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Shakespeare's tragic play Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, addresses the dilemma that all avengers face. Avengers confront extraordinary challenges that imperil their safety, integrity, and mental stability. Within the play, the poet portrays his heroic revenge-seeker as one of good ethics and morals, one that has the capacity to strive for constructive goals (Problematic Revenge in Hamlet and King Lear). As a good and moral avenger, Hamlet is bound to meet certain self-requirements necessary to take his revenge. The necessity to abide by these conditions forces Hamlet to seek moral justification for his deed, and this search spends valuable time. Hamlet (and many Shakespearean scholars as well) interprets this spent time as his time of delay; in other words, a period of inaction.
Thus Hamlet feels like a cowardly failure, and he continually reprimands himself for what he perceives as his personal flaw. In reality though, there exists no tragic flaw of delay at all. Rather, tragedy stems from the emotionally trying circumstances in which the young prince is placed. Because the hero feels so overwhelmed by his situation, he spends much of his precious time in evaluation of it. As a result, he feels like a pigeon-lived coward and blames himself for what he calls his making sickly the hue of resolution (2. 2. 547, 3. 1. 84).
Throughout the play, Hamlet constantly chides himself for what he perceives as delay. In reality though, he is too enveloped in his present circumstance to realize that there exists no delay at all, but rather methodic action. In Act I Scene 5, an apparition of Hamlets father (Hamlet I) appears to inform his son of his death and puts forth the tasks of which he requests Hamlets completion. Although Hamlet is already in extreme despair over his fathers death and his mothers hasty remarriage, what the ghost comes to tell him, he could have never been prepared. The ghost speaks of his own murder and identifies his killer as his brother, Claudius, who is presently the king and wife of his widow. During the time in which the play is set, regicide was seen as among the most heinous of crimes, let alone fratricidal regicide.
News of such a murder most foul, strange, and unnatural would tear up the most stolid of persons as it obviously takes its toll on our noble hero (1. 5. 28). During the rest of the play, Hamlet is haunted with the thoughts of his king taking the life of his father, who is supposed to be the rightful king. Moreover, because of the views of his society and his idea of honor, Hamlet now has three tasks he must complete at the request of his fathers spirit: avenge his unnatural death by killing Claudius; cleanse Denmark and let not the royal bed a couch for luxury and damned incest, for the whole ear of Denmark is by a forged process of [Hamlet Is] death rankly abused; and do not let thy soul contrive against thy mother leave her to heaven, and those thorns that in her bosom lodge (1. 5. 82 - 83, 36 - 38, 86 - 87). Although the apparition did give Hamlet three tasks he must complete, it did not give Hamlet a plan as to how he should go about completing them, which gives our hero the complete freedom to choose whatever way he finds fitting. Thus, Hamlet doesnt have to jump right into killing Claudius and can go about it in his own methodical and logical way. Hamlet now has a dilemma.
Should he trust the Ghosts words completely and jump right into killing Claudius? Or should he take the time to check the truthfulness of the apparitions words? Our hero of course chooses the wiser of the two solutions, which is the latter, for there are many reasons why he should not blindly trust his supposed father. First of all, the reader is told that the ghost is doomed for a certain time to walk the night, and for the day confined to fasting in fires, till the foul crimes done in my day of nature are burnt and purged away (1. 5. 10 - 13). From this statement, one can infer that the ghost is not yet living his afterlife in heaven, which in turn makes one wonder if the ghosts intentions are moral and true.
Hamlet even states, The spirit that I have seen may be the devil, and the devil hath power tissue a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps out of my weakness and my melancholyabusesto damn me (2. 2. 569 - 574). Obviously, it would be foolish for Hamlet to blindly trust any spirit, even if it claims to be his father. Furthermore, the belief in spirits and purgatory is not a common belief during the time period in which this play is set. When someone leaves this world, the belief was that their spirit went either to heaven or hell, and it definitely wouldnt return to revenge his foul and most unnatural murder (1. 5. 25). Heavenly spirits do not walk to earth seeking revenge, for revenge is an unholy act and goes against all Christian teaching. A true heavenly spirit would give Claudius the chance to seek out repentance for his unclean actions, so that he may save his guilty soul and too gain eternal salvation.
Hamlets ghost, on the other hand, wants cold-blooded murder, which definitely makes Hamlet wary to trust him. Thus, Hamlet takes action into his own hands to decipher the validity of the ghosts prophecy, and this action takes time, which Hamlet and many Shakespearean scholars interpret as delay. The most immediate action Hamlet takes is when he makes Horatio and Marcellus swear upon [his] sword (1. 5. 156). Hamlet knows that he must keep the new prophecy of fratricidal regicide from the public. In order to do so, he must seal the lips of his companions and make sure that neither ever utters a single word of the ghost. If the incriminating information of Hamlets conversing with an apparition fell into the wrong hands, his name and reputation could be forever tarnished, as well as his chance to revenge his fathers murder.
In order for his plan to work, Hamlet must maintain and act in a way so as to maintain complete secrecy about to the news has recently found out in regards Claudius. Hamlet knows that if his uncle would kill a king to further his position, he would definitely kill a prince to keep the secrets of his foul deeds hidden. So Hamlet must do what he can to ensure that his uncle will never find out that he has any idea of the truth. Also, although Hamlet believes the words of the ghost to be true (he calls it prophecy), he must take the time to check the validity of them.
Therefore, in order to decipher the truthfulness of the ghosts words, and in order to allow himself to choose the perfect time to kill Claudius, Hamlet adopts an antic disposition (1. 5. 174) Starting at the end of Act 1 and lasting through Act 4, Hamlet adopts an antic disposition to persuade the entire court that he really is truly mad. While this madness reduces the seriousness of how the fellow characters take his actions and words, it also lets him roam the castle freely without any worry of people thinking he is up to some scheme. Furthermore, he can wage psychological warfare on many members of the court while he is in his feigned madness state. He is able to speak his true feelings to Gertrude in her room, which makes her second guess the morality of her new husband; he is able to cause Polonius to blame himself for being overly suspicious about Hamlet; he is able to cause frustration in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern by exposing their efforts to deceive him; and he is able to cause Claudius to lose his composure in front of the entire court.
Because of his madness, Hamlet is allowed to say and do what he wants in the castle, and no one can hold him responsible. Thus there is no possible way that Hamlet delayed, for his choice to become mad obviously furthered...
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Research essay sample on Hamlet A Man Of Delay Or Action
