Indecisiveness: the Door to Failure
... killing by immediate impulse. If Macbeth felt at all intimidated or threatened by a character, instead of thinking an action through, he would resolve his situation with murder. Killing carelessly resulted in the belief of his poor ruling skills, and his loss of followers in his kingdom, and eventually to his death at his castle. Macbeth’s and Hamlet’s actions are frenzied and done carelessly, showing that their indecisiveness leads to failure. Hamlet himself appears to distrust the idea that it’s even possible to act in a controlled, purposeful way. When he does act, he prefers to do it blindly, recklessly, and violently. Hamlet shows a number of uncertainties, and Shakespeare uses all the characters uncertainty to cause consequences with drama. In Act 1, scene 2, Hamlet is unsure if his father’s ghost is really about, ”My father's spirit in arms! All is not well; I doubt some foul play: would the night were come! Till then sit still, my soul: foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.” Hamlet is also unsure if Claudius killed his father (act 2, scene 2), and struggles internally to come to a conclusion, and his actions. “Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave, that I, the son of a dear father murder'd, prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words, and fall a-cursing, like a very drab,… I'll have grounds more relative than this: the play’s the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.” Additionally, Hamlet is unsure if Ophelia is honest to him, (act 3, scene 1). He tells her that he would not marry her, telling her he would have nothing to do with her. “If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, go: farewell. Or, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go, and quickly too. Farewell.” Hamlet struggles with all his uncertainness and almost feels mad. He is unsure if he should end his life, fighting with the option to live and be unhappy and insecure, or kill himself and commit an unforgivable sin. Hamlet’s uncertainty also causes others to believe his insanity. Shakespeare uses Claudius’ uncertainty, as well, to show the unsuccessful consequences of their ignorant and unsure actions. Claudius is unsure if Hamlet is mad (act 1, scene 2) and (act 3, scene 1) and this ignorance leads to his fall in the end. “It shall be so: Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go.” “To reason most absurd: whose common theme is death of fathers, and who still hath cried, from the first corse till he that died to-day, 'This must be so.' We pray you, throw to earth This unprevailing woe, and think of us As of a father: for let the world take note, You are the most immediate to our throne; And with no less nobility of love Than that which dearest father bears his son, Do I impart toward you.” Claudius and Hamlet both fight with the ambiguity of their surroundings, and make irrational decisions causing horrible consequences. Shakespeare shows that not knowing something to think it through means that a deed cannot be done accurately and successfully. Claudius’s murder of King Hamlet initiates Hamlet’s quest for revenge, and Claudius’s death is the end of that quest. Claudius is killed in the end, showing that hi...