Hamlet Fate Vs Free Will

Hamlet is another Shakespeare play that deals with the effects of fate and free will, but unlike Romeo and Juliet, too much faith in free will seals the hero's tragic end. In this play, the main character Hamlet often grapples with going down fate or free will's path. After initially agreeing to seek revenge on his father's killer, he exclaims “O cursed spite, that I ever I was born to set it right!” showing his immediate feelings towards his fate (Shakespeare 28). This line is the first time the audience sees Hamlet's resistance to his now predetermined fate which gives them context for his upcoming battles with his conscience. By agreeing to the task and then stalling on his task, and ultimately, his free will cements death of those around …show more content…
Hamlet questions what the best way to combat his situation is (choosing fate, fighting fate or committing suicide) which shows to the audience that he is not fully sold on the idea of avenging his father. Hamlet chooses to believe so heavily in changing his fate it ends up trapping him in a vicious cycle of bad choices. Hamlet's belief in free will ended up leading to his death and had he believed in fate as Romeo had in Romeo and Juliet, he would've committed the task without causing the deaths of the people that he loves. In both Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet, Shakespeare supports an idea that zealous acceptance of free will or fate will always end tragically. The when and how depends on when the person accepts as truth at the beginning of their story. Right before his death, Hamlet tells Horatio “we defy augury. There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ‘tis not to come; if it be not to come it will be now, yet it will come. The readiness is all. Since no man has aught of what he leaves what is't to leave betimes? Let be” meaning he will