To die, would be to abandon this garden suffocated by weeds. To take one’s life, is to alleviate turmoil from the heart. Although extremely tempting, Hamlet cannot, therefore will not commit suicide. For he believes God "had… fixed / his canon ‘gainst self-slaughter!" (line 131-132 p.166). With this in his mind he drags his burden deeper and deeper into a pit of agony. Inflicted upon him were the excruciatingly painful blows of his father’s death and the incestuous marriage of his mother and uncle. Hamlet held his father with high esteem calling him an excellent king and Hyperion. He resents his "more than kin, and less than kind" (line 65 p.165) stepfather, exclaiming, "So excellent a king, that was, to this! / Hyperion to a satyr" (line 139-140 p. 166). He not only shows resentment towards his uncle, Claudius, but is also beset with anguish over his mother’s hasty marriage, crying out, "She married O, most wicked speed, to post / with such dexterity to incestuous sheets! / It is not nor it cannot come to good: / But break, my heart" (line 166-169 p.167). Then, the spirit of King Hamlet visits Elsinor to reveal to his son, "the serpent that did sting thy father’s life now wears his crown." (lines 39-
. . .
He is so frustrated with himself he puts all his Christian and moral beliefs aside to avenge his father’s death and swears, "from this time forth, / My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!" (lines65-66 p. Hamlet’s delay in action were results of his Christian and moral beliefs and his need to avenge his father’s murder. In this soliloquy Hamlet shows a lack of self-motivation. After the play he searches for Claudius and finds him in "prayer" or what he thinks to be prayer. This causes a delay in that he must make a plan and carry out the plan in order to verify the ghost’s accusations of Claudius and his death. Hamlet meets with players and decides he will have them act out something like the murder of his father and observe his uncle’s reaction. He is overcome by so much turmoil that he doesn’t want to do anything, not even avenge his father’s murder but to just die and leave his problems behind. Hamlet must avenge his father’s unnatural and horrible death! He swears to revenge but delays his vengeance missing opportunities one right after the other. "
Hamlet now has tools for his revenge: a plan, but still contemplates suicide. He says, "The spirit that I have seen / may be the devil: and the devil hath power / to assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps / out of my weakness and my melancholy, / As he is very potent with such spirits, / abuses me to damn me" (line 632-637 p. This is Hamlet’s greatest inner conflict. This is evident in his third soliloquy, saying, "To be or not to be: that is the question:…to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or… by opposing end them: To die: to sleep:… by a sleep to say we end the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks…shuffled off this mortal coil.
Approximate Word count =
1140
Approximate Pages =
5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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