How Does Hamlet Kill His Father

”Thus conscience does not make cowards of us all;/ And thus the native hue of resolution/ Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought;/ And enterprises of great pith and moment,/ With this regard, their currents turn away,/ And lose the name of action.” Hamlet here combines some themes of this play: death and life, the connection between thought and action. In act five scene five, he goes into Claudius’ room to kill him. Like the last time he went to kill him, he was on his knees praying. Why send him to Heaven when he should go to Hell? His father wasn’t given a chance to repent his sins before he was murdered, so why should King Claudius? Hamlet thinks about this for a minute, and decides to wait for a more reasonable

Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a tragic play about murder, betrayal, revenge, madness, and moral corruption. It touches upon philosophical ideas such as existentialism and relativism. Prince Hamlet frequently questions the meaning of life and the degrading of morals as he agonizes over his father’s murder, his mother’s incestuous infidelity, and what he should or shouldn’t do about it. At first, he is just depressed; still mourning the loss of his father as his mother marries his uncle. After he learns about the treachery of his uncle and the adultery of his mother, his already negative countenance declines further. He struggles with the task of killing Claudius, feeling burdened about having been asked to find a solution to a situation that was

In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, Hamlet, a studious young man and Prince of Denmark, struggles to face the death of his father and the task to kill his father’s murderer, Claudius. He was once known as a charming, smart young man before his father’s death. However, Hamlet experiences depression and anger at the world, causing him to look outwardly on society but failing to look inwardly on himself. The death of his father and the task for vengeance leads him to question whether or not he should follow through in killing Claudius. He becomes a man of thought rather than a man of action. In addition, the delay of King Claudius’ murder leads the readers to believe that he wishes not to kill him; he

Hamlet bases the end of his soliloquy off of the idea, “conscience does make cowards of us all” (3.1.91). In the contemplation of this idea, he transitions into a more philosophical and ambiguous tone, discussing the implications of questioning life versus death. Hamlet continues to say, “thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought” (3.1.92-3), stating that too much contemplation misguides our actions and therefore causes us to neglect them. In this instance, Hamlet is diving further into the issue he is discussing rather than the situation. He turns his contemplation of whether or not he should kill himself into one surrounding the extent and limitations of human thought. He begins to discuss existence in general, rather than this idea in the context of his life or everyone’s lives. Hamlet’s soliloquy, which is intended to be solely a representation of his own thoughts, is no longer general such that it seems to describe the situations of others, but it goes further as to contemplate the nature of thought in

Throughout the play, Hamlet is dealing with conflict within himself. When Hamlet finds that he must take revenge on Claudius, he is unsure whether there is any point in having to kill, to take another human life, and whether he would be able to handle this. Hamlet fights inside himself. Is this right? Is this his duty? He considers suicide again, "To be or not to be, that is the question." Hamlet shows his philosophical nature, and talks himself out of the idea of suicide, fearing the unknown beyond. He is thoughtful and intelligent and not first a man of action.

He wants to avenge his father but he knows that killing someone is wrong. This conflict appears when the ghost of his father tells him the Claudius killed him. The ghost tells Hamlet that Claudius poisoned him, and that he wanted hamlet to avenge his death. Hamlet tells his father “Haste me to know ‘t, that I, with as swift/ As meditation or thought of love,/ May sweep to my revenge” (I,V, 35-37). At this moment, Hamlet declares that he will take vengeance against Claudius. He plans to take revenge right away; however, as the play moves on Hamlet does not. Deep down Hamlet knew that killing someone was wrong for any reason. He also did not know if what the ghost said was true, he wanted solid proof that Claudius was indeed a murder, so Hamlet came up with a plan. The plan was to have a play performed for Claudius and Gertrude. Depending on how Claudius responds to the events in the play was going to show Hamlet if Claudius killed his father. Unfortunately, it was not long into the play when Claudius came out screaming, “Give me some light. Away!” (III, II, 295) after the scene in which the Player King is killed in is garden, the same way Claudius killed the old King. The outburst by Claudius proves to Hamlet that the ghost was telling the truth, giving Hamlet all the reassurance he need to fulfill his promise, but he doesn’t. He continued to question himself on whether he should kill

In his mature, adult mind, he knows that he must avenge his father, but there lives an innocent child in his conscience who does not want to commit murder; and Hamlet perceives this as cowardice. It seems as though Hamlet is struggling with what he knows he must do, and actually doing it. While instead of pursuing his father’s revenge, he lets his emotions dictate his actions (in this case, his lack of action). So, in self-justification, he tucks away his apprehension and decides to seek proof of Claudius’s murder of Hamlet’s father. Furthermore, Hamlet is beginning to question his identity as a “pigeon-livered coward.” What is more noteworthy, however, is that both soliloquies exhibit Hamlet to be an immature boy, as he speaks on impulses of emotion, rather than logic itself.

