Indecision, Hesitation and Delay in Shakespeares Hamlet Essay

Admonished by the phantom of his poisoned father, troubled by the stench of a kingdom in decline, sicken by his queen mothers incestuous liaison, why did Hamlet wait so long to act decisively? Theories abound. Hamlet had an Oedipus complex. Hamlet was mad sort of than merely pretending to be. Hamlet was an in recognizeectual pansy. Hamlet was an existentialist. Etc. T. S. Eliot went so far as to say that the play itself was specked, Hamlets Problem actually the authors own, insoluble. I believe that the Problem is actually ours. Perhaps the real issue is not Hamlets hesitation, but our unwillingness to understand it. In an ironic maneuver, Shakespeare has Hamlet tell us about the self-destructive power of a tragic flaw So, oft it chances in particular men,That for several(prenominal) vicious mole of reputation in them, As, in their birth--wherein they are not guilty, Since nature cannot choose his origin--By the oergrowth of some complexion, Oft breaking down the pales and f orts of reason, Or by some habit that too much oer-leavens The form of plausive manners, that these men, Carrying, I say, the shape of one defect, Being natures livery, or fortunes star,-- Their virtues else--be they as pure as grace, As infinite as man may undergo--Shall in the general accuse seduce corruption From that particular fault the dram of eale Doth all the formal substance of a doubt To his own scandal. Believers that virtuousness (or enlightenment) guarantees right conduct, take noteThe key to Hamlets flaw, the stuckness that has puzzled so many readers, is lodged, not in the beginning, but in the end--the place of maximum emphasis--of the to be or not to be soliloquy, the most famous dramatic monologue... ...udies of Imagination. Oxford Oxford University Press. Brown, Keith. 1973. Form and Cause Conjoind Hamlet and Shakespeares Workshop. Shakespeare horizon 2611-20. Fineman, Joel. 1980. Fratricide and Cuckoldry Shakespeares Doubles. In Representing Shakespeare New Psychoanalytic Essays, edited by Coppelia Kahn and Murray M. Schwarz. Baltimore and capital of the United Kingdom The Johns Hopkins Press, 70-109. Fleissner, Robert. 1982. Sullied Or Solid Hamlets Flesh Once More. Hamlet Studies 492-3. Fowler, Alastair. 1987. The Plays inside the Play of Hamlet. In Fanned and Winnowed Opinions Shakespearean Essays Presented to Harold Jenkins, edited by John W. Mahon and doubting Thomas A. Pendleton. London and New York Methuen. Freud, Sigmund. 1953-74. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works. 24 vols, trans. James Stachey. London Hogarth.