Mousetrap In Hamlet

Superior Essays
During Elizabethan times in British literature, plays with a constant theme of revenge with a typical tragedy were well acclaimed. To seek revenge refers to a human?s natural instinct to get back at others who have done wrong to them. In Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the play dramatizes the revenge Hamlet takes on his uncle which leads to his own tragic flaw of procrastination.
From the beginning of the play, Hamlet has a dark, gloomy, melancholy attitude. Gertrude began worrying about Hamlet because she was unsure what has happened. Hamlet is both grieving the death of his father and the marriage of his mother to his uncle, Claudius. When the ghost appears to Hamlet and speaks the truth of the death of his father, it augments his somber,
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To prove Claudius?s guilt, Hamlet devised a whole play named The Murder of Gonzago, in which the death of Hamlet?s father was reenacted. However, Hamlet calls this play ?The Mousetrap? because it proved Claudius?s real guiltiness. During the play, Claudius recognized what this truly was portraying and he got up and ran outside. Therefore, it caught the conscience of the king for his awful act of murder of Hamlet?s father. Hamlet follows him outside, which provides Hamlet with both his first opportunity to kill Claudius and his start of procrastination. Hamlet?s tragic flaw of procrastination has truly affected him and is leading to his downfall. He has reached the point of considering killing himself. ? To be, or not to be: that is the …show more content…
The first opportunity for Hamlet to kill Claudius was right after Claudius ran out the play. Hamlet had a chance to kill him right there, but his own personal tragic flaw has stopped him from completing his responsibility. Hamlet admits to being a coward in the play. This portrays a theory for Hamlet?s procrastination. He says ?And yet, conscience doth make cowards of us all? (III, i, 83). Hamlet states that his guilty conscience is giving him trouble about killing Claudius. He does not know what to do. Whether he should avenge his father?s murder, which he needs to do according to the ghost, or he should keep his reputation and just continue to mourn over his father and let Claudius live. As the play progresses and Hamlet continues to think about what to do, Hamlet?s faced with his second chance at killing Claudius, but yet again, procrastination stops him. Claudius is praying in the chapel. Hamlet could have easily ended his task right there and stab Claudius in the back. Hamlet decides not to kill him because Claudius was repenting his sins through prayer. Killing Claudius during prayer would have sent him right to Heaven. Hamlet obviously does not want the culprit of his father?s death to live a nice life in Heaven, and therefore Claudius? life was

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