Choice And Right Action In Hamlet Essay

Hamlet

The theme of choice and right action is one that deals with the weighty moral decisions that characters must make as they strive to be the characters they want to be. The theme of Choice and Right Action is one of the major themes addressed in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. After learning the identity of his father’s murderer, Hamlet is faced with a decision whether or not to pursue revenge. What makes Hamlet’s story so compelling is the ambiguity revolving around what constitutes the right action. While most tales tend to heavily emphasize the content of the moral decision, Shakespeare places his emphasis on the form, or the “how” the decision is enacted. Hamlet decides that the right thing to do is to seek revenge. This decision is obviously debatable, but the general conversation about Hamlet comes in his inability to get

He is often held up as the antithesis of the “man of action”, because despite making a decision he can’t follow through. Shakespeare inverts our understanding of the theme of choice and right action, making Hamlet’s audience question Hamlet’s follow through ability, his ability to carry out the choice, instead of his character and integrity, or even what the proper moral action is. The simple phrase opening Hamlet’s soliloquy, “To be, or not to be,” is indicative of this theme. Hamlet’s tale is ultimately a tragic one not because he made the wrong moral decision, a question Shakespeare seems less concerned with, but because he can’t follow through on his choice. “Right action”, at least for Hamlet, seems to be making a moral choice and sticking by it. He never is able to fully act rightly, and thus becomes such a