Dealing with Dilemmas

Dilemmas are inevitable; one deals with them everyday. Some are miniscule and insignificant while others can be mountainous and life-changing. However, whatever the nature of the predicament, the individual faced with it will always find himself inescapably caught in a circumstance of conflict. The different approaches one can take to resolve this conflict will ultimately determine the direction one’s life will take. Occasionally, these results can even affect the lives of the people around oneself. Though nothing is set in stone, certain procedures tend to reap better outcomes than others. In the play Hamlet, William Shakespeare develops the idea that when faced with a dilemma, one can be overly contemplative, rash, or rational, with each method of resolution leading to drastically different results.

When presented with a crisis, one can be overly analytic about the different alternatives offered, which often leads to disastrous results. Hamlet’s father’s ghost appears to him and adjures him to take on the burdensome task of avenging his abhorrent murder by his brother, King Claudius – a challenge in which Hamlet readily accepts. He starts to feign madness after his encounter with the ghost, which is all part of his scheme to not arouse Claudius’ suspicions by appearing harmless, and not posing as a threat. However, as the play progresses, Hamlet finds it increasingly more difficult to implement such an arduous act. Months after the meeting with the ghost, he still cannot carry out his vengeance as he is bedevilled by doubt, admitting that “conscience does make cowards of us all” (III, i, 84). He goes to such great lengths that he conceives a “mouse-trap play” where he asks a group of actors to re-enact the murder of King Hamlet...

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...character in the play as he survives, restores his father’s lost territories and on top of it all, gets crowned as the new King of Denmark.

When accosted with a problem, one can choose to fix it by being overly cogitative, imprudent, or practical, each leading to a different outcome. These three examples in Hamlet are evidently demonstrated by Shakespeare. Hamlet’s delayed actions because of much deliberation, coupled with Laertes’ impetuous actions, eventually lead to the downfall of everyone involved. Meanwhile, Fortinbras, who acts logically with implementation, is the only one of the three characters to survive the play, and prevails with great triumph. The results of these differing methods in which one can use to solve their dilemmas, either with extreme thinking, recklessness, or rationality shows that acting with the latter results in the superior outcome.