In I iv Hamlet hears about the sightings of his father’s Ghost and meets his spirit for the first time. Here he learns that it was Claudius who had indeed slain his father. Hamlet reacts to this in anguish and swears to avenge his father however Hamlet is notorious for making promises and not actually acting on his words. “Haste me to know’t, that I with wings as swift/ As meditation or the thoughts of love/ May sweep to my revenge.”(Iv 29) This is a pivotal point in the play due to the fact that Hamlet has effectively damned himself by not choosing the Christian way of revenge where justice should be left to God alone. He instead chooses the Roman morale code in which if the state does not bring the murderer to justice the son must. From Hamlet’s actions some might say that he is ill-suited to this ideology due to the fact that he is incapable of taking action without thinking them through and therefore stopping. The Ghost of Old Hamlet is constantly encouraging Hamlet into the Roman way by showing Hamlet the injustice that have befallen him and of the cowardice that Claudius had shown: “that incestuous, that adulterate beast,” “my most seeming-virtuous queen,” “with juices of cursed hebnon in a vial/ And in the porches of my ear did pour.” By doing this the Ghost outrages Hamlet and therefore persuades him to revenge. However in Iv the Ghost makes an important contradiction in regards to the fate of Gertrude, in line 86 he tells Hamlet to “leave her to heaven/ And to those thorns in her bosom lodge/ To prick and sting her.” The Ghost wishes for the Christian moralities on revenge to be imposed of Gertrude and the Roman way for Claudius. The Ghost effectively wants Hamlet to play God and therefore Hamlet will be damned to hell.
Hamlet is an intellectual and therefore by nature deliberates over a matter before coming to a decision. This in principal is a useful trait to possess however when it comes to taking revenge it is a handicap. He is constantly enraging himself nevertheless he does not take action. Hamlet describes himself as “pigeon livered and lack gall.”(II ii 564). He regular attacks himself over a quality which is human and natural, “Why, what an ass I am! This is most brave/ That I, the son of a dear father murdered/ Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell/ Must like a whore unpack my heart with words.” The constant abuse he subjects himself to can only be detrimental to his mental state and does not make him any better suited to his task. Hamlet wishes to be of the nature of Pyrrhus, another young man whose quest it was to avenge his father, who does not think before he acts and therefore is ferocious, brutal and evil: he could be of no greater contrast to Hamlet. He wants to discard all his human traits so that he does not falter when he is delivered the chance to kill the King, yet the qualities he wishes to rid himself from are those of which he should hold most dear.
At this point in the play Hamlet realises that if he is to enact his revenge then he needs to become more cunning in order to find out for sure whether or not Claudius is guilty or not due to the fact that he is beginning to have some doubts about the intent of the Ghost, “the spirit that I have seen may be a devil.”(II i 589) Thus he concocts a plan where he will “catch the conscience of the king.” This is the first time Hamlet tries to develop his revenge from words alone to eventual actions. Once Hamlet knows for sure that the Ghost is indeed that of his father, Hamlet believes that he will be finally able to commit himself fully. Yet after the soliloquy III i 55-90 the audience are not as certain, as Hamlet once again questions whether he should carry on living: “To be or not to be” and wants to leave his worthless life. In order for this to work theatrically, Hamlet must show his depression by still dressing in just black and sounding woeful and laborious in his words. For example, the actor playing Hamlet should leave a substantial gap between “To be or not to be” and “that is the question” as this will definitely show that is he questioning his will to live. This constant changing of direction by Hamlet is one of the reasons why he can not yet fully develop his revenge into action. In III ii Hamlet tells Horatio to “give (Claudius) heedful note” during the play because Hamlet believes that if Horatio recognises that Claudius was guilty then this would prove the Ghost’s truthfulness. Once the King has left in anger, Hamlet now believes his has the definite proof to allow him to carry out his revenge as Horatio has agreed with him upon the matter. It is undeniable that Hamlet is exceedingly brilliant at proving points, however even with this proof Hamlet cannot take vengeance on Claudius.
In III iii Hamlet has the perfect opportunity of finally kill Claudius yet decides against it claming the reason that Claudius would go to heaven if he did. Hamlet actually genuinely believes the excuse that he made for his conscience that due to the fact that Claudius had been praying he would not go to hell as Hamlet and the Ghost wish him to: “A villain kills my father, and for that/ I, his sole son, so this same villain send/ to heaven.”(III iii 76) Hamlet, however, knows that by killing in a Church he would be damning himself to hell and it can be suggested that Hamlet is not yet ready to do this. Once again he reassures himself that as soon as Claudius makes a mistake that will send him to hell, Hamlet will be there to kill him. Hamlet wants to decide whether Claudius goes to hell or heaven, he wants to play God however he will never be able to do this because God, unlike Hamlet is able to make a decision without changing it at the last moment. Another difference can be drawn from Pyrrhus and Hamlet as just before Pyrrhus killed Priam, he faltered yet only for a moment. Hamlet, however, will never be like Pyrrus because after stopping he can not start again. If Hamlet knew what to do without having any struggle in his mind, then he wouldn't be human, because it is nearly impossible for a man to make completely unbiased decisions. Saying what one should do is much easier than actually following it through with it and Hamlet knows this all to well.
In III iv Hamlet attempts to stab Claudius but kills Polonius instead however he shows no remorse for his actions. This is a huge change from the previous Hamlet who would without exception never act on impulse. A possible reason for this could be the fact that Hamlet could not see the face of the person who he was going to stab and that he needs to create a barrier between him and Claudius if he is to act. An interesting side effect of killing Polonius is that now Hamlet himself will be a target for revenge from Laertes and the fact that Hamlet did not even feel guilty shows how he has progressed worse humanly speaking: “I’ll lug the guts into the neighbouring room,” “How now? A rat! Dead for a ducat, dead.” Hamlet seems to be much more geared towards the task of revenge; however it could be said that he only killed Polonius because it was on the spur of the moment and this type of chance could never occur again. After Hamlet has killed Polonius, he carries on from what he was speaking about before. This is remarkable at it becomes clear that from now on he only cares about avenging his father and does not mind if he harms anyone whilst doing so. Since the Ghost had previously instructed Hamlet not to kill Gertrude, Hamlet uses the power of words to show his fury: “A bloody dead. Almost as bad, good mother/ As kill a king and marry with his brother.”(III iv 28)
In conclusion, Hamlet is an intellectual who finds it exceedingly hard to act on impulse. At the beginning of the play Hamlet knew he had to avenge his father but he did not know who to enact his revenge upon. Even with the Ghost’s reassurance Hamlet found it impossible to kill Claudius and therefore made excuses to ease his mind, however by III iv he was in the state where he could easily be triggered off into killing the King, yet only with a barrier separating him from his deed.