Why does Hamlet delay in his revenge upon his uncle Claudius? Hamlet's dead father's ghost tells him that Claudius not only killed the king but in the two months since the murder, Claudius has also crowned himself king and married his wife and Hamlet’s mother, Queen Gertrude. Hamlet realizes the truthfulness of these facts by watching Claudius’ reaction to the play within the play, “The Murder of Gonzago”, which depicts the way Claudius murdered his brother with poison. After witnessing Claudius’ guilty reaction, Hamlet desires to see Claudius pay for his crime. Yet, given the opportunity to murder Claudius as he prays, Hamlet delays. Many theories have been advanced to account for Hamlet' s delay in seeking revenge. Some of them attribute the prince's hesitation to objective, external circumstances, while others to subjective, internal ones. In my opinion, Hamlet's internal conflict …show more content…
The plot of such a play is the murder by a person in power of a close relative of the main character. Then the main character is faced with the problem of whether or not to seek revenge against a murderer who, by his social importance, is out of the reach of ordinary justice. Hamlet had to be considered a "tragic hero" because the title of the play is “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark”. In a classic tragedy, the events help the character face up to his mistake (confrontation/realization). Through the confrontation/realization, the protagonist either learns from his mistake or dies (resolution). Hamlet, however, has no control over the events which eventually lead to his destruction. The audience witness the anti-heroic qualities of Hamlet that appear after the delay: he plots to damn his uncle's soul, he kills Polonius, he sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to death