The Hesitation of Hamlet

The Hesitation of Hamlet

Drama is considered as an emotional disturbance; to fight; or a clashing of opposed principles. All of this does the Shakespearean play Hamlet have. We find the personalities of Hamlet clashing one another and each one of them causing a fracas with another character in the play. Perhaps the greatest controversy is that of Hamlet and his mother and uncle who were hastily married pending Old Hamlet's death. Hamlet finds himself dealing with the revenge of his father's murder against his uncle, Claudius. One problem with Hamlet is that it takes him five acts to take care of his uncle, so to speak. There are tow main reasons for this: One, Hamlet was not quite sure that the ghost he saw of his father was the true spirit of him, or the devil taking "a pleasing shape" to condemn Hamlet to hell. Two, Hamlet just isn't a murder. He's just an ordinary guy who doesn't care to harm anyone, and he feels that that is a sign of his own cowardice that he cannot overcome.

When Old Hamlet appears to his son Hamlet in Act One, Hamlet believes that the ghost is his father and wills him to speak. For a lengthy time, the ghost tells Hamlet of his uncle's reckless mayhem. Hamlet hears what the ghost has to say and responds with, "Remember thee? Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat in this distracted globe…" What Hamlet means by this is that indeed, he will remember his father and avenge his death with all his passion focused on that. But after Hamlet has a chance to think of what he has seen, he begins to have reservations of his vengeance. "The spirit that I have seen may be a devil; and the devil hath power to assume a pleasing shape…and he is very potent with such spirits, and abuses me to damn me." Here Hamlet realizes that the ghost he saw might not be his father and his actions could be his eternal demise. This is not something Hamlet wants. But Hamlet's hesitation does not stop there.

Hamlet also gives reason for his dawdle of revenge to the fact that he just isn't man enough to "do the deed." Even though his father has been slain, he still cannot bring himself to do what he has promised and for that he torments himself. "Am I a coward?