In act 3.2 when Claudius delivers his monologue on the nature of his deeds, I was struck by how increasingly similar he and Hamlet grow throughout the play. Claudius’ language reeks of indecision, of a man who is trapped by the oaths he made to himself:
” Pray can I not, /Though inclination be as sharp as will./My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent, / And like a man to double business bound/ I stand in pause where I shall first begin, / And both neglect” (3.3.40-3).
On the one hand there is a part of him that wants to absolve himself of his sins, perhaps by taking the punishment fit for his heinous crime. But on the other hand, he doesn’t want to give up all the things he acquired through this act. His guilt is stronger than his will to repent.
Similarly Hamlet has the “strong intent” of avenging his father’s death, but this intent is ever defeated by internal debates as to a mode of action. He too is to double business bound. By always weighing two courses of action against each other, Hamlet always ends up neglecting both courses.
I think we’re seeing in this play an extraordinary proliferation of these unexpected resemblances, Sarah. Note that I’ve edited the quotation to be sure that the punctuation matches that of the original. Where the pauses come is important.