The Delay in Hamlet’s Revenge Essay example -- Revenge and Vengeance i

The Delay in Hamlets Revenge Hamlets first thoughts after learning of his fathers murder are of an immediate, violent revenge upon Claudius. However, his subsequent actions do not live up to these resolutions. Over four acts he takes little deliberate action against his uncle, although the ghost explicitly demands a swift revenge. In S. T. Coleridges words, Hamlets interchange weakness is that he is continually resolving to do, yet doing nothing solely resolve. Hamlets first soliloquy, following a hostile conversation with Claudius and Gertrude, shows him grief-stricken, bitter and despairing. The seeded player of Hamlets melancholy is his fathers death and the oer-hasty marriage of his mother and uncle. He feels he has to do something, but he does not know precisely what. He expresses his disgust at his mothers inconstancy and incestuous remarriage, but is bound to suffer in silence he must hold his tongue for reasons of diplomacy. The world seems empty, and he uses imagery of corruption, darkness, sickness and imprisonment to reveal his state of mind. At the beginning of the play, all Hamlet sees is a terrible situation which he has no power to change. The ghosts command consequently gives Hamlet purpose a reason to live. Its instruction is unmistakable if thou didst ever thy dear father love...revenge his foul and most unnatural murder. The apparition, armed from moderate to foot, then relates the story of Claudius treachery in graphic and horrible detail. It is now apparent to Hamlet what is rotten in the state of Denmark. Shakespeare makes it very receptive what Hamlets duty is and who his enemy is. Hamlet is charged to avenge his fathers murder and free Denmark from the shadow of the kings fr... ...e. N.p. Princeton University Press, 1972. Pitt, Angela. Women in Shakespeares Tragedies. Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint from Shakespeares Women. N.p. n.p., 1981. Rosenberg, Marvin. Laertes An Impulsive but Earnest Young Aristocrat. Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from The Masks of Hamlet. Newark, NJ Univ. of Delaware P., 1992. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http//www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html West, Rebecca. A Court and World Infected by the unhealthiness 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.