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Do Individuals Often Require Assurance From The External World When Trying To Restore Honor And Certainty?

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Do individuals often require assurance from the external world when trying to restore honor and certainty? In William Shakespeare's play Hamlet it is prominent that the main character, Hamlet, requires a complete sense of assurance to restore honor and certainty. This firstly leads to his downfall, as well as the downfall of those around him. However, throughout the play it is greatly developed that when Hamlet develops an understanding of where certainty should come from, his goals and purpose start to align into a clear picture, ultimately leading towards the end that he desires, true revenge and for his father to rest peacefully. With this goal he also restores his own honor which he had lost, and gained a sense of understanding of what …show more content…

Hamlet develops the play-within-the play to try and get a reaction out of Claudius. Although it does work and he gets the reaction he desires on a silver platter just as he hoped, he is then further uncertain within himself and procrastinates on what needs to be done. Within this action of setting up this play he desires enough certainty to act on his thoughts and he receives that assurance, yet he still chooses not to, which then leads to more procrastination which is a common theme within the play. As a result of his inaction, others are harmed and chaos erupts. As such, Hamlet does not act despite having the external assurance that Claudius did murder his father, he just lacks the certainty within himself to do the actions. Whilst Claudius is praying Hamlet cowers from his decisions and further loses his honor from himself, his revenge is further put on hold. Moreover, the delay in Claudius death leads to Hamlet threatening his own mother as well as the death of Polonius, this uncertainty that developed in Hamlet's mind coupled with a chase for reassurance from the outside world leads to a mass chaos to erupt as an individual can never truly gain complete certainty from the outside while having no certainty within themselves. While Hamlet was uncertain of Claudius going to heaven or hell whilst he was praying that inaction led to the death of Polonius, Hamlet started to act rashly when he did not too, and did not act when he should have. This mental uncertainty that developed within himself ultimately leads to not only his downfall but those around him too; eventually he develops the understanding that certainty must come from

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