Hamlet's Procrastination Free Essay Sample

The concept of death is heavily repeated throughout the play. Upon first hearing of King Hamlet’s murder from the ghost, Prince Hamlet is easily persuaded to take revenge for his father’s death, but when it comes to actually killing Claudius, he struggles with the act due to his sensitive nature, religious beliefs, and fixation on death. 

Hamlet had started to become fed up with delaying his plan to kill Claudius after he got a reaction from the king. “As time goes on and Hamlet fails to act, he is compelled to realize that he is delaying. He becomes puzzled and disgusted by his own procrastination. (Rein, David M.)” As he had grown very impatient, Gertrude, Claudius, and Polonius put together a plan to confront Hamlet about his recent poor behavior. As Hamlet and his mother are talking in her bedroom, he notices someone is behind the curtain. Suspecting that it was his uncle listening in, he quickly makes the decision to stab whoever lies behind the carpeted barrier. Much to his surprise, Polonius falls over, dying, in the bedroom before the mother and son. 

As the death of Polonius is soon discovered around the kingdom, Hamlet is shipped off to England by Claudius along with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The three men being sent away and Hamlet threatening to be killed put another damper on his plan. He had to be extra cautious with his time before he had tried to actually kill Claudius. 

After Hamlet had decided to kill Claudius, he warned Ophelia about his “new” behavior. As he did not want the kingdom to assume the worst of him, he had fallen into a depression. This depressive state had prolonged Hamlet’s ability to make a move on Claudius. He had dug a deep hole for himself to crawl out of when his mood swings had become worse. Hamlet had lashed out toward his parents and Ophelia. As Ophelia began to worry about Hamlet, the king and queen were made aware of his strange behavior. As if they were not already suspicious of Hamlet, they had begun to question him. 

Hamlet has a sensitive nature that causes him to overreact to his problems. From the beginning, Hamlet had been upset over his father's death and felt betrayed by Gertrude. As he talks to the ghost, his feelings of betrayal grow stronger. He had immediately chooses to kill Claudius when he could have chosen a less violent execution. His thoughts were clouded by his emotions and he had poorly chosen to act on them. As his attempts to kill had been failing, Hamlet had grown more impatient. That had made his anger grow stronger and he had accidentally killed the wrong man in front of his mother. Hamlet had gone mad trying to avenge his father’s legacy. 

Hamlet is not the type of man to take immediate action. He thinks critically about his situations and surroundings at all times. Hamlet had not acted upon the ghost’s words because of this behavior. “The fact that Hamlet, after hearing the Ghost’s command, does not revenge his father’s poisoning immediately has various explanations: 1) the Prince is a thinker: a man “of mind,” not of action;” (Topchyan A.S.). As the writer explains, Hamlet was at war with himself inside his head and had not taken action upon killing Claudius when he had every opportunity. This had also given Gertrude and Claudius an opportunity to find out what Hamlet was planning all along. 

When Hamlet defeats his depressive episode he forms a plan to show the kingdom how his father had truly passed. While the play does get a reaction out from Claudius, Hamlet's plan gets pushed back again. As Claudius storms out of the playroom, he had gone to pray alone. When Hamlet is about to strike he remembers that if he killed Claudius, he would be sinning according to their Catholic beliefs. Claudius’ choice to pray had given Hamlet no other choice but to delay his actions once again and form a better plan. 

The ghost is a problematic character in the play and had blinded Hamlet from his own religious beliefs. As Hamlet is Catholic, his beliefs are strong and are frowned upon to be disobeyed. The ghost of his father had quickly convinced Hamlet to kill. “Put another way, as Lee observes, the irruptive intervention of the ghost has cut Hamlet off from the ‘values and traditions out of which the narrative quest for life is sustained’.”(Lake, Peter). His religion is a large part of his life and the ghost tends to blind Hamlet by causing him anger. As a result of the ghosts’ news Hamlet falls into a depression that deepens his sadness and anger towards Claudius. His profound feelings cause him to think irrationally, follow what the ghost had told him, and commit murder on 2 occasions. 

As Hamlet was fixated on the death of Claudius, he had become mad. His madness had begun when the ghost visited him and ended when he died. Hamlet was so fixated on killing, that he had become depressed as well. His feelings of depression and anger had caused his urge to kill to grow stronger and stronger. This had clouded his mind as he made many mistakes. He had scared his love, Ophelia, and made the king and queen skeptical of their son's actions. Polonius had easily caught on to Hamlet’s mood swings. He was easily aware that Hamlet was acting out of the ordinary because Hamlet was obsessing over the death of Claudius and poorly covered his tracks. 

At the beginning of the play, Hamlet is enraged upon hearing the news from the Ghost. He quickly takes the Ghost’s advice and plans to kill Claudius but when he actually tries to execute his plan something had gotten in the way. During the reenactment play in the castle, Claudius has an outburst during the poising scene which had given Hamlet hope that his plan was solid. Though when he had gone to kill Claudius alone, he had been praying for forgiveness. Hamlet had known Claudius was in a state of weakness and could have stricken him at any moment but chose simply not to. Catholicism had run strong through 19th-century families in England and it would have been frowned upon to go against his own moral beliefs. 

Observations can be made that Hamlet had already decided to go against his religion when he had decided to execute Claudius for his father's ghost. He had known the morals of his religion as well as what they had preached therefore he had knowingly gone against his religion without a doubt. When Hamlet had stalled to kill Claudius while he was praying it was not only because of their religion but mostly about his own ego. Hamlet had not wanted the kingdom to find out he had committed a sin. His reputation was important and Hamlet made sure to keep his “golden boy” act as long as he could.  

As Prince Hamlet speaks to his father’s ghost form, he understands that a bad omen in his kingdom has not yet been resolved. Their catholic religion suggests that a ghost is stuck on earth until their problem is resolved and only then will they ascend to heaven or descend to hell. Hamlet is eager to avenge his father for his death but is particular about his timing.  He wants his execution to be perfect but is aware that the kingdom thinks highly of him and would turn against him if they knew what he was planning to do. 

In conclusion, Hamlet procrastinates throughout the entirety of the play. Firstly, he has a sensitive nature that causes him to get distracted easily. He encounters various opportunities to take action to avenge his father but he chooses to stall multiple times. Secondly, he makes excuses for himself because of his religion as well. Hamlet explains that he doesn't want to kill Claudius during certain moments within the play because of his Catholic religion but quickly agrees to kill the king after discovering how his father truly died, contradicting himself. Lastly, Hamlet fixates on the proper way to kill Claudius which also causes him to stall his plans and regroup himself. This only delays his actions causing more death to occur in the long run for himself and the kingdom.