The Struggle with Procrastination in Hamlet by William Shakespeare
In William Shakespeare’s tragic play Hamlet, the main character, Hamlet, struggles with procrastination throughout the play. As Samuel Taylor Coleridge said, "No brilliant intellect can be considered valuable if one withdraws from action." It is this tragic flaw of inaction that eventually brings about Hamlet’s downfall. In the beginning of the play, Hamlet is given explicit instructions by the ghost to kill his uncle/step-father Claudius to avenge his father’s murder; yet, he fails to do so. Hamlet’s inaction and hesitation to kill Claudius is justified in his own mind and to the audience. Hamlet’s initial disbelief in the reliability of the ghost’s claim, Hamlet’s belief in religion, and the fact that Hamlet is trained in thought rather than in action, all lead to Hamlet’s inaction, and ultimately, Hamlet’s downfall.
The ongoing duel between Hamlet’s procrastination and his final action begins with Hamlet’s perception of the ghost. The ghost appears in form, as Horatio describes it, "a figure like your father, armed at point exactly" (1.2.209-210). When Hamlet first meets the ghost, he immediately calls the ghost by his father’s name and follows it to where the ghost beckons him. In response to the ghost’s claim that "the serpent that did sting thy father’s life now wears his crown," Hamlet answers, " O my prophetic soul!" (1.5.46-48), revealing that Hamlet has already contemplated this possibility. The ghost does little to persuade Hamlet of the cause of his father’s death because Hamlet is already convinced of his uncle/step-father’s guilt due to his great distrust and dislike for Claudius. Although at first, Hamlet reacts with an...
... middle of paper ...
...d by his disbelief in the ghost of his father, his belief in religion, and his education, it still brings about his untimely demise. By over analyzing any possible action he might take, Hamlet often finds a reason impeding him from taking any significant action. Although Samuel Taylor Coleridge claims that Shakespeare wanted us to realize that action is the chief end of existence, Hamlet proves that inaction is truly the chief end of existence. However, because of his indecisiveness, Hamlet is real; one can identify with him. The uncertainty of his life provides no clear path, but rather a rocky and winding road. Many times there is no right answer. He must use his discrimination to choose the best possibility. Hamlet, unfortunately, lacks this innate ability to decide. Instead of deciding, he chooses to make no decision and instead is left with no choice but death.
Hamlet is extremely proud of Old King and respects him.“He was a great human being. He was perfect in everything. I’ll never see the likes of him again” (I.ii.185-188). Hamlet loves his father and gives the greatest praise at the funeral. Grief driven by love tempts Hamlet to think his father’s goodness, and more, the loss of such a favorable figure. Hamlet believes that the ghost that is said to look like the dead king is indeed his father.”He waxes desperate with imagination”(I.ii.92). The Prince, who is deep in sadness and does not think sufficiently, is convinced that the spirit is the Old Hamlet, he is the only person that can physically communicate with the ghost. Hamlet for the second time talks to the apparition in his mother’s chamber, where Gertrude does not see any. What Horatio and other witnesses encounter at the gate at night proves the possibility of the existence of the ghost, Hamlet later in the play is considered to be truly mad on the account of his unusual ability to see and talk to the spirit, which is obviously conjured up by his mind. Rising actions in both the book and the play are implied at the beginning of the stories: Amir’s memory of 1975 and Old Hamlet’s death. The journey of redemption or revenge takes actions of concealing their true emotions and implementing devised
Conflicting thoughts are often profound in Hamlet, like how he is faced with a choice of now or never but always has approached them carefully. One was when Hamlet speaks while walking into an empty room and begins to question why we do what we do. ``To be or not to be-that is the question `` 127, a famous quote from Hamlet. Provoking the thought of reason in his actions. To act now or later would be his though...
As more events led to the questioning of Hamlet’s sanity, the reader was given a glimpse into the mind of Hamlet in the famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy. Hamlet’s questions of life and contemplation of suicide revealed h...
Hamlet cannot decide between a life of action and revenge, or contemplation and fate and he is genuinely concerned with the deeper truths upon which his life is ordered- fate and freewill.
The first major quote that suggests Hamlet’s flaw of procrastination is, “Haste me to know’t; that I, with wings as swift/ As meditation or the thoughts of love,/ May sweep to my revenge” (Hamlet, Act I: Scene v, 29-31). This quote is spoken by Hamlet to the Ghost of Hamlet’s father. Hamlet is alone with the Ghost who tells Hamlet about and revenge
makes the metaphysics of the play dark. The ghost says nothing despite the valiant efforts on the parts of Horatio, Marcellus, and Bernardo. Suspense is created when the audience is ignorant as to the purpose of the ghost. Later in the play the ghost is utilized to allow Hamlet and the audience knowledge of the vile murder of the king by Claudius, the kings own brother. When the ghost finally speaks, he tells Hamlet,
Throughout the play Hamlet is in constant conflict with himself. An appearance of a ghost claiming to be his father, “I am thy father’s spirit”(I.v.14) aggravates his grief, nearly causing him to commit suicide and leaving him deeply disgusted and angered. Upon speaking with his ghost-father, Hamlet learns that his uncle-stepfather killed Hamlet the King. “The serpent that did sting thy father’s life Now wears his crown”(I.v.45-46) Hamlet is beside himself and becomes obsessed with plotting and planning revenge for the death of his father.
