Hamlet is an intellectual character who reflects and contemplates any important decisions in great depth before taking them. Every aspect and every eventuality is covered and this produces a delay in any actions.
In his ‘To be or not to be’ soliloquy Hamlet is greatly disturbed by the promise he has made to the ghost and the enormity of the consequences. He questions himself and whether it is better to endure the mental pain and let ‘the mind suffer’, ‘Or to take arms against a sea of troubles’ and so revenge his fathers death. The fear of what awaits him in the afterlife, ’the dread of something after death’, stops him from taking action confirming that the ‘conscience does make cowards of us all’. Hamlet realises that the unknown consequences to his soul, ‘The undiscovered country from whose bourn No traveller returns’, is a significant reason for his delay. Killing another human is easy in comparison to contemplating the after effects, but has Hamlet already sold his soul to the devil by promising to avenge his fathers death and going against Gods’ commandments and his own ideals and principles. Therefore Hamlet is not being true to himself.
Hamlets’ idealistic views and opinions are more important that life itself. He condones disloyalty, corruption, dishonesty and lying and tries disparately hard to be a true and honest person. He continually reputes the behaviour of the court who are
Hamlet procrastinates great moral integrity deep principles disenchanted with life does not have the desire to exact revenge greatly affected by his ever changing state of mind’thinking too precisely on th’ event’ iv iv 41 THIS THING’S TO DO; SITH I HAVE CAUSE AND WILL AND STRENGTH AND MEANS TO DO ‘T’ IV IV 43-46
The opportunity for Hamlet to kill Claudius without raising suspicion or alarm only presents itself once during the entire play. On this occasion Hamlet finds the king kneeling and praying for forgiveness for his sins. If Hamlet kills Claudius at that moment the king will to go ‘To heaven’ even though he is a ‘villain’ and when Hamlet realises this he decides that this is ‘not revenge’. When Claudius murdered king Hamlet it was very cleverly masterminded and did not allow him time to confess his sins, he was ‘grossly, full of bread, With all his crimes broad blown’ and was therefore forced to suffer after death. Hamlet delays the murder because he wants Claudius to suffer so that ‘his soul may be as dammed and black’ as his fathers.
The reliability of the ghosts’ story plagues Hamlets’ conscience and his need for further proof of its authenticity becomes an important aspect of the play. When Horatio told Hamlet about the ghost, but before his meeting with it, he was concerned about its meaning ‘All is not well. I doubt some foul play.’ and when the ghost does appear before him in the shape of his father he questions its true purpose ‘Be thy intents wicked or charitable, Thou com’st in such a questionable shape’. The ghost describes his suffering in purgatory because of his ‘foul crimes done’ and yet asks his son to commit a similar crime that would condemn him to the same. He tells Hamlet not to think badly of his mother and let God judge her crimes, to ‘leave her to heaven’ but asks Hamlet to judge Claudius’ crimes on earth and revenge his killing by murdering him. Although Hamlet agrees to ‘sweep’ to his ‘revenge’ by the end of the act he is already sceptical and announces that ‘The time is out of joint: O cursed spite, That ever I was born to set it right. -…’ and by the time we reach his second soliloquy Hamlets’ doubts emerge even stronger ‘The spirit that I have seen May be a devil – and the devil hath power T’assume a pleasing shape….I’ll have grounds More relative than this.’ Hamlets’ reservations are justifiable because although others had seen the ghost Hamlet was the only person he had spoken to. The messages he gave Hamlet were confusing and contradictory, he describes murder as ‘most foul’ and yet asks his son to perform the same act and he condones the queens’ behaviour and yet tells Hamlet not to think ill of her. This moral dilemma plagues Hamlets’ thinking so he decides to use the play to ‘catch the conscience of the king’ and help him gain the proof that he feels is necessary before revenging his fathers’ death.