Essay/Term paper: Indecisiveness

Essay, term paper, research paper:  English Composition

Indecisiveness

In the story Hamlet, there is a prince who is unable to make decisions for himself. A prince who must have good quality proof before he decides to do something. The public refers to people who cannot make decisions for themselves as people who are indecisive. In Hamlet, the prince of Denmark, Hamlet, is unable to make decisions for himself, and relies on the actions of others to make his final choice on wether to kill his Uncle Claudius or not. Many situations confirm this, such as when Hamlet put on a play, when someone was killed with something placed into the actors ear killing him and making Claudius panic and run off. Or when Hamlet says, "I'll have grounds/ more relative than this--the play's the thing/ Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King" (II.ii.583-585), this suggests that Hamlet is indecisive because he does not have enough information to decide if Claudius is guilty or not. And also in many of Hamlet"s soliloquies, Hamlet speaks to himself and questions his own judgement at many times during the play. All this can lead one to believe that Hamlet"s fatal flaw was his inability to make a solid choice, or indecisiveness.

Hamlet"s friend invited a group of traveling actors to come to the court and preform an act for Hamlet to cheer him up. Hamlet financially supports this group of actors and asks for them to, at the end, have a killing in which a liquid will be placed into the ear of a actor, thus killing him. Hamlet believes this will make Claudius snap and he will have enough proof to kill Claudius. The plan goes as follows and Claudius stands up, shouts for light, and rushes off. Hamlet and his friend Horatio agree that this is enough proof. But still, even after this incident, Hamlet never does anything to capitalize. Because of this incident, where in any other circumstance, Claudius would have no reason to run off, but he did, Hamlet should have been convinced that the ghost of his father that spoke to him months before was the ghost of his father, and not the devil.

In act two, scene two, Hamlet says "I'll have grounds/ more relative than this--the play's the thing/ Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King" (II.ii.583-585), this tells a lot about Hamlet. First off, even though the ghost looked like his father, he would not believe the ghost, fearing the devil may have taken his fathers form. This suggests that Hamlet is not a person of impulse, and will not act on a single bit of evidence, he needs evidence, and very good evidence to carry out the murder of Claudius because he knows the seriousness of the situation. It also suggests that Hamlet does suspect Claudius and does not immediately dismiss the ghost"s story of the killing of his father.

In Hamlet, Hamlet talks to himself a lot of times, these are called soliloquies. In many of Hamlet's soliloquies, he tells himself he is ashamed of the way he has acted and how he[Hamlet] is a coward. When the messenger from the army of Fortinbras asks him for permission to cross his land so they can attack Poland and he goes on to tell him they are going to fight for a worthless piece of land, he calls himself a coward for not doing what is expected of him. Hamlet compares himself to those men who are giving their lives for a useless piece of land, and realizes that those men have honor and bravery, something he wants to have but does not. He blames his inaction to "Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple / Of thinking too precisely on th' event" (IV.iv.40-41). Hamlet thinks that he thinks either too much or not enough. After this incident it propels Hamlet to say "O, from this time forth, My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth" (IV.iv.65- 6), which will drive him to violent action.



With all the things going on in Hamlet's mind, one could confer that he could have actually gone insane. But he was indeed sane, and did a good job acting like he was insane. But while acting, he could not think of what to do, as he thought, Hamlet did think too much. During the play when Claudius ran off after the poison scene should of been proof enough, but Hamlet read to much into it. Hamlets many soliloquies, proves he is indecisive. Hamlet even tells himself that he is, when he says, "Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple / Of thinking too precisely on th' event" (IV.iv.40-41). It was obvious from the time that Hamlet saw the ghost of his father that he had a good idea in the back of his mind that he was convinced of Claudius' guilt. But because Hamlet was not a creature of impulse, he looked too much into certain situations which explained themselves. And because of indecisiveness, Hamlet died in the end when he could have ended Claudius' life long before.