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7 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
“I do not know Why yet I live to say this thing’s to do”...

-Hamlet
Why does Hamlet delay? Hamlet himself is the first to raise the question and to be perplexed by it.
“I have cause, and will, and strength, and means/ To do’t”...

-Hamlet
It is possible to argue that Hamlet has no opportunity to effect revenge - the King is obviously well guarded ( how then can Laertes approach Claudius so easily with murderous intent?) but Hamlet himself says that he is able to fulfill his purpose. It is clear that Hamlet is not denied his revenge by mere practicalities; he has the opportunity, for example, to kill Claudius while he is at prayer, when he may ‘do it pat’.
“O cursed spite,/That ever I was born to set it right”...

-Hamlet
He is aware, however, that his task is an odious one. An awareness which serves to implant within him the seeds of future doubt, hence his procrastination.
"The spirit I have seen may be a Devil"...

-Hamlet
· Hamlet later begins to have doubts as to the true identity of the Ghost; feeling it may be an evil spirit whose aim is to destroy him (Bring in R.C and Protestant beliefs here). This doubt is the reason behind his plan to use the play to determine Claudius’ guilt - "The play’s the thing
Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King"...
"Now might I do it pat, now a is a-praying. And now I’ll do’t"...

Hamlet
Having established the King’s guilt, Hamlet has the chance to kill him at prayer, and is arguably going to, but he does not avail himself of this opportunity as Claudius would not suffer sufficiently, his soul having been cleansed while praying - "this same villain send to heaven"
‘That has no relish of salvation in’t.’

-Hamlet
Would rather dispatch Claudius while he is committing an act of treachery.
‘ O what a rogue and peasant slave am I . . .’


‘ How all occasions do inform against me ..’

-Hamlet
Condemns himself for inaction.