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How Is Hamlet Selfish

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Foremost, Hamlet is characterized as extremely hesitant and introverted throughout the play, culminating in his death, along with his mother’s. Shakespeare describes Hamlet in a manner that paints him as indecisive in enacting his father’s revenge, always letting opportune moments pass. For instance, after hearing from the ghost of his father that Claudius is behind Hamlet Sr.’s death, Hamlet synthesizes an elaborate plot to expose Claudius using a traveling troupe rather than confronting Claudius. Specifically Hamlet states: “Out of my weakness and my melancholy/As he is very potent with such spirits/Abuses me to damn me. I'll have grounds/More relative than this The play's the thing/Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King”(2.2.590-594). …show more content…

Moreover, later in the play, Hamlet is an advantageous position to kill Claudius and avenge his father, but he waits, fearing wrath of God; resolving to wait for Claudius to sin before killing him, as if murder is not a great enough sin. Specifically Hamlet states: “No/ Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent/Where he is drunk asleep,or in his rage/Or in th’incestuous pleasure of his bed/At game a-swearing, or about some act”(3.4.86-91). Within this statement, Hamlet yet again finds a reason to not kill Claudius, deciding to wait for a moment where Claudius is committing a sin before enacting revenge. Yet, this uncertainty ultimately leads to a number of avoidable deaths within the play. For example, the deaths of Ophelia, Polonius, Laertes, Gertrude, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern are all indirectly linked to Hamlet’s hesitation. For instance, Martin Cohen writes in his dissertation, Hamlet's Delay: An Attempt At Synthesis, : “ Hamlet's mind is "tainted" and "thinking does make it so” , leading to Hamlet’s abuse of loved ones, most notably Gertrude and Ophelia, along with the death of a number of characters within the play (Cohen

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