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... killed Claudius and would have made the worst decision in his life because he would have to face all the scorn of the people around him for killing Claudius and not having proof that Claudius killed his father. Bradley also believes that "Hamlet's melancholy accounts... for apathy...
and Hamlet's inability to understand why he delays." We see this when he asks "Why do I linger... can the cause be cowardice... can it be thinking to precisely of the event... " Hamlet does not want to lack courage, skill, will, or opportunity, but everything that happens makes him think excessively. Hamlet is upset that he does not show any emotion for what has happened throughout the past couple of months. He believes that he is insensitive, and we see this when he watches the play, and sees "the imminent death of twenty thousand men... fight for a plot whereon the numbers cannot try the cause... ." Hamlet has not shown his emotions for his father's death, his mother's remarriage and Ophelia's unrequited love, while the people in the play are sobbing for something that has not yet even occurred in their lives.
He does not understand why he is so unemotional about something that is so important. The actors in the play are sobbing and Hamlet can not get one tear out after all the things that have happened to him. Bradley believes that Hamlet had "an unbounded delight and faith in everything good and beautiful." Whoever did not cause him harm, Hamlet was being nice to. For example, Horatio became Hamlet's confidant because he was there to help him without being sent for by anyone, unlike Rosencrantz and Guilderstern who only show up when the king and the queen need him to help Hamlet. Bradley thought that if he would take actions, it would "further weaken him and enslave him to his melancholy." Whenever Ophelia did not acknowledge him, he would sink deeper into depression. Bradley believed that Hamlet might have been depressed because he "lost a loved one", but also because he "lost the crown." Hamlet would have had the chance to rule Denmark, but instead his mother remarried, and his uncle took the position.
Him losing the crown might not have been the major reason is depressed but it is linked to the main reason he is- his father's death. According to Samuel Coleridge, Hamlet lost the "equilibrium between real and imaginary worlds... Hamlet's balanced is disturbed." He was too occupied with himself that he forgot everything that he had to do outside himself. " Hamlet is brave and careless of death... but he procrastinates from thought and loses the power of action... ." We see this when Hamlet tries to kill Claudius when he is praying. He backs down at the last minute. We also realize that Hamlet does not take action when he "procrastinated from thought" when he kills Polonius.
Hamlet was startled, and without thinking he killed Polonius, when he was behind the wall tapestry. Coleridge contrasts Hamlet to Macbeth, another Shakespearean character. Hamlet proceeds with the "utmost slowness", while Macbeth with a "crowded and breathless rapidity." Hamlet not only contrasts to Shakespearean characters outside the play but he also contrasts to a character from the same play- Laertes. Laertes finds out something and without thinking or realizing the consequences, goes out and does whatever he has to do.
When he found out that his father was dead, Laertes tried to go after Hamlet, without thinking. Samuel Johnson says "of feigned madness of Hamlet, there appears no adequate cause for he does nothing which he might not have done with the reputation of sanity... [Hamlet is] afraid of something in unknown futurity." He wants to make sure that there are no consequences to uphold when he is done with his actions. Hamlet "makes no attempt to punish [Claudius]", and at the end Claudius dies with no attempt from Hamlet. Hamlet "makes no attempt to punish him, and in his death is at last affected by an incident in which Hamlet has no part in producing." Most depressive people contemplate suicide, like Hamlet does in his soliloquies. "To be or not to be, that is the question... ." In this soliloquy, Hamlet is on the verge of suicide. He can not find a reason to live. The people that he loves are either gone or neglecting him.
He believes that he is all alone and that there is no one to turn to for help. Hamlet becomes depressed because he keeps things to himself, which makes him think about the melancholy things that are revolving around him. In the beginning of the play, Hamlet is just melancholy about everything that has happened to him, but by the middle of the play he is depressed, because more upsetting things build up inside of him. He became melancholy because he thought too much about everything that has happened to him. By thinking of all of this, he procrastinates which leads to his depression. It goes around in a circle.
When he thinks too much he loses the courage to act, and he has to spend more time trying to gain the courage again. His procrastination leads him to build up things inside of him to the point that he can not deal with it anymore. Since he over analyzed every situation, he thinks of all the bad things that happened and that possibly might happen if he takes action, and therefore makes himself be depressed. Hamlet's procrastination not only led to his death, but to the death of many people around him.
His depression not only affected himself but also affected the people around him. If Hamlet did not procrastinate, he would have, probably saved the lives of the people he loved. Bibliography: Bibliography Bradley, A. C. Shakespearean Tragedy 1 st Edition New York: Macmillan, 1904 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor Hamlet volume two ed.
Henry Nelson Coleridge London: William Pickering, 1836 Johnson, Samuel The Plays of William Shakespeare volume eight London J&R Tucson, 1765 Shakespeare, William Hamlet ed. Alan Durban U. S. edition: Barrons Educational Series, Inc. 1986
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