In the 1600’s William Shakespeare wrote an iconic tragedy, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. The play takes place in the Kingdom of Denmark, and dramatizes Prince Hamlets revenge of his uncle Claudius. His uncle Claudius killed his brother to steal the throne and married his brothers wife. His fathers ghost, King Hamlet, calls Hamlet and sets forth a list of obligations, one of them was to avenge his father’s death and kill his uncle. In the Tragedy of Hamlet, Hamlet’s tragic flaws come into being as he overthinks his decisions. Two of his tragic flaws is his inability to act to avenge his fathers death and thinking of himself as godlike. Hesitation is one of Hamlet’s tragic flaws, he is informed that his Uncle Claudius murdered his father and took the throne. “Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of though, And enterprises of great pitch and moment With this regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action” All he needs to do is avenge his evil Uncle Claudius, but Hamlet is confined to his conscience and to his religion. Hamlet was educated as a Protestant, which teaches that it is forbidden to act in revenge because revenge is …show more content…
Hamlet had the prime opportunity to end Claudius’ life right then and there when he saw him in the chapel but Hamlet did not act on his thoughts, of course. “Now might I do it pat, now he is praying; and now I’ll do’t. And so he goes to heaven, and so am I revenged. That would be scann’d. A villain kills my father; and for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven.” Hamlet wanted to guarantee that Claudius would go to hell if he killed him, which is basically Hamlet setting himself up for his downfall. Sending someone to hell is not any human’s decision, it’s God’s. Hamlet chooses to act as a God and brought himself to his own downfall, destruction, and
Hamlet is an extremely intelligent character, therefore, he thinks each decision through completely before acting on it. This is shown, for instance, when Hamlet didn’t kill Claudius in the chapel, even though he had every perfect opportunity to. Hamlet considered what would happen if he kill Claudius while he confessed his sins, and determined he didn’t want his soul to go to heaven while his father’s sat in purgatory. He also created the “play within a play” to prove Claudius guilty. Hamlet didn’t go after Claudius until he was positive that he was guilty of his father’s death.
• This scene of dramatic irony showcases Hamlet`s hatred for Claudius. He does not kill Claudius when he is praying because he doesn’t want him to go to heaven. Hamlet wants to wait until Claudius commits a sin to kill him, so that he will go to hell.
Hamlet doesn’t think it would be just to kill Claudius now because it would be basically sending him “to heaven” which Hamlet does not want. He wants to take what he perceives as the nobler path of catching Claudius in sin and send him to eternal damnation, where Hamlet’s father supposedly roams. To what seems like noble justice to Hamlet leads him to continuously postpone his revenge. Hamlet is not interested in making himself king, rather he is more interested in killing Claudius the, truthfully, unchristian way. Hamlet does not want Claudius to repent and absolve of his sins. Although Hamlet calls Claudius a “villain”, it makes the reader ponder if the executioner of the villain is always the “hero”. So far in the play, Hamlet does not show any characteristics of a traditional hero as he broods and shows temper tantrums. Using his false sense of righteousness, Hamlet waits for the right chance to exact his noble “revenge”.
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 in this scene is considering killing himself and is having thoughts about death. He is wondering if he should live and pass all the hardship life gives him or if he should just die to end those sufferings. Seeing how hamlet has this strange personality where he changes his thoughts every minute it may describe why he is considering death. This also merges in with Claudius. Hamlet knows that if he chooses to kill Claudius ot only will he be the prime suspect for his murder but might end up in hell for murdering a human being. Hamlet is confused whether he is ready to take another person life and is able to move with his life. I don’t think hamlet will kill himself instead I predict that hamlet will choose to live the earthly way and
In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the titular character struggles to engage in his desired plan of revenge. Hamlet shows throughout the play that he is inconsistent, indecisive, and unsure of himself, as well as his actions. The play focuses on Hamlet’s revenge; however, he continuously fails to happen at opportunistic moments. Throughout the play, Hamlet insists that he intends to avenge his father’s death through the murder of Claudius, but Hamlet fails to act on occasion because of his indecisive personality.
