one man of action
             Hamlet is anything but indecisive, he is just contemplative. He loves to think. He needs to think in order to justify his actions, and this intellectual capacity is the major difference between Claudius and himself. Hamlet is extremely aware of the relation between action and reaction and realises that he has to proceed very carefully.
             In the play, Claudius is the paragon of decisiveness, of action. He takes the first action, the action that sets the machine in motion - the poisoning of Hamlet's father. He also instigates the final action, the poisoning of the blades and the cup, an action that will backfire and cause his own death. In the play, there seems to be a constant shift of action, where only one party can act at any time. These two parties are of course Hamlet and Claudius.
             When Claudius has taken the action that secures him the throne, he allows Hamlet to become the man of action. But Hamlet procrastinates. The only action Hamlet takes is staging the play, which seems more to serve the purpose to establish that Claudius is indeed guilty of his father's murder. He does this for himself and for Horatio,
             Then he proceeds to kill the eavesdropping Polonius. Although it is not made clear in the play that Hamlet knows who the eavesdropper is, I cannot shake off the feeling that Hamlet knows immediately that it has to be Polonius. Claudius would never stoop to eavesdropping, and he has pawns to do this dirty work for him. Polonius' unique skills make him the perfect spy.
             Hamlet is given an opportunity to revenge 'this foul and most unnatural murder' when he sees Claudius praying. Hamlet, being a Christian prince, cannot bring himself to kill Claudius while he is praying, as this would secure his place in heaven. Hamlet wants to make sure Claudius will suffer in the afterlife. Hamlet leaves just before Claudius gets up, declaring he cannot pray;
             'My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
             Words without ...