struggle in life to become virtuous, “ There’s the respect that makes calamity of so long life”.
Here his thoughts seem to give him a more positive and impulsive drive to do his duty of
murdering Claudius.
Hamlet embraces a less confrontational approach in this scene, where he candidly insults
and mocks Claudius as a ‘satyr’. Claudius is likened to a grotesque creature part human, part
goat and symbolised as having a sexually promiscuous nature which conveys Hamlet’s hatred
towards him. While he denotes his father ‘Hyperion’, the titan god of light which represents
honour and virtue. This indicates that Hamlet has great adoration for his father, and that
revenge will ensue.
In this scene Hamlet also avoids using "I" or "me", which implies that he wants to escape
from all that is happening. He longs to break away from having to deal with the possibility
that his uncle may have killed his father. The delay may also be due to the fact that he wants
to steer clear from having to avenge his father because he is not entirely sure of who to blame.
Hamlet has earlier revealed that he doubts the authenticity of the ghost and, therefore, he does
not surely believe his father has truly returned, "And shall I couple hell?".
Hamlets second soliloquy leads us to believe that revenge will indeed follow in the
successive act. Although Hamlet’s motivation and determination begins to degenerate as the
play progresses, which indicates Hamlet’s ambivalence about avenging his fathers death,
displayed in remarks such as, “The time is out of joint…o cursed spite that I was born to set
things right”. Here he has made a pact with himself to do the deed and accomplish justice for
his father.
Until the closing moments of the play, Hamlet fails to carry out the revenger role, which will
of defied the Elizabethan audiences expectations, and most importantly tradition. Traditional
Elizabethan conventions may have been intentionally out grown or defied by Shakespeare
until the closing scene because he may have wanted to exemplify that Hamlet is diverse,
“What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and
moving how express And admirable in action…”. Earlier in the play Hamlet questions
Fortinbras and his genuine motives for declaring to go to war. Hamlet is confidant that his
efforts of fighting are solely associated with defending his honour. The dominant logical
nature of Hamlet which is induced throughout most of the play questions “honour” in revenge
and murder. Hamlet vanquishes his obligation to endorse revenge, due to profound
rationalization, which further delays revenge. Shakespeare here exhibits the fat that Hamlet is
atypical. His objective was to have flawed characters. However the play Hamlet does follow
the conventional revenge tragedy prototype quite faithfully, except of course that the hero
appears to delay because of his state of mind, unlike Hieronymo in Thomas Kyd’s play who
acted on murder immediately.
Hamlet’s self-reproach is essentially a standard response to a series of events that he must
revenge at his father’s grave command. Hamlet gains compassion and sympathy from a
modern audience rather than incomprehension because a modern audience perhaps may be
more engrossed in considering the many uncertainties that our lives are built upon and
Hamlet’s cerebral motivation. He might have lost a lot of our sympathy and respect if he had
just killed Claudius at once.
Hamlets internalisations evolve because he identifies his ego with his fathers, and
consequently suffers from a demise of ego. His interior misery is further accumulated by his
conflicts with Gertrude and Ophelia leading him to corrupt suicidal thoughts, which result in a
build up of bewilderment. He is cut off from the women in his life. It is for this reason that
Shakespeare’s Hamlet delays revenge as part of his character. It is a central opportunity to
explore Hamlet’s mental agony.
The title ‘Weak Revenger’ may have been utilised to divert attention from the actual
revenge, and to focus on Hamlet as an alternative. The delay of his revenge allows the reader
to direct their attention to Hamlet’s actions and state of mind rather than the revenge itself.
Therefore we should pose the question of whether ‘Revenge’ is the main theme.
A more premeditated side of Hamlet is exposed when he kills Polonius “How now! A rat?
Dead for a ducat dead”. Here is has committed a crime, acting against his principles as a
Christian, although he doesn’t actually say that murder is wrong. Hamlet being Christian
should signify that he is forgiving and not vengeful towards Claudius. This is a major
dilemma of an avenger in a predominantly Christian era. The Renaissance saw classical and
Greek ideas and attitudes of literature as a clash with Christianity.
Hamlet walks in on Claudius during prayer, where he has a prime opportunity to fulfil his
duty, but he cannot bring himself to commit the murder, his religious beliefs still
overpowering the promise he made to his father’s spirit. When Hamlet returns from England
he argues that his reasons for revenge are rational. Hamlet quotes, “That to Laertes I forgot
myself, For, by the image of my cause, I see The portraiture of his…”. Here Hamlet
acknowledges that Laertes is also seeking revenge and that he understands the complexity of
a fellow avenger.
Hamlet within the play does encompass fatal flaws. I believe that this flaw is Hamlet's
idealism. Idealism is a good trait, but not in this case as Hamlet's environment
and the circumstances which transpire, his temperament causes great conflicts within. Hamlet
is highly intelligent and indulges in deep thought. He believes that things should be
essentially good, and that people's motives should be fair. Consequently, he finds it hard to
understand all of the evil that is around him in a corrupt world, "'Tis
an unweeded garden that grows to seed; Things rank and gross in nature possess it merely".
Hamlet is deprived of support, as he is very isolated. He confides in Horatio in an attempt to
gain some encouragement, but although Horatio is concerned for Hamlet, he still is unable to
provide real advise and guidance on whether Hamlet should seek revenge. This flaw
moreover proves to be his most fatal one, but not only for himself but for his mother and
Laertes who both fell a victim to Claudius’s deceit. Horatio however is greatly supportive in
watching Claudius during the play to detect signs of guilt.
Wilson Knight believed that Shakespeare’s Hamlet was an ‘Ambassador of death’, the ghost
being the one to admonish as it corrupted Hamlet with his 'thirst for vengeance' and his
instruction to kill.
Subsequent to my reading of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, I ponder on the fact that he is decisively
influenced by his religious beliefs and obligation to God which his revenge actions
throughout the play i.e. Hamlet expresses the desire to kill himself yet holds respect for the
ideals of the church. He also articulates that God has made a law against suicide, “That the
everlasting had fix’d his canon gainst self slaughter”.
