Hamlet Essay 1 
Shakespeare’s Hamlet revolves around Hamlet’s inaction and subsequent action. Explore the causes and results of these two elements.
Shakespeare’s Hamlet focuses on man’s action and subsequent inaction resulting from the situations and circumstances life presents. The characters and the plays events significantly impact the protagonist constantly pushing Hamlet towards vengeance. Hamlet’s oscillation between action and inaction are a direct result of the characters sense of obligation and convenience. Hamlets flirtation with madness and indecision resolve in tragedy. The protagonists experiences in Hamlet and his behaviours that are neither actions nor inactions personify the fundamental flaw in his character, indecision. Furthered by the character resigning himself to a desperate almost mad need for resolution, “Hamlet is able to do anything – except take vengeance on the man who did away his father” [A.C. Bradley]. The commencement of this journey for revenge is demonstrated through the use of death imagery in Act 1, Scene 5, when Hamlet is told, “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder”. Hamlet’s instructions to avenge his fathers killer represents and integral moment in the plot as the narrative begins to centralise around revenge and justice. Here the audience is exposed to Hamlets most honest and fatal character weakness, a fundamental inability to take decisive action. This inaction is evident in Hamlet’s initial conversation with the Ghost, Hamlet shows his determination to seek revenge for his father’s death, “Haste me to know’t that I, with wings as swift as meditating, or the thoughts of love, may sweep to my revenge.” (1.5) This simile furthers the concept of an ambitious Hamlet riddled with desperate human emotions. The character Laertes questions the concept of revenge and inaction as he embodies determination and strength “That both the worlds I give to negligence, let come what comes, only ill be revenged most thoroughly for my father”(4.4).
Shakespeare’s Hamlet focuses on man’s action and subsequent inaction resulting from the situations and circumstances life presents. The characters and the plays events significantly impact the protagonist constantly pushing Hamlet towards vengeance. Hamlet’s oscillation between action and inaction are a direct result of the characters sense of obligation and convenience. Hamlets flirtation with madness and indecision resolve in tragedy. The protagonists experiences in Hamlet and his behaviours that are neither actions nor inactions personify the fundamental flaw in his character, indecision. Furthered by the character resigning himself to a desperate almost mad need for resolution, “Hamlet is able to do anything – except take vengeance on the man who did away his father” [A.C. Bradley]. The commencement of this journey for revenge is demonstrated through the use of death imagery in Act 1, Scene 5, when Hamlet is told, “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder”. Hamlet’s instructions to avenge his fathers killer represents and integral moment in the plot as the narrative begins to centralise around revenge and justice. Here the audience is exposed to Hamlets most honest and fatal character weakness, a fundamental inability to take decisive action. This inaction is evident in Hamlet’s initial conversation with the Ghost, Hamlet shows his determination to seek revenge for his father’s death, “Haste me to know’t that I, with wings as swift as meditating, or the thoughts of love, may sweep to my revenge.” (1.5) This simile furthers the concept of an ambitious Hamlet riddled with desperate human emotions. The character Laertes questions the concept of revenge and inaction as he embodies determination and strength “That both the worlds I give to negligence, let come what comes, only ill be revenged most thoroughly for my father”(4.4).