Reason And Passion In Shakespeare's Hamlet

In Shakespeare’s play, “Hamlet”, the protagonist, Hamlet, is engaged in a constant battle between reason and passion which ultimately leads to his downfall. The plot is almost entirely driven by the lack or excess of either reason or passion. Reason refers to the logic used in order to appropriately address a situation without the bias of emotions, whereas passion alludes to the feelings involved in one's actions that may be uncontrollable and impulsive. Throughout the play, there are many instances in which the characters must balance reason and passion, however, many of them rely too heavily on one or the other. The paragraphs below will discuss the reason, passion, and balance between the two in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”.

Hamlet grows

While talking to Rosencratz and Guildenstern Hamlet philosophises, speaking of the futility of life and man: “What a piece of work is man, how noble in reason; how infinite in faculties... how express and admirable in action...how like a god: the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals. And yet to me, what is this quintessence of dust?” (Act 2, Scene 2) Hamlet is observing how humans come from the same cosmic dust as every other living creature. Although Shakespeare may have intended this line to show Hamlet’s depression, it also proves how deep of a thinker he is. Throughout the play, Hamlet had many opportunities to kill Claudius, however he did not take them due to his thinking too deeply and using reason to dissuade himself. “Now might I do it, now he is a-praying. And now I’ll do’ t. And so he goes to heaven...A villain kills my father, and...I, his sole son, do the same villain send to heaven….Am i then revenged to take him...when he is fit and season'd for his passage. No.” (Act 3, Scene 3) Hamlet is about to kill Claudius when he decides that, because he is praying, he would go to heaven and that would not be adequate revenge. This proves that Hamlet reasons too much with himself instead of acting on his emotions, causing his eventual downfall by continuously delaying his murder of