Hamlet's Dilemma
At the end of Act 3, scene 3, Hamlet has the chance to kill his uncle Claudius. To finally at last, avenge his father's brutal murder attempted by his own kin. But he does not take the step to get rid of Claudius, because of his thinks that killing him while he is " repenting " would not be the right form of payback. Hamlet fears that killing his uncle while he is praying and asking for forgiveness will send him to heaven, which was not exactly what his uncle decided to do with Hamlet's father. King Hamlet died without the chance to regret and repent for his sins and Hamlet wants to kill Claudius as Claudius had killed his father. Hamlet's goes further to plan to kill Claudius when he is involved in indecent activities as mentioned in act 3, scene 3," When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, or in th'incestuous pleasure of his bed...And that his soul may be as damned and black." { Lines 89-94 }.
Hamlet's personality, in my opinion, is very indecisive. He thinks too much into things and when he does act, most of the time it is always on impulse. For example, Hamlet stabs Polonius and kills him. This act was rash and impulsive and it occurred completely based on Hamlet's thoughts that it was Claudius behind the curtains. When he does find out that it was Polonius that he killed, I don't think he really regrets his actions which makes me question his sanity. So I do not think he should make another rash decision by killing Claudius while playing the role of a madman.
The new King of Denmark, Claudius is not guilty for the murder he committed. Though he probably looked like he was praying and repenting for his sins, Claudius was not really asking for forgiveness in prayer. " That cannot be, since I am still possessed.../My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen. May one be pardoned and retain th'offence?..." {Act3,scene 3;Lines 53-56} He states that he knows that he cannot be forgiven while still having the crown and the queen in his possession. But he does not take any action to really earn forgiveness , therefore I do not think he repents for his sins.
Its true that Hamlet thinks too much and when he acts it's usually on impulse, but I think that he chooses to over think decisions because he doesn't want to take action. Later on when he did take action, I think that was driven by obsession. His obsession for revenge is making him crazy. I think that if it weren't for his obsession making him crazy he wouldn't think of killing. Before he was procrastinating it, maybe its not in his character, but his mind drove him to impulsively kill Polonius. As time goes on he's just going to seem less and less sane because of this obsession.
ReplyDeleteAt this point in the play, we all know that Hamlet is indeed insane. I agree that Hamlet overthinks things all the time and most of his actions are purely by impulse, but I feel that, in some way, Hamlet believes that everything he's doing is completely rational and appropriate, which is very incorrect in the readers eyes. It's interesting that Hamlet is hesitating so much to kill Claudius because most of this time Hamlet just acts on his impulses, so why would he be taking so muc time pondering the thought of killing his uncle?
ReplyDeleteGreat use of evidence and line references!
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