Does The Fact That Hamlet Does Not Carry Out His One Task Admire Him Less

The task that Hamlet is trying to do is to get revenge for the death of his Father, the old king over the new king, Claudius. If Hamlet did carry out his task at the start of the play it would be a very boring.

While he is trying, he asks some very interesting questions and shows a great mind, which makes it very hard not to admire him. In Hamlets most famous soliloque he asks

To be, or not to be, that is the question:

(II i 56)

Another task (which he manages to do) is the battle to keep himself from committing suicide. Here he asks the big question of 'Would it matter if I was alive or dead?'. Anybody who has walked this earth must have had to ask the very same question at some point and to a certain degree of seriousness. Hamlet seems to always be on the edge of suicide throughout the whole play, but never falls. Not many people could go through what he has been through and not fallen. One of the numerous occasions is after the wedding between the new King and Queen (Hamlets mother) (I ii 129-158). Another is before the play and after the Players arrive (II ii 543- 601).

Hamlet never answers any of his questions which gives the audience something to think about or maybe might help them to find their own answers.

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscovere'd county, from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will,

(III i 78-80)

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Hamlet never answers any of his questions which gives the audience something to think about or maybe might help them to find their own answers.

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscovere'd county, from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will,

(III i 78-80)

This asks the question of whether there is life after death and if so, what is it like? What Hamlet in particular was asking if maybe it is better than the earth as he knows it. Many people can relate to this question because they have thought the same thing. By seeing the rest of the play they might be able to form their own theories. Hamlet does not answer the issues directly but Hamlet might be able to clear the pathways so at least a start can be made. He does this in most of his soliloquies, for example (III i 56-89, IV iv 31-66).

Hamlet has the chance to kill Claudius after the play, when he is praying for forgiveness in the chapel. Hamlet has the weapon, motive, urge and the timing but he still does not carry it out.

I, his sole son, do this same villain send

To heaven.

Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge,

(III iii 77-80)

Hamlet is just about to do his duty to his father when he stops to think. He realises that if he were to kill Claudius while he was being redeemed he would be sent straight to heaven. Which would be revenge and his farther would still be trapped in purgatory. Most people would have killed the Claudius straight away and not have become aware of what they have done until afterwards, when it was too late. This reveals that he has a mind that is open to the little things around him that would stop things going to his or anybody else’s plan. He demonstrates this at the dual between him and Laertes, when he does not drink from the cup of ‘wine’ (poison) offered to him by his mother (v ii 295-297. Also he noticed when his school friends were deceiving him (II ii 280-292).

Hamlet is a the character with a very close relation to the everyday human being. His personality changes frequently throughout play which is what typical person does. Characters from soaps seem to have one mood the whole time, but conventional people’s moods can swing many times in a day. Hamlet’s moods do this aswell. He transforms from being extremely angry with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to being ecstatically happy to see the Players. This constant changing is very exciting because you never know what he might be like next.

Hamlet thinks up some very odd ideas. He suddenly decides (as a first thought) that he should act mad to try to hide the fact that he was planning to murder Claudius. Though it is a very amusing idea which fills up the time exceedingly well. He also without much thought he made up his mind to re-enact his fathers death to see what Claudius’ reaction was to establish if he was guilty. These are pretty radical things to plunge straight into, but Hamlet manages to somehow pull them both off almost perfectly.

What I did not admire was that Hamlet might have done the task when he found out Claudius was the killer of his father. Also that he managed to not get killed by Claudius, when it could have been done at any particular point in the play. You cannot get much worse than murdering your own bother, stealing the throne and marrying the old queen/sister-in-law.