Procrastination
of Hamlet
William Shakespeare is said to be not of an age, but of all
time and not of a land but of all lands. He had an amazing genius for
words. Hamlet is considered as one of
the best tragedies of Shakespeare. The
mental torture that Hamlet faces makes this tragedy at the top of all tragedies
of Shakespeare. The death of his father
and the hasty marriage of his mother with Claudius shattered Hamlet. When the ghost of his father appeared and
asked him to take revenge upon his uncle Claudius, who had killed him, Hamlet
decided to kill his uncle. But there
appeared procrastination. Though he was
fully aware that Procrastination as the thief of time, he postponed his
revenge. He unnecessarily delayed to get
confirmed whether it was Claudius, who had killed his father. But unfortunately he had to pay a big price
for his delay.
There is a play within the play in the third act. Before that Hamlet asks one of the players to
deliver a dialogue from Virgil’s Aeneus.
When he saw the genuine emotion of the actor on his narrating the
pathetic condition of Hecuba, after her husband Priam’s death, Hamlet delivers
a soliloquy. There Hamlet bitterly
scolds himself for his ruthless delay to execute his revenge. He calls himself as “A dull and muddy-mettled
rascal”. He even considers himself as a
prostitute and a kitchen menial, who suffer everything and lead a life of shame
and vulgar as he can’t take revenge upon his uncle. However, he finds the reason that causes
procrastination in him. So he wants to
play, ‘Mouse trap’ and catch the king red handed. He says
“The Play’s the thing
Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.”
Thus he justifies his
procrastination. Moreover he doubts the
ghost and thinks that sometimes it may deceive him and lead him to commit the
sin of murder. So, he wants to get
confirmed of the crime of Claudius before taking revenge.
Then in his soliloquy, “To be or not to be, that is the
question’, Hamlet has a doubt in his mind.
He is in a dilemma: whether he has to suffer silently the cruelties of
fate or to put an end to all the sufferings by committing suicide. As he doesn’t know what is waiting for him
after his death, he decides not to commit suicide. Thus this soliloquy reveals the speculative
nature of Hamlet than any other soliloquy.
Here he becomes more of a philosopher than a man of action by saying,
“Thus conscience does make cowards of us all”
In another situation, he hesitates to kill his uncle on his
finding him in prayer. He thinks that as
Claudius is in direct connection with God then, his killing him will send him
to heaven. When his father gets tortured
in Hell, how can he send his murderer to heaven? So, he decides not to kill him then. He puts his sword down by saying
“And now I’ll do it,
And so a goes to Heaven’
Instead, he decides to wait for an opportunity, where he may find him sleep and drunk or
do some equally wicked deed. Here he
evades the responsibility that has been entrusted to him by the ghost, by
finding same reasons not to kill his uncle.
Thus Hamlet’s procrastination becomes the assassin of opportunity. As Hamlet is a man of moral idealism he shows
an unlimited delight and faith in everything that’s good and beautiful. So, it is clear that the revenge is delayed
because of the peculiar temperament and
character of him. Instead he might have killed his uncle and
revealed the truth to all. Thus he could
have made his revenge an inevitable one.
But that he never did. So, his delay makes many die including the
innocent people like Ophelia and Laertes.
Thus the procrastination of Hamlet becomes the main villain in the play
that creates all the troubles in Hamlet’s life.
Woman Characters in Hamlet have been designed to be called
as "Frailty thy name is woman"
Shakespeare's Hamlet is
remarkable for its richness and variety, its fullness of interesting characters,
and its striking contrasts. There are only two female characters, Gertrude
and Ophelia. Both are sincerely loving Hamlet and are loved by Hamlet. But the words
and deeds of them make big wounds in the mind of Hamlet. Mainly the hasty
second marriage of his mother with his uncle Claudius ruins Hamlet. His concept
about women changes, and he generalizes that all women are weak and they have
no strength of character. His remark 'Frailty thy name is woman' is fully
applicable to both the female characters in the play. This remark comes in the
soliloquy that he makes just after the urge of his mother and uncle Claudius
not to go to the University.
Hamlet recalls the
profuse tears that his mother had shed at the time of his father's death. Like Niobe
she had followed his father's dead body to the graveyard. He wonders how it was
possible to get married to Claudius within a month, who is far inferior to his
father. Moreover, he deplores the fact
that she has now entered into an incestuous relationship by getting married to
her late husband's brother. In his
opinion, his mother's behaviour is proof of frailty. Moreover, the Ghost of his father tells
Hamlet that Gertrude had been having an incestuous relationship with Claudius
during the very lifetime of her, with his first husband. This adds fuel to the
fire of his hatred towards women. Actually,
Gertrude is fully aware that the main causes of the disappointment are both the
death of his father and her hasty remarriage with Claudius. But, she miserably failed to think about it before
the marriage. This later realization is
also a powerful evidence that makes us think that she is weak-minded and weak-willed.
When Hamlet has his
private interview with his mother, she asks if a middle-aged woman like her has
behaved in this manner under the influence of her lust, how would a young woman
behave under the influence of her youthful passion. Gertrude begs Hamlet not to
go on talking to her in that manner. She says, "these words like daggers
enter in my ears". These all show that Gertrude has realized her mistake,
but she is incapable of either convincing her son or avoiding the incestuous
relationship with her existing husband. Thus, she proves to herself again and
again that she is too frail to tackle the problems of her life.
But, when Ophelia says
that she wants to return all the gifts that Hamlet had given her as tokens of
love, he gets angry. He thinks that she must have taken that decision under the
influence of her father. Then he begins to talk in a most cynical manner about
the chastity of women. Here he thinks about his mother and believes that all
beautiful women have a tendency to become immoral. He advises Ophelia, "Get
thee to a nunnery." The fact that Hamlet once loved Ophelia becomes clear
from his behaviour in the graveyard when he challenges Laertes saying that
forty thousand brothers could not love Ophelia as much as he loved her. But
later, he suppresses his love for her and behaves as if he were no longer
interested in her.
Moreover, Ophelia fails to understand Hamlet. She decides to dance according to the tunes of her father. This is nothing but the frailty of Ophelia. Then she too becomes a frail character in this play. Both Ophelia and Gertrude have miserable deaths in the play. As they were very weak, they couldn't survive. However, the words of Ophelia and the deeds of his mother might have made Hamlet think like this and deliver the sentence, "Frailty thy name is woman".
---Thulasidharan V