One reason Hamlet is not going through with killing Claudius is that Claudius is praying. Hamlet believes that since Claudius is praying, he will go to heaven. Hamlet wants him to go to hell instead. According to Hamlet, allowing Claudius to go to heaven is not revenge for his father's death. Hamlet says,
What is Hamlet's flaw and how does his flaw, to a certain extent, make him responsible for the whole tragedy?
Hamlet’s tragic flaw would definitely be his inability to decide and move forward fast enough, because of this he makes it difficult to move forward on anything. For instance, he wanted to believe the ghost, but he hesitated and chose to wait until he proved Claudius did indeed kill his father. It took until Act III Scene II for Hamlet to finally confirm that Claudius purposely murdered his father to get to the throne. He watched Claudius and got the reaction he hoped for during the play, but Hamlet still did not have a plan to kill Claudius. Hamlet tends to procrastinate and it did not help since Claudius caught up to his plans and began to be suspicious of Hamlet. Hamlet thinks too much and Claudius is a man of action. Hamlet spends too much
let his hatred against his uncle get to the best of himself. Hamlet needed to not kill anyone at all considering the fact that God is watching everyone and he will decide who will be sent to heaven or hell. If it came to a life or death matter what would you have done if your mother married your uncle also your As Claudius kneel down facing the the lord Jesus Christ Hamlet repulsively took his sword out about to slice him open. Hamlet then stops and realized it wasn't the right time. In the Play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet decided to kill Claudius at this time because he noticed nobody around except the one man looking down at Hamlet was God. Hamlet immediately stop because he knew if he killed Claudius, When he hasn't sinned he too
Taking a life is a crime that will get you a one way ticket to hell and Hamlet seems worried about his soul. His hesitation at the beginning such as when Claudius is praying is due to him wanting Claudius to be in bad standing with God when he dies so he must pay for his sins. “Now i might do it pat, now he is praying; And now I’ll do’t. And so ‘a goes to heaven...” (3.3.73-74).
”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
According to the bible, if you repent of your sins you will be forgiven and go to heaven when you die, Hamlet believes this and that is why he does not kill Claudius in this scene. Another reason he does not kill his Claudius based on the reason above, he will not give Claudius the glory of
To clear any uncertainty as to whether or not Claudius murdered his father, Hamlet decides to set him up. Hamlet plans a "mouse trap" for Claudius in which he sets up a play, for the King and Queen, to be a murder tragedy. Hamlet hopes to see Claudius's reaction towards the murder scene in hope of establishing his guilt. "The Play's the thing Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king." (II, ii, 589-591) The play works but Hamlet does not "sweep to his revenge". Why not, is he worried about Ophelia being caught up on his attempted murder? William Hazlitt states, "When Hamlet is most bound to act, he remains puzzled, undecided, and sceptical, dallies with his purpose, till the occasion is lost, and finds out some pretence to relapse into indolence and thoughtfulness again." This is most likely the reason why Hamlet does not take advantage of the opportunity to kill the king when he is at his prayers. Hamlet can not have his revenge perfect as he wishes, so he declines it altogether. "He kneels and prays, And now I'll do't and so he goes to heaven, And so am I reveng'd: that would be scann'd. He kill'd my father, and for that, I his sole son, send him to heaven. Why this is reward, not revenge. Up sword and know thou a more horrid
Hamlet believes that when people do evil things they are sent to hell. A person that lived a righteous life they go to Heaven. This thought may had put fear into Hamlet. Evelynoconner states that “yet despite being suicidal, he does not kill himself because he fears divine retribution (that he’ll burn in hell forever)." Hamlet hated his life and the current situation he was in that he thought about ending his own life but was too scared about what would happen to him in the afterlife. In the book he says “To grunt and sweat under a weary life, but that the dread of something after death”. (Hamlet. Act 3 Scene 1. Lines 85-86). So if the thought of his religion made him hesitate to end his own life what would make it any different to end Claudius’s? In the end Hamlet realized after he was sent to England that he had no choice anymore. Claudius sent him there to be killed. That’s when Hamlet realized that it was either him or Claudius. Hamlets religion had a big role in why he delayed killing