Hamlet's delay in securing vengence for the murder of his father
...atory and depending on Hamlet to avenge his murder in order to gain peace. To test the reliability of the ghost Hamlet organizes for a group of actors to put on a small play that mimics what Claudius had done. If Claudius’s reaction was one of guilt and remorse then Hamlet would know if the ghost had spoken the truth. Being a man of integrity he can’t trust his own biased eyes so he asks his good friend Horatio to also watch the king’s reactions to the play. If king’s reaction to the play was guilt then he’d know if the ghost had spoken the truth. The planning of this play took Hamlet much time. When the acted play reaches the murder part Claudius’s guilt is so overwhelming that he leaves (the theatre). Taking this as affirmation of the truth of the ghost, Hamlet goes to kill Claudius but sees him “Praying”. Hamlet didn’t want to kill him then as he thought that Claudius’s soul would then go to heaven. This would hardly satisfy the vengeance of Hamlet’s father. Then there are the reasons of indecision: · On the one side of the coin there are Hamlet’s religious beliefs that say “thou shall not commit murder”. On the other side is the urgent matter of his father’s soul that lurks in purgatory waiting for the vengeance of his killer. · His other worry is the uncertainty of afterlife as he knows that it is very likely that he would be killed in his actions (killing the king). The more he thinks about these things the more he becomes paralyzed of any action. In fact it is only in a heightened state of rage that he finally acts – firstly in a heated argument with his mother (when he kills Polonius) and the foul play of the baited dual (when he kills the king). Hamlet postpones his actions throughout the entire play in order to attain important knowledge of what...