Hamlet’s Delay

settlement is nonpargonil the most discussed dramas in English Literature. It has provoked the critics for four centuries to unravel the mystery behind junctures condition in taking revenge of his dons death. His delay has attracted many literary critics to analyze and interpret the reasons for his in challenge. The judgment of characterization and the complexity of the plot direct make the task of the critics much complex and complicated. A self-opinionated analysis of the criticism helps the reader for a better assureing of the character of small town, his inaction and apathy for life. settlement, one and only(a) of the four colossal tragedies by William Shakespeare, is the longest and most popular. small towns delay in avenging his fathers murder, has led many to interpret Hamlet in various fashions taking different approaches to demystify the dilemma in Hamlets listen. If to be or non to be is the motility that haunted Hamlet, it is Hamlets undue delay that ha s troubled many readers for hundreds of years. Hamlet is an educated gentlemans gentleman with refined views in an era of turbulent times when his family, state are threatened by forces that are solely beyond his control.His education has made him into a refined man making him distinctly philosophical. He addresses the questions of universal importance that have troubled many a philosopher. His preoccupation with these questions has that made him more wavering in his attitude and delayed his action. His quest for answers not only deferred his actions but also brought his re picture closer to him. At first he is not convinced with the weirdos words and wants to have evidence. When he has got evidence, he doesnt maintain moral well(p)ification for taking revenge. When an hazard presents itself, he leaves it plan for a more serious punishment.Thus, the story gets prolonged until it comes to his tragic end. In fact, Hamlet could not constitute with the idea of cold blooded mur der as a justification for revenge. The very introduction of Hamlet is indicative of the nature of his character. He is introduced in the dissolution still wearing black mourning attire (I. ii. 66). He was asked to cast off his nightly color by his mother. Obviously he is gloomy and on that point is something in his mind that escapes a clear statement. It reflects his agonized and troubled mind unable to bear the grief of his fathers death and reconcile with the hasty marriage of her mother with major power Claudius.He was totally devastated by his fathers death and completely betrayed by his mothers marriage. Finding himself that something is rotted in the rotten state of Denmark, he contemplates suicide. His soliloquy on suicide raising questions of its moral hardihood sets the tone of the things that come later. (I. ii. 129130) What we chew the fat in Hamlet is a perpetual conflict in his mind that made him literally insane though he pretends that purposefully. To thine o wnself be true is the guiding principle of his conscience in deciding to be or not to be in the beginning, contemplating the merits and demerits of committing suicide.He feels himself helpless in finding himself in such a ruthless world and thus he laments O that this similarly too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew Or that the Everlasting had not fixed His offeron gainst self-slaughter O God O God How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world. (Act. I. Scene. I) Throughout the play we see how his world gets crumbled gradually making him more and more cynical and withdrawn. The most shocking thing for Hamlet is he could not bear the news of his mother marrying his uncle King Claudius in undue haste.It has totally perilous his equilibrium. She married O, most wicked speed, to post With such dexterity to incestuous sheets (Act. I. Scene. I) When he is down with low and shock he is advised by King Hamlets Ghost to take re venge. In the darkness, the ghost speaks to Hamlet claiming to be his fathers spirit. It arouses the feelings of vengeance in Hamlet and to revenge his death, a foul and most unnatural murder (Act. I. v. 25). Hamlet was horrified at the sight of the Ghost and by knowing how his father was murdered by his uncle Claudius.At first he could not believe whether the Ghost was real. The message of the Ghost puts him in a dilemma, as it advises him to take revenge on Claudius and not to smash Gertrude and leave her to destiny and her conscience. Hamlet gets shocked and bewildered. He does not like to jump to the conclusion of taking immediate action. He wants to confirm it by his own method of getting abounding evidence against King Claudius. To confirm what the King Hamlets Ghost has told Hamlet plans to show King Claudius a play which has close resemblance to the murder of King Hamlet.The play called The Murder of Gonzago was played causing King Claudius to answer which logically concl udes Hamlets suspicion. Once his suspicion is confirmed, he wants to proceed with his plans of putting an end to Claudius. Hamlet sympathizes his weak mind when he feels the intensity in the expression of the dialogues of the players when they were practicing. He resolves to take decisive action and plans a trap for Claudius. Hamlet is quite successful in trapping Claudius and getting evidence from the way Claudius reacts when he watches the drama and cries out at the crucial moment.It is rather Hamlets personal compulsion to answer his conscience that he needs clear evidence to prove what King Hamlets Ghost has told him. It is the hallmark of Hamlets character that he does not jump to conclusion without enough proof. Hamlets education and sensitivity and general philosophical disposition must have made him seek for valid proof against the King Claudius. But what surprises everyone is he doesnt take the chance to pull down Claudius when an opportunity presents itself. Hamlet find s his own reasons in not taking the chance.He doesnt like to award his murderous uncle to go to Heaven by killing him when he is in prayer. So he leaves the opportunity which is considered by many the best chance. He reasons out that the murderer of his father does not deserve Heaven. This