The Indecision of Hamlet - Essay Example

The Indecision of Hamlet One of the most intriguing themes of Shakespeare's Hamlet that has baffled critics for centuries is the protagonist'sbrooding nature and inability to take decision. One of Hamlet's first-act soliloquies (Act I, Scene V, 92-112) is a response to the shocking revelation made by the ghost of his father. This response offers insights into Hamlet's indecisiveness at the very onset of the play. From his speech, we see Hamlet as one who is incapable of deciding the actions that he should take. He is taken aback by the Ghost's announcement that his own brother, Claudius, had murdered him. But this does not move Hamlet to immediate action, which is generally the logical response to such information. Instead it seems to present him with a puzzle, something to be thought out and solved prior to taking any action. His famed "To be or not to be" soliloquy highlights his inability to face his mortality and his contradicting battle with suicide, one minute he is ready to die and the next bogged by fear of the afterlife. For Hamlet, each and every action raises questions. His dilemma is not about what course action he should resort but whether he is capable of making any decisions at all. "Hamlet himself seems always to be asking questions much bigger and more searching than those we ask of him. When we expect him to be discussing whether and why and how he should revenge, he is liable to be ruminating on the mysteries of our being." (Harold Jenkins, introduction to the Arden edition) He stuns us with impressive soliloquies; his emotions emerge like a repressed torrent let loose, but he fails utterly in evolving beyond them. Why, then, such powerful emotions are followed by inaction That, perhaps, is his nature as some critics say: this is what he is, the antithesis of Macbeth. Many see him as a victim of Oedipus complex, which has relegated him into a belated adolescent. Others still see him as suffering from an overdose of chastity. Others go further: is he not simply a puritan or an irresolute homosexual However, another reading is quite opposed to this. Considering the events in the play, he's not indecisive, rather an incredibly decisive, sharp, and clever individual. In an instant he kills Polonius, fights pirates, engineers the demise of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, rises to face Laertes, plays at insanity, and cleverly traps Claudius with the "Mouse Trap". He is terrible and ruthless in his actions. If Hamlet is capable of these, he is certainly capable of exacting his revenge. It is his quest to avenge his father the right way, under the right terms of heaven and society that prevents him from action. Closely woven with the theme of indecisiveness is the theme of falsity and seeming. This is demonstrated at the very onset of the play. It appears to the world that the King died of snakebite. However, the reality is that he was poisoned to death by this own brother. It appears that the Ghost is a necessary evil (according to Elizabethan conventions) emerging from the unfathomable depths of hell; the reality, however, is that he is the harbinger of truth, the one who imposes the motive of revenge upon Hamlet. Since Hamlet is plagued by doubts regarding Ghost's true intentions, he decides to put on an antic disposition-he feigns madness. At times Hamlet's feigned madness has appears to be real. This theme is carried throughout the play-the duel scene, too, presents the dichotomy between truth and falsity. Draped in the garb of a healthy competition, the duel is actually a machination of Claudius' cruel intentions, which ultimately leads to the brutal death of the four main characters. Apparently, the best manifestation of this theme is the "Mouse Trap". The actors, in the guise of mythical figures, actually perform the real events. Throughout the play, Shakespeare presents us with events and situations, which are liable to doubts and questions. Agonized by his mother's decision to marry Claudius so soon after her husband's demise, Hamlet becomes cynical about women in general, showing a particular obsession with what he perceives to be a connection between female sexuality and moral corruption. This motif of misogyny, or hatred of women, occurs sporadically throughout the play, is an important factor impacting his thoughts and actions. The nunnery scene presents before us a Hamlet who is convinced that Ophelia nurtures a sort of deceitfulness, which he loathes in all of the other characters. He sees in her some kind of infidelity, inconstancy, and he verbally lashes her, bidding her to go to a nunnery and not to "be a breeder of sinners" (Act III, Scene I, 121). In his notes on the play, Harold Jenkins points out that in Elizabethan usage a nunnery was considered a place where chastity was protected or the term was used sarcastically to mean a brothel (282). The betrayals by Gertrude, which is clearly an illustration of incest, Ophelia, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, even Laertes-maybe the young prince is taken aback by the slew of treason and felony. Hamlet's indecision surely has deeper meanings. Many elements affect his decisions and actions. His indecision seems to emerge from his obsession with perfection--in life, in death, in revenge, or in action. Hamlet's fantastical aspirations for a perfect world lead to delay in vengeance. Throughout the play, it is seen that Hamlet worries about the possible immorality of seeking revenge, and turns himself into a mass of questions that must be answered before he acts. These questions plunges him into a struggle to find certainty in the ghostly mandate. "The questions we find him asking, as Shakespeare takes us into Hamlet's mind and imparts to him his own intellectual curiosity, concern not so much the nature of revenge as the nature of man; but they are questions which he is able, and indeed impelled, to ask by reason of what in his revenger's dual role he has become." (Harold Jenkins, introduction to the Arden edition) Thus he is steadfast in avoiding action while he answers them all, cross-checking all the facts-- the ghost's honesty, affirming Claudius' guilt in a crime that bears no witness, debating the state of Claudius' soul and the possibility of his repentance, analyzing the consequences of this revenge for Hamlet and Denmark, and attempting draw some conclusion on the afterlife. Instead of planning his vengeance, he broods over skulls, suicide, and Hell. Even he squanders the prime opportunity to kill Claudius because of this obsession with death. He cannot consider murdering the king while the latter is in prayer because of the threat of salvation. If Hamlet had acted in that moment, Claudius, could have had entry to heaven. Hamlet's dilemma deepens as he develops his plan. It forces him to wait for absolute proof of Claudius' guilt, for the fitting hour. But he fails to defeat the need for the right moment. The problems imposed on him by the real world are all incomprehensible. The truth of his world is that it is all lies: corruption, illicit affairs, murder. And until the end, Hamlet is incapable of a true decision to act; his hand is forced. After all, his opportunity was an offshoot of the game plan launched by Claudius and the accidents of the moment. Considering the nature of the play, and the kind of person emerges as the play proceeds, Hamlet's indecisiveness is bound to baffle critics and audiences for posterity. Read More