The Real Cause Of Tragedy In William Shakespeare's Hamlet

Superior Essays
Hamlet
Carnegie, Dale. "Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” In William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet; evidence suggests that Hamlet would have made a bad king due to his inability to quickly execute his goals with deliberate purposeful action as a result of constant over articulation. After returning to Denmark from the University of Wittenberg, Prince Hamlet encounters the Ghost of his late father, King Hamlet. The Ghost reveals the evil nature of Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius, who was recently crowned the new King of Denmark. The Ghost tells Hamlet the real cause of his death in which the Ghost states: Now, Hamlet, hear.
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But know thou noble youth,
The serpent that did sting thy father’s life
Now wears his crown.
(I.v.34-39)
The Ghost directs Hamlet to take revenge against King Claudius, “If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not. Let not the royal bed of Denmark be A couch for luxury and Damned incest” (I.v.86-88). Hamlet swears to avenge his father’s murder, however, Hamlet lacks the ability to act quickly on his intentions with deliberate purposeful action due to his constant over articulation.
Hamlet is introduced as a witty intellectual who is often playing on words. However, it is Hamlet’s intellectual aspect that ultimately prohibits his ability to execute a plan of revenge against his uncle. Hamlet is a thorough and thoughtful young man. In 1.5, Hamlet swears to the Ghost that he will take action against King Claudius. However, in 2.2, Hamlet questions the authenticity of the Ghost and creates an elaborate plan, which involves a play reenacting the murder of King Hamlet to confirm what Hamlet had been told by the Ghost:
May be the devil, and the devil hath power
T ' 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. I’ll have
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And how his audit stands who knows save heaven?
But in our circumstance and course of thought 'Tis heavy with him. And am I then revenged
To take him in the purging of his soul
When he is fit and seasoned for his passage?
No.
(III.iii.74-88) Hamlet’s thorough and articulate nature is also illustrated through his personal conflict between life and death: “To be or not to be? – That is the question” (III.i.57). In 3.1, Hamlet expresses his thoughts on existence and non-existence and debates between accepting the trouble that life presents or simply ending all those troubles by ending ones life. Hamlet considers death and comes to the theoretical conclusion that one would bear the sufferings of life if death were worse. As a result, Hamlet cannot bring himself to take his own life because he is worried about the afterlife stating: For who would bear the whips and scorns of time…
To grunt and sweat under a weary life
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us

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