only delays his action further. According to Dover Wilson in that respect is no delay in avenging the death of Hamlets father. He feels Hamlet has acted in time. According to E E Stoll, in that location is no delay it is just a convention of the play. He is of the opinion that if there is no delay, there is no play at all. All these indicate that there is delay in taking revenge.Hamlet himself feels it and it is noteworthy that he has to be reminded by the Ghost again when he was furious with his mother Gertrude. These are proof enough to prove that revenge has been delayed. When the play itself is addressing the issue of delay, it is unreasonable to say that there is no delay. T. S. Eliot, the noted poet and critic considers Hamlet an artistic failure. He says So far from being Shakespeares masterpiece, the play is most certainly an artistic failure. In several ways the play is puzzling, and disquieting as is none of the others.Of all the plays it is the longest and is possibly the one on which Shakespeare spent most pains and yet he has left in it superfluous and mismatched scenes which even hasty revision should have noticed. (Eliot) He also feels that Hamlet is dominated by an sensation which is inexpressible and is in excess. Hamlet is unable to manage his own emotions as he could not find objective correlative (Eliot). In other words, it is a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion. Explaining his theory, Eliot saysHamlet is up against the difficulty that his disgust is occasioned by his mother, but that his mother is not an adequate equivalent for it his disgust envelops and exceeds her. It is thus a fee ling which he cannot understand he cannot project it, and it therefore remains to poison life and obstruct action. (Eliot) In the article Hamlets Thoughts and Antics, Margreta de Grazia observes that Shakespeare wanted to create a character that thinks and showed it through Hamlet. Shakespeare produced a tragedy of inaction- a tragedy of thought. It is performance of thought-as inaction- as DELAY. Margreta de Grazia) A. C. Bradley considered an ascendency on Shakespearean Tragedy, analyses the reasons for Hamlets delay in his famous lectures on Hamlet. His discussion on Hamlet attracted many with his convincing reasons. He does not find any remote things as obstacles for his delay in taking revenge. Hamlet has access to the King and Hamlet never mentions about any external barriers. Hence citing the external factors as the primary reason for the delay in action is totally nullified. Bradley does not accept Hamlets reason to justify his conscience as the main reason for the delay. Hamlet is unconsciously ambivalent about this duty Bradley says in the depths of his nature, and unknown to himself, there was a moral mutual exclusiveness to the deed. (Bradley) Goethes popular view of Hamlet as a graceful youth, sweet and sensitive, full of clarified sympathies is nothing but sentimental according to Bradley. In the same way, Bradley disagrees to Coleridges view that Hamlet has garbled himself in the labyrinths of thought. Bradley proposes that Hamlet delays because of his melancholy. Melancholy is not the usual state of Hamlets mind. It is a temporary depression at the sudden loss of his father.And the subsequent incidents will only paralyze him in contempt for everything- the world, the flesh and himself. He justifies it and proceeds further to show how this disgust at life and everything results in longing for death and inexpressible apathy. Hamlet does not understand his own inaction and apathy and curses himself in utter disappointment over his disinclina tion to take revenge. There is another strong object claiming that there is no delay in taking revenge. During the presentation of the drama on the stage the spectators never realize Hamlet has delayed his action.The depiction of the inner struggle of the protagonist rather enhances the effect of the drama on the stage. It provides variety and takes the audience along with the hero to different emotional states and keeps them curious until the end. This is Shakespeares most amusive play says, Dr. Johnson. The play shows two more characters who want to take revenge of the death of their fathers. They offer a good contrast to Hamlets delay. Fortinbras and Laertes are unlike Hamlet. They are effective in their close to take revenge and are very quick in their action.Shakespeare presents these two characters offering the spectators an opportunity to understand Hamlet in a different way. When the very purpose of the drama is to present the hero in that mode there is no argument regard ing his delay in taking revenge. The argument that Hamlet is basically a coward can not be taken valid at all as there are many instances to show against it. He does not run away from the Ghost as cowards do. He does not escape from the challenges especially the duel between him and Laertes. The claim that Hamlet has a physical worry will only undermine his character.If there is a serious physical problem, then he becomes a good example for medical case study, and certainly does not deserve a place in literary criticism. The interpretation that he has a serious mental health problem will not stand given the depth and meaning of Hamlets soliloquies. In fact, the crucial point in the play is Hamlet himself feels guilty about his inability in taking timely action. He laments at the delay and attributes that to his lack of tenacity for action. He is on the search to know why he is not able to take revenge immediately. He is at a loss to express what represses him from taking revenge.F reudian school of psychology has interpreted Hamlets story from Oedipus complex point of view. Though the argument is persuasive, one can not subscribe to that point. Hamlet continues to be a puzzle and his delay can be interpreted in every possible way. The endless criticism on Hamlet reminds the lines of great Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, who says from the words of the poet, men take what meanings please them. (Tagore) Every interpretation focuses a new shot of Hamlet. It is worth exploring as it helps readers to have a better understanding of Hamlets dilemma.