Hamlet Character Analysis - Essay Example

John Q. Doe English 344 8 May 2000 Hamlet Character Analysis The paralysis of choice is a concept much discussed in modern society, but the idea is present in works of literature that predate the modern period by several hundred years. The concept of paralysis of choice is that modern society provides so many alternatives and solutions to choices individuals must make that they become unable to make a decision. For instance, if a person enters a gas station to buy a candy bar, the candy aisle presents him with fifty or more choices.

When facing these choices, he becomes unable to reach a decision because his brain is unable to deal with the number of variables it is facing. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the protagonist experiences this paralysis of choice, and it is his defining characteristic. One of the most obvious choices that Hamlet faces is how to revenge his father’s death. From the beginning of the play, Hamlet struggles with the evidence of his father’s death. The only source of information he has for the murder of his father is the message from his father’s ghost.

His father’s ghost commands Hamlet to “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder” (Shakespeare 1.5.25). This command leads to Hamlet’s paralysis. What at first seems to be a simple decision with only two options is much more complex in Hamlet’s view. He must decide whether to accept this information, even though it comes from a supernatural source, or reject it. If he accepts it, he must decide how and when to kill his uncle, Claudius. If he decides not to accept it, he must corroborate the supernatural testimony with some other more reliable source.

Hamlet chooses the latter option, but this choice only opens up more decisions that he must make. He has to decide how to gather evidence, which leads him to stage a play. However, this play renders no information on the guilt of Claudius. Hamlet continues to debate methods of collecting evidence against his uncle, but this obsession with finding evidence and confirming it leads him to make no decision regarding his uncle’s guilt. In the end, this inability to make a decision on Claudius’ guilt leads to Hamlet’s death.

Another decision that paralyzes Hamlet is whether or not to commit suicide. Throughout the course of the play, Hamlet soliloquizes on the process of suicide and its outcome. Once again, what should be a simple decision with only two choices opens a door to a multitude of choices. Hamlet only has to determine whether he wishes to live or die, but he cannot determine his beliefs on the nature of life and death. As he sums the dilemma in his most famous soliloquy, “To be, or not to be? That is the question” (Shakespeare 3.1.57).

In his mind, Hamlet debates whether it is worthwhile to experience all the disappointments of life or to choose death. Once he begins to contemplate death, the number of choices multiply. He describes death as sleep, but he wonders “in that sleep of death what dreams may come” (3.1.67). In his mind, he would choose death, but he is unsure of the outcome that might result. There are simply too many options. He wonders if death is merely a sleep or if it contains a life of its own. His fear is that the afterlife may have problems of its own.

He continues to ruminate on the various forms that the afterlife may take and the disgraces that man must suffer throughout the play. In the end, he chooses to remain alive in the hopes of saving his father from the fate of walking the earth as a ghost. Ultimately, because of his inability to decide between suicide and life, Claudius continues his reign as king, under a title falsely gained. Lastly, Hamlet cannot make a decision regarding who is worthy of trust. Throughout the play, characters that seem to love and care for him present themselves as his allies.

However, he is unable to maintain any kind of continuity in his relationships with them. He constantly wavers between trust and distrust. Because Hamlet’s great desire is to determine whether his father was murdered by his uncle, the most obvious source of information and ally would be Gertrude, his mother, who is now married to Claudius. Hamlet, at times, treats his mother with deference. But, he stops short of confiding in her the information he learned of his father’s ghost. At the end of the play, he brings his anger to bear on her for his father’s murder, of which he believes his mother played a part.

Gertrude is not the only woman that Hamlet cannot decide to trust or mistrust. Ophelia, once Hamlet’s lover, becomes an object of his scorn. Ophelia confides that Hamlet has written her “words of so sweet breath composed” (Shakespeare 3.1.100). Hamlet denies having done so and abuses her for speaking to him too familiarly telling her to join a nunnery. However, after her death, Hamlet claims to have “loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers / Could not with all their quantity of love / Make up my sum” (5.1.247-9).

Despite the reassurances of so many around him, Hamlet can never choose whether to love or hate or to trust or distrust any person. Throughout the course of the play, Hamlet is paralyzed by the choices he encounters. The results of his indecision are many. Because he cannot decide whether Claudius murdered his father or not, he falls at the hands of Laertes. Another choice that would have removed him from the entire proceedings, suicide, is a choice that he is unable to make as well. Finally, his inability to make decisions about the people around him alienates him.

Many critics and readers note that Hamlet suffers from depression and melancholy. The genesis of this depression is that Hamlet is not able to make the decisions that life requires, especially in regard to serious decisions. Work Cited Shakespeare, William. "Complete Works of William Shakespeare." Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg, 1994. Web. 23 Apr 2012. .