By William Shakespeare The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

HAMLET

by William Shakespeare

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, often shortened to Hamlet, is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play with 30,557 words. Set in Denmark the play depicts Prince Hamlet and his revenge against his uncle, Claudius, who has murdered Hamlet's father in order to seize his throne and marry Hamlet's mother.

It can be argued that, Hamlet, is one of the greatest tragedy pieces written by William Shakespeare throughout his life.  The play provides conflict between a variety of personalities all in the pursuit of power or their own interruption of moral justice. It encompasses the themes of deception, manipulation and malevolent to create the “perfect storm” of exploitation, chaos and perhaps insanity.  One of the most puzzling elements though of this play is the personality of the protagonist, Hamlet, son of old king Hamlet and rightful heir to the throne. Although he receives supernatural assurance that Claudius secretly murdered his father, and witnesses with the questionable hasty re-marriage of his mother to his uncle, Hamlet remains incapable to take any physical revenge on the behalf of his father. His own doubts about the ghost, uncertainties of his own ambitions, and his overanalyzing of the world around him are three of the many dissensions which keep him indecisive thus prolong his revenge and resulting in his ultimate dismay.

Throughout the play, Hamlet is constantly over analyzing the world around him. Every action that he takes, Hamlet tediously examines all the potential outcomes and reasoning behind it. This over thinking of the world around him is a reason for his indecisiveness and consequently his downfall. First, Hamlet argues to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern about the philosophy of what is “good” and “bad”. This point made by Hamlet only illustrates how critically he thinks of the world around him. Second, Hamlet reveals in his soliloquy, his justification of why humans, and himself, fear death and anything related to it. “Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; and thus the native hue of resolution is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought, and enterprises of great pith and moment   with this regard their currents turn awry, and lose the name of action” This over analyzing of death of what makes Hamlet question his right to kill another human and the fear that all humans have toward death. This scrutinizing of his own plan, only makes Hamlet doubt himself and prolong his revenge even more. It also illustrates that Hamlet does fear killing another and inaction on his behalf is this awareness of his fear. Finally, Hamlet debates to himself what the reasoning behind his inaction on his father’s behalf. This is a realization on Hamlet’s behalf that the cause of his inaction is indeed his overanalyzing of all his behavior just to establish his own excess thought and deliberations. The examination of so many situations of his life causes Hamlet to yet again prolong his revenge and seem indecisive to the reader.

In conclusion, there were many paths Hamlets could have taken throughout the course of the book, which he own indecisiveness prevented him from doing. Hamlet’s dismay is attributed to the hesitant behavior toward his father’s revenge due to several internal conflicts and personality traits Hamlets posses. From the beginning of the play Hamlet is in indeterminate state about the validity of anything occurring around him. Furthermore, Hamlet’s doubts in the truthfully of his father’s spirit, doubts of his own ambitions and over analyzing  of the world around him, left Hamlet an very indecisive man which ultimately led him to his own death.