Although Hamlet seemed to be superior in all other characteristics, his one flaw cost him his life. Without doubt, it cost the lives of many others as well. If Hamlet could have taken immediate action, many deaths could have been avoided. Although Hamlet succeeds in his revenge, his procrastination proves to be his flaw in every event that took place.
Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a tragic play about murder, betrayal, revenge, madness, and moral corruption. It touches upon philosophical ideas such as existentialism and relativism. Prince Hamlet frequently questions the meaning of life and the degrading of morals as he agonizes over his father’s murder, his mother’s incestuous infidelity, and what he should or shouldn’t do about it. At first, he is just depressed; still mourning the loss of his father as his mother marries his uncle. After he learns about the treachery of his uncle and the adultery of his mother, his already negative countenance declines further. He struggles with the task of killing Claudius, feeling burdened about having been asked to find a solution to a situation that was forced upon him.Death is something he struggles with as an abstract idea and as relative to himself. He is able to reconcile with the idea of death and reality eventually.
In traditional and modern, ghost reflects death and fear, and it never change. In Hamlet, the ghost is a symbol of Hamlet’s father who is killed by Claudius. Its propose is to demand Hamlet to avenge its death. Although the ghost only appears three times in front of Hamlet, it is a specify role to develop the whole story and plot. Through Hamlet, the ghost is the motive to make Hamlet kill Claudius, and the ghost plays a critical role to influence Hamlet.
If Hamlet were crazy like many scholars claim that he is; he would be the only one claiming to see the ghost, instead we have a host of witnesses who can testify to the ghost’s existence. Shortly after Hamlet’s first encounter with the ghost of his father, he asks his constituents Marcellus and Horatio his best friend to swear that they would refrain from making any remarks concerning what went on that night or anything strange that they see him do. Hamlet is thinking cognitively by forming a plan, his plan is to make sure that his uncle Claudius the current king of Denmark does not become suspicious of hamlet’s plot to murder him because if Claudius becomes aware that Hamlet is trying to kill him, Claudius will end his nephew’s life first. People that are mad cannot form cohesive thoughts like
Hamlet seems incapable of deliberate action, and is only hurried into extremities on the spur of the occasion, when he has no time to reflect, as in the scene where he kills Polonius, and again, where he alters the letters which Rosencraus and Guildenstern are taking with them to England, purporting his death. At other times, when he is most bound to act, he remains puzzled, undecided, and skeptical, until the occasion is lost, and he finds some pretence to relapse into indolence and thoughtfulness again. For this reason he refuses to kill the King when he is at his prayers, and by a refinement in malice, which is in truth only an excuse for his own want of resolution, defers his revenge to a more fatal opportunity, when he will be engaged in some act "that has no relish of salvation in it."
In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet’s tragic flaw is his procrastination. From the first time Hamlet was acted until now, critics have fought over the reason for Hamlet’s procrastination. Some say that the cause is due to Sigmund Freud’s theory that Hamlet has an "Oedipal Complex," which is his love for his mother. Others argue that he just never finds the right time to carry out the revenge of his father’s murder. The Oedipal Complex theory in regard to Hamlet’s situation seems more likely because of the amount of times Hamlet has to kill Claudius but always fins a reason not to kill him. If it is not the case, then the cause of the procrastination remains a mystery. There is no reason for Hamlet not to kill Claudius, whom he hates, and was ordered by a higher power to destroy, other than the fact that subconsciously, Hamlet needed Claudius to keep him away from his mother.
Hamlet is the best known tragedy in literature today. Here, Shakespeare exposes Hamlet’s flaws as a heroic character. The tragedy in this play is the result of the main character’s unrealistic ideals and his inability to overcome his weakness of indecisiveness. This fatal attribute led to the death of several people which included his mother and the King of Denmark. Although he is described as being a brave and intelligent person, his tendency to procrastinate prevented him from acting on his father’s murder, his mother’s marriage, and his uncle’s ascension to the throne.
In Act I scene V, Hamlet is told by his father’s ghost to “revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.” The ghost then goes on to tell Hamlet that as he was “sleeping in my orchard, A serpent stung me” and that “The serpent that did sting thy father’s life Now wears his crown.” Hamlet is told by the ghost to seek revenge, telling him that Claudius has corrupted Denmark and corrupted Gertrude, having seduced her in the foul lust of their incestuous marriage. The ghost urges Hamlet not to act against his mother in any way, telling him to “Leave her to heaven, And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge, To prick and sting her.”