Indecisiveness In Hamlet Analysis

In William Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet, Shakespeare depicts the indecisive and seemingly suicidal character of Hamlet who has chosen to act insane. Hamlet has previously been told that his uncle Claudius was the one who killed his father and is urged by his father’s ghost to seek revenge. Hamlet, however, is not completely convinced and plans to act mad to lower suspicion of himself, so he can investigate the truth of the matter. Shakespeare uses literary devices such as imagery, word choice, metaphors, and parallel structure to depict Hamlet as a depressed and worrying figure. Hamlet though, is only putting on the appearance of madness and suicide to fool the eavesdroppers Claudius and Polonius. With a contrast between the truth and lies shared by Hamlet, this passage is one of the most influential demonstrations of Hamlet’s cunning ‘madness’, as well as an honest display of his fear of life after death and fatal flaw of indecisiveness. The prior passage sets the context of Hamlet’s soliloquy, where Claudius and Polonius conspire to hide and eavesdrop on Hamlet, to find the root of his madness. Hamlet knows he is being watched and acts accordingly to fool the listeners into lowering their guard concerning him. Hamlet begins his famous speech by questioning whether life or death is better, …show more content…
“To sleep, perchance to Dream; aye, there's the rub, for in that sleep of death, what dreams may come, when we have shuffled off this mortal coil” (64-66). Here Hamlet explains the catch with dying, in that nobody is sure what comes after we have died. He then explains how we live so long because of the fear of what is after death, how “there’s the respect that makes calamity of life so long” (67-68). Shakespeare, through Hamlet, raises a question everybody worries and wonders about, but does not speak