Indecision, Hesitation and Delay in Shakespeares Hamlet Essay

The Indecisiveness and Hesitation of critical point In the Shakespearean drama Hamlet considerable literary critical comment swirls round the subject of the heros flutter or indecision in the prayer scene. Is it weakness? Is it representative of a mental condition? Are there other incidences of hesitation? Let us explore the subject in this essay and interpret the key scene in light of other scenes, with stimulant from literary critics. David Bevington, in the Introduction to Twentieth Century Interpretations of Hamlet, eliminates some possible reasons for Hamlets hesitation in killing Claudius during the prayer scene several(prenominal) limits can be placed upon the search for an explanation of Hamlets apparent hesitation to avenge. He is not ineffectual under ordinary circumstances. Elizabethan theories of melancholy did not suppose the sufferer to be made necessarily inactive. Hamlet has a deserved reputation in Denmark for manliness and princely demeanor. He keeps up hi s fencing practice and will win at the odds against Laertes. He threatens with death those who would restrain him from speaking with the ghost even his friend Horatio and stabs the out of sight Polonius unflinchingly. On the sea voyage to England he boards a pirate ship single-handed in the grapple, after having arranged without remorse for the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. In light of these deeds, Hamlets self-accusations are signs of burning impatience in one who would surely act if he could. (5-6) Harry Levin comments on Hamlets uncharacteristic hesitation in dispatching the king, in the General Introduction to The riverbank Shakespeare Comparably, Hamlet has been taken to task or, perhaps more often, se... ...ilm, Television and Audio Performance. Rutherford, NJ Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. P., 1988. Levin, Harry. General Introduction. The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston Houghton Mifflin Co., 1974. Nevo, Ruth. Acts III and IV Problems of Te xt and Staging. Modern Critical Interpretations Hamlet. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. Rpt. from Tragic Form in Shakespeare. N.p. Princeton University Press, 1972. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http//www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/crossroads/full.html West, Rebecca. A Court and World Infected by the Disease of Corruption. Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from The Court and the Castle. New Haven, CT Yale University Press, 1957.