Leading up to the soliloquy, Hamlet wavers between avenging his father’s death or keeping Claudius alive. His final decision is “Rightly to be great; Is not to stir without great argument, But greatly to find quarrel in a straw; When honor’s at stake. How stand I then, That have a father killed, a mother stained, Excitements of my reason and my blood, And let all sleep” (IV.4.104). Ultimately, Hamlet chooses upon the murder of Claudius, but he becomes overly ambitious in wanting to kill the King that Hamlet further leads himself to insanity. From the beginning, Hamlet holds his father dearly in his heart; to diminish his extreme pain of sorrow, he seeks relief through impractical thoughts, actions, and emotions to avenge his father’s death. In killing Claudius, for instance, Hamlet runs through him with

In other words, Hamlet realizes that the bigger question in suicide is what will happen to him in the afterlife? He answers his own question by saying that no one wants to live except that “the dread of something after death” which means the fear of the unknown forces people to accept suffering rather than end their lives and regret later to find that they are in an even more desperate situation. Hamlet believes that the uncertainties of the afterlife caused extreme moral concerns that leads to inaction: “conscience does make cowards of us all . . . thus the native hue of resolution / Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought.” These words emphasize Hamlet’s inner struggle to cope with two opposing forces operating within him which are preserving moral integrity and the need to avenge his father's

Hamlet emphasizes that he is continuously wasting his time if all he continues to do is exist without acting on his feelings. Hamlet uses another rhetorical question, “How stand I then, / That have a father kill’d, a mother stain’d, / Excitements of my reason and my blood, / And let all sleep?”(IV.iv.59-63), to show the audience that he is questioning and comparing himself to men like Fortinbras who simply do without second thought. Hamlet recognizes that he has far too many thoughts that lack actions to back them, showing the audience that this is a turning point for him in which he will avenge his father. In line 65, Hamlet uses a simile that compares the graves of Fortinbras’ army to beds, illustrating how willing the men are to die for no sufficient reason. Hamlet wishes he were more like these men and able to fight for what he wants without pondering or worrying about the outcome so much. Very willing to kill Claudius, Hamlet holds back because he does not want to hurt Gertrude. If he did not take his mother’s feelings into consideration, Hamlet could have killed Claudius very early on and allowed his father’s spirit to

After learning that Claudius had killed his father, Hamlet was furious and set on seeking revenge. He generated a plan to act mad, in order to distract Claudius while ensuing his actual plot of revenge which would eventually end with the death of Claudius, by Hamlet. Hamlet may have been hopeful that his plan would work, but he had no such luck. Claudius did not believe Hamlet’s amateur attempts at pretending to be insane. Claudius says, “Was not like madness. There’s something in his soul (III; I; 161). This shows that Claudius sees through Hamlet’s act, and knows that his new son knows something of the truth and is brewing a plan. Claudius then, also has a plan to kill Hamlet, but ironically it is Hamlet that murder Claudius at the

In the middle of the play he feels he is prepared to avenge his father’s death and kill Claudius. In his fifth soliloquy before entering his mother’s chamber he decides to be brutally honest with Gertrude, but not lose control. Hamlet is in a  mood in which he could “drink hot blood/And do such bitter business as the day would quake to look on” implying that he could essentially kill his mother with the state he is in at the moment, but he will not (3.2.97-98). During Hamlet’s sixth soliloquy he does not lose his thirst for blood towards Claudius but still manages to pull himself out of his plan. While Claudius is kneeling on the ground Hamlet sees him and makes the choice “To take him in the purging of his soul,/When he is fit and seasoned for his passage?/No.” he does not want to send Claudius’ soul to heaven so he refuses to kill him then(3.3.85-87). This shows Hamlet is still thinking through his plan but he is using his keen planning skills to make sure Claudius gets everything that he deserves to fully avenge his father. Hamlet soliloquies leads him that he is now ready to complete the

In his famous soliloquy, Hamlet reasons himself out of committing suicide, in which he first acknowledges how an individual with a copious amount of complications and predicaments in life can potentially be lured into a tempting and appealing idea of death. Throughout his soliloquy, Hamlet appears to be at a constant conflict with himself, proving his insanity and his inability to decide on what to act upon. He struggles to figure out whether to commit suicide to avoid this complication and a cruel act that is worthy of damnation or move forth to assassinate the murder of Hamlet’s father. Hamlet’s indecisive speech influences the rest of his actions in the play due to his constant contemplations that results in poor decisions, ignites a

Although Claudius committed one murder, he avoids carrying out another after the resulting effects and guilt have weighed on him. For the purpose of preserving his own image and rank in society, he does not want to have any ties with the death of Hamlet, as he knows it would upset Queen Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, and the people of Denmark, which could lead to collective disapproval of his leadership and the possibility of a revolt. Instead, in desperation, he sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to England to get rid of Hamlet and in a soliloquy pleads: “do it, England, for like the hectic in my blood he rages, and thou must cure me. Till I know ’tis done, howe'er my haps, my joys were ne'er begun” (4.3.74-77). When Hamlet foils Claudius’s plan to have him killed and once again returns to Denmark alive, Claudius still does not take the matter into his own hands and recruits Laertes to carry out another attempt at ending Hamlet’s life.

It starts out in one direction, but can quickly change into something different. Hamlet goes through many different feelings throughout the play and they are all shown in this soliloquy. “Three basic approaches to the ‘To be or not to be’ soliloquy prevail in commentary on Hamlet: one of these explains the speech as a consideration of either acting or not acting against King Claudius; the second reads the speech as a contemplation of suicide; and the third is some kind of compromise between-or fusion of-the first two, explaining, for example, that Hamlet thinks first about his revenge against Claudius, then examines the idea of suicide, and finally rebukes himself for losing ‘the name of action.’” (Petronella) Hamlet considers if he really should or should not kill his uncle Claudius. He does not know for sure if the ghost is legit or is trying to corrupt Hamlet. Another view is the fact that Hamlet is considering killing himself. Which he would do if it weren’t against the beliefs of the