Bad Choices, Bad Outcome

Throughout Hamlet’s ordeal, he must interact with many people. Each interaction poses several possible ways to act, because of his obsessive nature, he often chose to sacrifice relationships in order to accomplish other goals and feel better about his situation. Many times, Hamlet could have tried to confront people concerning the way they were acting, but instead chose to ignore their existence, or in more extreme cases, end their existence. I can’t stress enough how different the situation could have been had Hamlet not letting his emotions get the best of him.

One of the major themes within the play is people putting on acts. Hamlet was no exception; he pretended to have gone mad after his father died, even when this faux-madness led to losing people he loved. For example, Hamlet acted completely out of his mind when he was with the woman he truly loved, Ophelia, because of this act, he lost her. Had Hamlet confided in his love, and let her know what was going on as far as his emotions, she may have stayed sane and stuck by Hamlet. This action would also leave the possibility of Ophelia living, rather than drowning in depression. The possibility of not seeing Ophelia anymore could have been explored as well. While it would have been hard for Hamlet to ignore Ophelia, she may have lived her life much longer.

Another major theme in Hamlet is procrastination. Throughout the play, Hamlet wants to avenge his father’s death by killing Claudius, but every chance that arises is pushed aside by Hamlet. Claudius was praying all alone, and rather than kill him at that moment, Hamlet thought about the situation and decided that he didn’t want Claudius to have a chance to go to heaven. Had Hamlet simply went ahead and done what he wanted to do, deaths that occurred later in the play could have been prevented. It’s this obsessive nature that led Hamlet to his tragic ending. Hamlet never thought about whether or not killing Claudius would hurt his mother; he never even thought to ask her what she thought about his theory that Claudius killed his father. This is yet another example of Hamlet throwing away relationships to deal with things on his own.

Another folly of Hamlet’s obsessive nature is how he ended up killing Polonius. While talking to his mother, Hamlet was suspicious of being spied on, and when he noticed someone under a curtain, he immediately killed the person without even bothering to check who it was.