the popularity of Hamlet, the fact that Claudius is guilty is taken for granted, and so it seems unfortunate that Hamlet cannot act sooner, but without this knowledge acting too quickly would be a mistake.
Hamlet's is a mind to be reckoned with. He thinks things out rather than just act on impulse. No matter what the situation, there is always something that stands in his way that a more impulsive, emotional man might overlook or just ignore. By thinking things over he gives Claudius time to figure out what he knows. If he had acted faster things may have turned out differently for our intellectual prince. The Brain can be a slow, bungling thing that is constantly tripping over it's own feet whereas a body controlled by emotion knows no limits.
The play, Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, shows human nature to be greedy, self-involved and vengeful. Claudius is driven by his greed to commit murder. Polonius is always looking out for himself, currying favor at the expense of anyone in his way. Hamlet thinks only of vengeance from the moment he finds out about Claudius murdering his father. Human nature has been all of these things, but it has also evolved through the ages. We can be base and cruel, but we can also show great compassion and kindness.
Hamlet has evidently shown in the play how his uncertainty in his decisions slows him down in killing Claudius. His indecisiveness makes spend more time thinking about the situation and the possible outcomes. In act 2 scene, Hamlet has yet to fulfil his promise to his father. Hamlet is holding himself back from avenging his father. Hamlet refuses to act as if he knows what he is doing when in reality, he has not found out whether the act of killing is heroic and moral or cowardly and immoral. “O vengeance! Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave, that I, the son of a dear father murdered, prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, must, like a who 're, unpack my heart with words and fall a-cursing like a very drab, a scullion! Fie upon’t, for!” (2.2 579-585). Despite all this, instead of taking revenge immediately, Hamlet wants to find out whether his ghostly father is telling the truth. This takes a while as Hamlet would eventually realize it is true later in the play. Hamlet had a so much time to kill King Claudius but it is his uncertainty of his father 's words that delays the revenge. Later in act 3 scene 3, King Claudius is seen kneeling in prayer as he confesses his sins.
This scene is in fact a visual representation of Hamlet’s problem throughout the play, this focal problem is open to two different interpretations: either Hamlet has the ability and passion to kill Claudius but he doesn’t have the right time to do it, or Hamlet doesn’t have the self-assurance and courage to do ...
Hamlet's character lends itself to a possible motivation for his unwillingness to kill Claudius. He is a scholar, and a student of theology. It is a moral dilemma for Hamlet to kill without a just cause, or kill at all. He wants proof of the part his uncle and his mother played in his father's death. His royal birth leads him to consider his responsibilities to his country, which is Hamlet's internal conflict throughout the play.
One reason why Hamlet delays to take action against Claudius is because he does not just want to kill him, but he wants to damn his spirit. He hates Claudius so much that he is willing to take his life and damn his soul. Hamlet has plenty of motive to drive him to want this. Claudius did kill Hamlets father his own brother, and than married his sister. Hamlet gets a chance to kill Claudius, but Claudius is praying in church and hamlet does not want to kill Claudius and not damn his soul. It if he had done it he could have possible damned his own soul.
Webster’s dictionary defines tragedy as, “a serious drama typically describing a conflict between the protagonist and a superior force (such as destiny) and having a sorrowful or disastrous conclusion that excites pity or terror.” A tragic hero, therefore, is the character who experiences such a conflict and suffers catastrophically as a result of his choices and related actions. The character of Hamlet, therefore, is a clear representation of Shakespeare’s tragic hero.
... the murderer accountable for death of his father. Had Hamlet killed Claudius at an earlier time, providing he was not caught, he may have spared the lives of many others in the effect of his indecisive conscience, including his own. Hamlet’s internal contemplation and emotions drive the more physical stages of conflict and it is purely the internal conflicts that ultimately inflame the reckless display of violence. Using his God-given free will, Hamlet made decisions throughout the play that directly caused many deaths: Polonius, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Ophelia, Laertes, Claudius, and himself. These losses are not the result of self-defence or of fate. In any case, Hamlet’s decisions help create his own revenge tragedy, as his choices directly and ultimately destroy him.
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