Hamlet Essay

Submitted By nikohadz
Words: 494
Pages: 2

Inaction causes conflict
William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, explores many salient thematic issues. Hamlet is a “hero of unparalleled hesitation” (Barrault, 1976). By studying Shakespeare’s Hamlet, a modern audience understands the importance of taking action in life as opposed to being mired in sterile existential pondering. I will show that there are consequences for not taking action and that they are apparent within this play.
There are many instances in Hamlet where a characters choice of inaction is unbeneficial. The one issue I will be focusing, on is how characters make excuses to prolong there inaction which leads to the final climax. One example of this, is the inaction of Prince Hamlet to avenge his father by killing King Claudius, he is making excuses to himself throughout the book in order to postpone the deed that he is destined to do. “When he is fit and seasoned for his passage? No! Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent:” (III,iii,89-91) This quote is Hamlet telling himself he must wait for Claudius to be sinning in order to kill him. This inaction causes him to wait longer to have other conflicts arise, such as the end of act 3. Polonius is behind the curtain spying on the Queen and Hamlet, leading Hamlet to believe its Claudius he attacks and kills. If it wasn’t for Hamlets inaction earlier in the scene, then he would have known that it was Claudius without taking the risk he did. This later causes the conflict with Laertes.
A significant example of inaction, is Claudius getting others to kill Hamlet, such as when he tells Laertes to avenge his father (Polonius) . He is always waiting for others to do his dirty work for him and in the end this is one of the major factors to the mass murder scene at the end of the play because if Claudius would have followed the saying, if you