Hamlet 's indecision and continuous delay of Claudius 's murder until the end is explained through several concepts of psychology, delving into his innermost thoughts which act as the driving forces behind his behavior, actions, and attitude towards other characters.
From a psychological perspective, Hamlet’s lack of action towards his intended goal is not surprising, especially from a person who shows many symptoms of major depressive disorder including inactivity, thoughts of suicide, frequent or recurrent thoughts of death, agitation, anxiety, and hopelessness. Despite being dead set on getting revenge for his father after he met 'his ghost ' in act 1 scene 4, Hamlet soon began contemplating suicide in his ‘to be or not to be’ soliloquy …show more content…
Because of his inability at the moment and for most of the play to attack his intended target Claudius, he unfortunately displaces some of his anger onto his mother, an easier and more convenient target. Hamlet undoubtedly resents his mother for her actions, but at the same time he also blames her poor decisions on her for being a woman, for being frail/susceptible to ‘seduction’ (a term that the ghost also uses). Hamlet is baffled and furious at her decisions, regardless he still loves and cares about her because they’re mother and son. Although Hamlet expresses his desire to go back to school in act 1, he agrees to stay for Gertrude’s sake after she tells him to stay with her because he knows how attached his mother is to him. At the end of the play, when his mother dies, he stabs Claudius in rage and forces the rest of the drink down his throat. Hamlet 's anger with his mother can also indicate how easily it seems his mother has 'moved on ' from his father. To Hamlet, this implies that if it 's easy to move past a loved one 's death, he is equally prone to being easily forgotten after his death, which is stored in his unconscious mind and brought up again at the end when he tells Horatio to tell his …show more content…
In hindsight, getting revenge for his father’s death seemed imminent, justifiable, and achievable to Hamlet, but he never considered the interference of internal and external forces at play. He attempts to rationalize this cognitive dissonance (a state in which a person’s beliefs/values and actions contradict each other) as a way to relieve this internal conflict, wanting to kill Claudius but not actually going through with it when he’s given a perfect opportunity, by saying that he’ll wait until he’s in a more compromising and particularly sinful situation to kill him, which is preposterous in and of itself. Deep down, he knows this isn’t plausible, but regardless it works as a quick temporary solution for the problem and at that moment, it takes precedence over rationality. And once a person procrastinates, it becomes exponentially easier and seemingly convenient to fall into this cycle until eventually you’re forced to deal with the unavoidable repercussions at the end, for instance when Hamlet kills Claudius after Gertrude and Laertes die at the end of the
From a psychological perspective, Hamlet’s lack of action towards his intended goal is not surprising, especially from a person who shows many symptoms of major depressive disorder including inactivity, thoughts of suicide, frequent or recurrent thoughts of death, agitation, anxiety, and hopelessness. Despite being dead set on getting revenge for his father after he met 'his ghost ' in act 1 scene 4, Hamlet soon began contemplating suicide in his ‘to be or not to be’ soliloquy …show more content…
Because of his inability at the moment and for most of the play to attack his intended target Claudius, he unfortunately displaces some of his anger onto his mother, an easier and more convenient target. Hamlet undoubtedly resents his mother for her actions, but at the same time he also blames her poor decisions on her for being a woman, for being frail/susceptible to ‘seduction’ (a term that the ghost also uses). Hamlet is baffled and furious at her decisions, regardless he still loves and cares about her because they’re mother and son. Although Hamlet expresses his desire to go back to school in act 1, he agrees to stay for Gertrude’s sake after she tells him to stay with her because he knows how attached his mother is to him. At the end of the play, when his mother dies, he stabs Claudius in rage and forces the rest of the drink down his throat. Hamlet 's anger with his mother can also indicate how easily it seems his mother has 'moved on ' from his father. To Hamlet, this implies that if it 's easy to move past a loved one 's death, he is equally prone to being easily forgotten after his death, which is stored in his unconscious mind and brought up again at the end when he tells Horatio to tell his …show more content…
In hindsight, getting revenge for his father’s death seemed imminent, justifiable, and achievable to Hamlet, but he never considered the interference of internal and external forces at play. He attempts to rationalize this cognitive dissonance (a state in which a person’s beliefs/values and actions contradict each other) as a way to relieve this internal conflict, wanting to kill Claudius but not actually going through with it when he’s given a perfect opportunity, by saying that he’ll wait until he’s in a more compromising and particularly sinful situation to kill him, which is preposterous in and of itself. Deep down, he knows this isn’t plausible, but regardless it works as a quick temporary solution for the problem and at that moment, it takes precedence over rationality. And once a person procrastinates, it becomes exponentially easier and seemingly convenient to fall into this cycle until eventually you’re forced to deal with the unavoidable repercussions at the end, for instance when Hamlet kills Claudius after Gertrude and Laertes die at the end of the