If You Don't Kill It, It'll Kill You

Hamlet's contemplative nature is the sole reason for his continual hesitations to act upon Claudius throughout the play. Though Hamlet had many chances to avenge the ghost, his over contemplative mind restricted him to act dutifully as a son. This character of Hamlet not only portrays him as a fool who cannot justify an unfair death, but also as an insane man who's ponderings lead him to become insane and eventually to his own death. In The Tragedy of Hamlet, Hamlet's consuming thoughts lead him to his lunatic downfall rather than his potential greatness.

In the beginning of the play, Hamlet returns from school after hearing about his father's untimely death. This awkward death causes Hamlet to grieve and mourn, yet the death of King Hamlet does not have the same effect on Queen Gertrude. She immediately announces her marriage to Claudius, her former brother-in-law/current husband. Hamlet's isolation from his mother causes him to turn to his overpowering thoughts instead of his deceitful mother.

Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Ophelia also play a role in Hamlet's sane breakdown. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern show up to supposedly act as spies for Claudius, who suspected that Hamlet's lunacy is due to his father's murder. When Rosencrantz and Guildenstern confess to Hamlet their true reasons for their visitation, Hamlet realizes that he cannot trust even his dearest friends. To make matters worse for Hamlet's fragile mind, Ophelia, his love, has broken up whatever relationship they had by order of her father. Betrayed by family, friends, and lover, Hamlet is now isolated from those who should have supported him. Since Hamlet does consider suicide as an escape at one point, it can be supported that Hamlet feels unloved and burdened with all the betrayals that had taken place. These factors contributed to Hamlet's gradual progress to his psychological breakdown.

"A broken voice, and his whole function suiting/With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing!/For Hecuba!/What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,/That he should weep for her? What would he do,/ Had he the motive and the cue for passion/ That I have? He would drown the stage with tears/ and cleave the general ear with horrid speech;/Make mad the guilty and appal the free,/Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed/The very faculties of eyes and ears./Yet I,..." (II, ii, 570-622). Hamlet feels foolish for not being able to avenge his father. Yet this actor, full of pretend emotions, can induce emotions from the audience. Hamlet, on the other hand, instills real emotions and cannot act upon Claudius.

Hamlet used the uncertainty of his father's death to avoid killing Claudius although he had his own suspicions in the beginning. But there is no question after putting the play "The Mousetrap" that Claudius solely participated in the mrder of King Hamlet. Hamlet may have, in the beginning, given the impression that he constantly exonerates Claudius because he isn't certain that Claudius really committed the murder. But this is only an excuse for being a fickle son who does not have the mind power to avenge his father. When Hamlet realizes this, his guilt will play tricks on him.

When Hamlet sees Claudius praying in the room alone, he does not take this chance to avenge his father's death. "Now might I do it pat, now he is praying;/And now I'll do't. And so he goes to heaven,/And so I am revenged. That would be scanned./A villain kills my father; and for that,/I, his sole son, do this same villain send/To heaven." (III, iii, 73-8). Hamlet realizes that if he kills Claudius, Claudius will have the advantage to free himself from his sins. Hamlet thinks that he would be saving Claudius from being condemned if he kills him. Once again, Hamlet's contemplating nature has saved Claudius.

Hamlet is still merely sane until his refusal to take the open chance to kill Claudius while Claudius was praying. From this point on, all of Hamlet's actions are credited to madness. At this point, he realizes that he is deceiving the ghost of his father by continually

...