Why does Hamlet delay in his
revenge?
Hamlet is a play about revenge. It is a tragedy and the play explores the flaws in Hamlet’s character that lead up to his death. Hamlet is set in the state of Denmark, Denmark is seen as a rotten state at the time, ‘Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.’ This makes the audience aware that evil and corruption rule in the state of Denmark and seeing as Hamlet is the hero of the play it is seen as his job to conquer this evil. Hamlet sees Denmark as a prison, ‘Denmark’s a prison.’ Hamlet says this because he feels that the state of Denmark is a restricting place that fails to provide the intellectual needs of Hamlet, he also says this because Denmark is full of criminals. The play explores the corruption within the society, which spreads and eventually destroys itself. Hamlet starts of the play as innocent and moral; however, with the corruption of the people around him later on in the play Hamlet also becomes dishonest.
Many people assume that the first line in Shakespeare’s plays sets the scene for the rest of the play. The opening line of Hamlet is ‘Who’s there?’ this tells the audience a lot about the play as it is a play about unanswered questions and people seeking these answers and there response. The first line also portrays the mistrust between the characters and within the state of Denmark. Act 1 really just sets the scene for the rest of the play. It sees the dramatic appearance of the ghost and it shows Hamlet confronting the ghost to discover whether his father was murdered or not, the entrance of the ghost emphasises the influence of evil in Hamlet’s life. When we first see Hamlet he is angered by the attitudes of his family, especially his mother who married very shortly after her husbands death, when Claudius calls to him he says aside, ‘A little more than kin, and less than kind’ this tells the audience that Hamlet is annoyed with his family and although they are related they are not alike. Hamlet’s relationship with women seems to deteriate throughout the play as he is irritated with his mother and his relationship with Ophelia comes to an end as well, ‘frailty, thy name is woman’ Hamlets sees women as a curse and that women are too weak, Hamlet has no trust left in women and this is also an example of how the world around Hamlet collapses. In Act 1, Hamlet confronts the ghost to hear why the ghost is there, ‘Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damned,’ Hamlet is unsure whether the ghost is an evil spirit or not and questions this throughout the play. The fact that he does question this could either be Hamlet creating an excuse to delay his revenge as he is a coward or it could show how Hamlet has become more self-dependant in a corrupt society and cannot trust anyone. Hamlet does tell us that he might not be the one, who has to set the problems of Denmark right, ‘The time is out of joint: O cursed sprite, that ever I was born to set it right.’ This is the closing line of Act 1 and to stress its importance it is in the form of a rhyming couplet. These lines sum up the first act and also most of the play, as it is Hamlet questioning and delaying his revenge. However, in the final scene of act 1, Hamlet says he is to, ‘sweep to my revenge’ but the play is based on Hamlet not sweeping to his revenge but delaying his revenge and his death being a consequence of this.
