Why Does Hamlet Procrastinate?

Why Does Hamlet Procrastinate?

In a situation where ones mother turns her back on you and your emotional state of mind after your father had just died and expects you to put up with the fact she has married your fathers brother within 3 months of his death…from a drama perspective you would be expected by a paying audience that you would go all straight away guns blazing in order to exact swift brutal revenge on the people who have, in a metaphoric sense, dropped a whole load faeces on you and your emotion.

This is the situation that Hamlet is faced with in William Shakespeare’s iconic play appropriately titled “Hamlet”. A question that has arose from the play, start to finish is why does hamlet delay the inevitable blood splattered vengeance on his Uncle. There are of course 2 main ways to look at it.

Hamlet is a very emotionally unstable person; his drift into madness is shown as a growing theme in the play, lets be honest its hard to blame him giving his situation, but if the situation alone isn’t bad enough he also has to deal with two other factors that can seem only to drive him even closer to the edge, you have his mum being openly explicit about her and her husbands (Hamlets uncles) sex life. No one wants to hear about his or her mother’s sex life, let alone from the man who has just done everything he can to enslave the name of his dad.

The King really is portrayed as a character to hate in this play, you can break down all the things that’s wrong with him into a selection of bullet points:

Ð'* His brother had died, you expect him to be mourning

Ð'* He takes the opportunity of his brothers death is move in on his grieving wife

Ð'* He then marries her giving himself the luxury of being king

Ð'* He openly has intercourse with her on a regular basis, even more in spite of his brother

Ð'* He tells everyone to simply forget about his brother and move on with their lives. ”To our most valiant brother. So much for him. Now for our self and this time of meeting”

And Hamlet has to put up with all of this, which from an audience members perspective you almost want him to exact his reprise as quickly as possible.

Which in a way answers the question, with another question, does hamlet really procrastinate at all? After all, its not like he can just walk into the kings lounge and put a dagger through his heart then the play would be over in a matter of minutes. In a way it could be argued the prolonged procrastination is due to the desperation of the audience to see the act be taken, a very interesting approach by Shakespeare.

Hamlet first shows his antagonism of the marriage in act 1 scene 2. where he expresses his severe mourning “oh that this too too sallied flesh would melt, Thaw and resolve itself” and shows a real disapprovement of the marriage. “My fathers brother (but no more like my father than I to Hercules). Within a month, Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, She Married. O Most wicked speed! To post dexterity to incestuous sheets, It is not, nor it cannot come to good; But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue”.

It seems as if hamlet is almost ready to accept the marriage in question, until he meets up with his fathers ghost