Indecision, Hesitation and Delay in Shakespeares Hamlet Essay

The Indecisiveness and Hesitation of Hamlet In the Shakespearean dramatic event Hamlet considerable literary critical comment swirls about the char spieler of the heros unbelief or indecision in the petition scene. Is it weakness? Is it representative of a mental condition? Are on that point separate incidences of hesitation? Let us explore the subject in this essay and interpret the key scene in light of other scenes, with input from literary critics. David Bevington, in the Introduction to Twentieth Century Interpretations of Hamlet, eliminates somewhat possible reasons for Hamlets hesitation in killing Claudius during the supplication scene Several limits can be placed upon the search for an explanation of Hamlets apparent hesitation to avenge. He is not deceitful under ordinary circumstances. Elizabethan theories of melancholy did not suppose the martyr to be made necessarily inactive. Hamlet has a deserved personality in Denmark for manliness and princely demea nor. He keeps up his fencing put on and will win at the odds against Laertes. He threatens with death those who would defy him from speaking with the ghost even his friend Horatio and stabs the concealed Polonius unflinchingly. On the sea voyage to England he boards a pirate ship single-handed in the grapple, after having arranged without remorse for the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. In light of these deeds, Hamlets self-accusations are signs of burning impatience in one who would surely act if he could. (5-6) Harry Levin comments on Hamlets uncharacteristic hesitation in dispatching the king, in the worldwide Introduction to The Riverside Shakespeare Comparably, Hamlet has been interpreted to task or, perhaps more often, se... ...ilm, Television and Audio Performance. Rutherford, NJ Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. P., 1988. Levin, Harry. General Introduction. The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston Houghton Mifflin Co., 1974. Nevo, Ruth. Acts III an d IV Problems of Text and Staging. Modern hypercritical Interpretations Hamlet. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. Rpt. from Tragic Form in Shakespeare. N.p. Princeton University Press, 1972. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. mom Institute of Technology. 1995. http//www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html West, Rebecca. A Court and World Infected by the Disease of Corruption. Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from The Court and the Castle. New Haven, CT Yale University Press, 1957.