The Elizabethan play of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is one of William Shakespeare's most popular works.

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What is the Reason for Hamlet’s Procrastination?

        The Elizabethan play of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is one of William Shakespeare's most popular works. In it we see Hamlet, the young heir to the Danish throne struggle with his conscious over the recent death of his father and the events following. He is devastated and also enraged at the promptness of his mothers re-marriage to the new King Claudius, his uncle. When the truth of the situation is revealed Hamlet is livid with his ‘incestuous’ mother and ‘villain’ of an uncle and vows to take his revenge. However he is not swift in taking his retribution on his uncle, but instead hesitates and re-evaluates the situation many times. Doubts are seen to creep into his head. He begins not only to doubt the validity of the ghost’s revelations, but also has qualms about his own ability and aptitude to carry out his task.

        There are many reasons that contribute to Hamlet’s procrastination of this significant task. One of the largest issues we see is the concept of humanity. The prince is obviously a man of great integrity and a great scholar who is being asked to perform a task that goes against his moral grain. Hamlet is seen to doubt his own ability to complete this task in the end of Act One Scene Five,

        “O cursed spite,

That I was ever born to set it right.”

Here Hamlet appears to realise that he may not be able to complete this task set before him, he is a student not a killer. Perhaps the clearest of all examples of this is Hamlets soliloquy in Act Three as he debates what is better, life or death? Moreover, will we actually be better off in Heaven. He shows us his aptness as a thinker and philosophiser.  He believes that he is not suited to this task.  On numerous occasions, the prince tries to make sense of his moral dilemma through personal meditations, which Shakespeare presents as soliloquies. In Act Two, Scene Two Hamlet reveals more of his inner character to us through his second soliloquy,

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“A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,

Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause..”

Here Hamlet curses himself for taking the course of words not action. He curses his lack of fiery spirit, unmoved by his cause, when compared to the actor who could raise his anger and flood his body with emotion over a fictional situation,

“..in a dream of passion,

Could force his soul to his own conceit,..”

The realisation of his lack of action spurs Hamlet into the mood once again, this may be as a result of his feeling of guilt over his earlier lack of passion of ...

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