Why does Hamlet delay the act of Revenge?
Uploaded by Magic_roundabout on Jan 06, 2002
An exploration of why Hamlet delays the act of revenge
Hamlet is a human being, and he is an emotional human being. He feels guilt, remorse and has responsibilities, yet at the same time he feels pride and a sense of duty. He is quick, in Act one, scene five to take on his role of avenger
“Haste me to know’t, that I, with wings as swift
As meditation or the thoughts of love,
May sweep to my revenge.”
Hamlet is passionate about his role and swears to “wipe away all trivial fond records” and to solely concentrate avenging is father’s death. However he does seem concerned with his mother’s betrayal
“O most pernicious woman!”
This was not the key subject his father spoke of, yet Hamlet troubles himself with the thoughts of his mother’s marriage to his uncle.
Hamlet jumps into his role without thinking, he idolized his father so much that he would do anything to make him happy, to be the perfect son. However towards the end of the scene when his emotions are less fired up, Hamlets thoughts about his role relent and start to become less positive and self assured,
“The time is out of joint. O cursed spite,
That ever I was born to set it right!”
Although he feels it’s his duty, he says ‘cursed spite’ he is resentful of his apparent fate, and he may be seeing this revenge act as an awesome and problematic task.
Hamlet is a man of philosophy rather than heroic action, he thinks deeply about his feelings and actions, which he sees as a fault, ‘think too precisely on the event.’ Hamlet seems to be a very aware person, he is conscious of his procrastination and accuses himself of being a ‘John-a-dreams’ in act two scene two after he has heard the players speak.
Hamlets antic disposition could be regarded as a sub conscious way of delaying the revenge by using it as displacement behaviour. Hamlet may be so enveloping himself in convincing everyone that he is in fact mentally unstable rather than submerging himself in plotting revenge. Although at first Hamlet feels the idea of the antic disposition is a good one, it becomes apparent that even Hamlet doubts his genuine sanity, it may be the case that he cannot differ from how he is acting to how he naturally is. It seems unclear to the audience at times, if Hamlet is speaking in the act of...