Hamlet's Delay
Hamlet's delay was not caused by inner torment, overanalyses, or even the fact that Hamlet may not have been able to kill a person; rather, the delay was caused by external factors. Hamlet was a man of action, and his delay was not a matter of being unable to act, but a matter of using his intelligence to know that, to kill Claudius, timing is everything: "The time is out of joint. O cursed spite, That ever I was born to set it right!"(Hamlet 36). That is, Hamlet believes that Claudius' murder could only be justified, in his own eyes as well as in the eyes of the people of Denmark, if the timing is right. Therefore, Hamlet set out on a mission for the truth, in order to prove Claudius' guilt for two reasons. The first being that Hamlet could only kill Claudius if he absolutely believed in his guilt, and thus his conscience would allow him to freely carry out his revenge. The second being that Claudius' sins needed to be exposed to Denmark so his murder by Hamlet's hands would be seen as justice, not a crime. Killing a person who claimed divine right, to be God's chosen one to rule over the people, would have its dangers, especially if Hamlet had no evidence to support his claim that the king of this divine rank is much lower than
Rest assured, at least one intelligent individual would have understood the message to a certain extent, and the rumour that there was something fishy about the king's ascent to the throne would have spread like wildfire across Denmark. Moreover, Hamlet acts immediately to kill Claudius in the last act since Laertes exposed his treachery towards Hamlet to the people. However, his tendency to 'overanalyse' a situation was not the reason behind Hamlet's delay. In the end Hamlet could act without marring his own name only because Claudius' sins had been exposed to the world. Throughout the play the audience is never given an indication of whether Gerturde had been involved in her husband's murder or not. In conclusion, Hamlet's delay was caused by his need to prove Claudius' guilt to both himself and to the people of Denmark, so the time could be right for the justice he wanted. Even as Laertes shouted that the king had planned the murder of Hamlet, the court cried out "Treason!"(Hamlet 137), since it was so hard to accept that a person of such divine rank could have done something so evil. Hamlet was too much a man of action, striving to filter through the lies of the court to find the truth and PLAN revenge-so that he may survive the people of Denmark after the fact. On the other hand, others argue that if Hamlet was motivated by the need for exposure, why was he so willing to kill Polonius, whom he thought was the king, a few moments afterward the latter delay. In fact, that would explain why the people were so eager to rise up against Claudius and put Laertes on the throne. As a result, during his confrontation with his mother, Hamlet reveals to her the idea that Claudius had killed his father. Nevertheless, after the play Hamlet still has not enough proof if he would declare that his killing Claudius was an act of justice, even though he himself heard Claudius' confession. Although his conscious is able to freely allow Hamlet to kill Claudius since his guilt was known, factors such as the need to expose Claudius for the fraud he is and the absence of justice at the moment, causes Hamlet to delay again.
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