Historical Context Behind Hamlet's Procrastination
The Historical Context Behind Hamlet’s Procrastination
Among the most influential and popular English tragedies, William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark or Hamlet is still known for its structure and rich characterization that lead to the critical scrutiny the play enjoys today. A centuries-old debate, the reason for Hamlet’s delay in killing Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle who killed his brother and married his sister-in-law, was first seen as a necessary feature of the plot and has now become a topic of debate with justifications ranging from his “exquisite sense of moral conduct ... [and] amiable weakness” (Jenkins 19) to the “circumstances that opposed him [and] prevented Hamlet from acting” (Jenkins 21). During Shakespeare’s time, the supernatural were gaining interest, principally ghosts. The ghosts were said to be created when an individual died in a terrible and brutal situation; they were also not to be trusted as devils were said to have the power to take on …show more content…
When Hamlet originally sees the Ghost and wants to follow it, he is warned by Horatio: “What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord?/... And there assume some other horrible form/Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason/And draw you into madness?” During Shakespeare’s time, “a ghost would stand in suspicion of being not the spirit belonging to the body in which it was clothed, but very possibly a devil that had for the occasion borrowed the use of that body”(Grebanier 154). Even Hamlet considers this: “...The spirit I have seen/May be a and the hath power/T’ assume a pleasing shape ... /to damn me.” Hamlet’s distrust of the Ghost prevents him from taking immediate action against Claudius, least he punish an innocent man, and instead requires him to concoct a way to determine Claudius’s guilt and role in his father’s
Among the most influential and popular English tragedies, William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark or Hamlet is still known for its structure and rich characterization that lead to the critical scrutiny the play enjoys today. A centuries-old debate, the reason for Hamlet’s delay in killing Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle who killed his brother and married his sister-in-law, was first seen as a necessary feature of the plot and has now become a topic of debate with justifications ranging from his “exquisite sense of moral conduct ... [and] amiable weakness” (Jenkins 19) to the “circumstances that opposed him [and] prevented Hamlet from acting” (Jenkins 21). During Shakespeare’s time, the supernatural were gaining interest, principally ghosts. The ghosts were said to be created when an individual died in a terrible and brutal situation; they were also not to be trusted as devils were said to have the power to take on …show more content…
When Hamlet originally sees the Ghost and wants to follow it, he is warned by Horatio: “What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord?/... And there assume some other horrible form/Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason/And draw you into madness?” During Shakespeare’s time, “a ghost would stand in suspicion of being not the spirit belonging to the body in which it was clothed, but very possibly a devil that had for the occasion borrowed the use of that body”(Grebanier 154). Even Hamlet considers this: “...The spirit I have seen/May be a and the hath power/T’ assume a pleasing shape ... /to damn me.” Hamlet’s distrust of the Ghost prevents him from taking immediate action against Claudius, least he punish an innocent man, and instead requires him to concoct a way to determine Claudius’s guilt and role in his father’s