Banke Choudhry

Professor J.Peer

Paper 2 – First Draft

Due November 28, 2017

Cover Letter

What I wanted to prove in this essay is that Hamlet’s indecisiveness is not a tragic flaw. His indecisiveness is justified; Hamlet is pondering upon a serious decision in killing Claudius. Who wouldn’t be indecisive when thinking about killing their uncle? Who wouldn’t be indecisive when they believe in the possibility of an unpleasant afterlife caused by actions here in the physical life? I think that Hamlet is smart for testing Claudius’s reaction to The Murder of Gonzaga before acting.

            In this essay, though, I argue about the cause of his hesitation – not whether his hesitation is justified or not. It’s only in the conclusion that I mention my opinion that his hesitation is justified. I’m hoping that by then, the body of my essay would’ve been enough food for thought that the reader will agree that Hamlet’s hesitation is justified.

Hamlet’s Hesitation Caused By Thoughts of The Afterlife

Hamlet’s fear of pain in the afterlife is the cause of his hesitation to kill Claudius. In the beginning of the play, Hamlet meets his father’s ghost, and this ghost of King Hamlet explains that he was killed by his brother and can’t rest now as a ghost because he was murdered. Although Hamlet is willing to take revenge on Claudius for his own father, he is not willing to kill someone (Claudius) unless he’s sure that his killing is justified. If his killing is not justified then Hamlet would have committed a mortal sin in killing an innocent Claudius.

Hamlet expresses concern that the ghost of his father is actually just a malevolent spirit trying to lure Hamlet into sin. If this spirit can get Hamlet to kill, then it will drag Hamlet into sin and possibly Hell. As we can notice this in Act 2 Scene 2 where hamlet says:

“The spirit that I have seen May be the devil: and the devil hath power to assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps Out of my weakness and my melancholy, As he is very potent with such spirits, Abuses me to damn me”

Hamlet indicates worry about this and won’t make a move unless the ghost is demonstrated to truly be his father’s. Hamlet is a mastermind more so than a practitioner – he doesn’t make a move without ensuring that it’s completely the correct decision. This can be a disadvantage in some situations; but if eternal damnation is a possibility then perhaps Hamlet is right to be hesitant.

Hamlet seeks to confirm that the ghost is real by changing the upcoming play The Murder of Gonzago. He tells the actors to add a few extra lines that resemble Claudius’s alleged murder of King Hamlet. If Claudius shows unusual emotional reaction during this part, then Hamlet will know that the ghost is really his own father. He will not have to be afraid of being misled by demons and other malevolent entities who are pretending to be his father just to get him to kill. He will be able to avenge his father so that his father can rest in peace. (I don’t know why revenge would let a soul rest in peace though; isn’t revenge evil?)

Speaking of revenge, Hamlet is not afraid to let Cladius suffer the fate that Hamlet himself is trying to evade. Hamlet speaks of wanting to kill Claudius in a moment that Claudius is sinning, so that he will go to Hell when Hamlet kills him. He does not just want to kill Claudius; he would prefer to kill him and send him to Hell. Therefore, Hamlet does not act upon killing Claudius when he sees Claudius praying, as praying is a good deed that is devoted to God; so Claudius would go to Heaven if he is killed in that moment. This is what Hamlet thinks will happen. This can be seen in this quote of Hamlet’s from Act 3 Scene 3:

“and am I then revenged, To take him in the purging of his soul, When he is fit and seasoned for his passage? No! Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hunt: When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed”

Hamlet expresses his fear of the afterlife in his famous soliloquy. In the follow quote, Hamlet expresses how no smart human would risk eternal pain in the afterlife by killing themselves or living a sinful life (although technically all humans are sinners) instead of just staying alive and behaving:

“who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscovered country from whose bourn No traveler returns, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of?”

One line in Hamlet’s soliloquy sums up why he hesitates to kill Claudius. This line is: “Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,” meaning that fear of death and what’s beyond this world makes cowards of us all. Hamlet is afraid to take action (killing Claudius) that may alter his future afterlife for the worse, such as switching his reservation from Heaven to Hell, or that may lead to his own death in a fight. Because attempting to murder someone almost guarantees complications such as their loved ones trying to take revenge on you, Hamlet’s life would never be the same if he tried to kill Claudius. His murder of Polonius has already sent Polonius’s son after Hamlet, which is one example of Hamlet’s life never going to be the same, although Hamlet doesn’t know that Laertes wants him dead. Even if Hamlet evades being taken revenge on, God may punish him in the afterlife.

Perhaps this play is suspenseful because the viewer watches Hamlet hesitate with death, while the viewer already knows that he will die at the end of the day. The viewer watches Hamlet ruminate about what is beyond his physical life and whether the ghost he saw was really just a demon trying to drag him to Hell, while already knowing that Hamlet will very soon find these things out within Act 5. It may also be suspenseful in watching how Claudius will finally die; Claudius still is not dead when Hamlet is poisoned with the sword equipped by Laertes, so the viewer knows that Hamlet must pull some trick very quickly to kill Claudius. Hamlet himself does not know that he only has a minute or so left, but the viewer knows and the viewer also knows that Hamlet will likely kill Claudius within the next few lines, as a result of Hamlet’s being poisoned. This strain in the watcher is settled when Laertes tells hamlet about the poison: “In thee there is not half an hour of life; The treacherous instrument is in thy hand, Unabated and envenomed,” thus, Hamlet accordingly utilizes the similar poison substance to murder Claudius rapidly.

Ironically, Hamlet may have been sent to the afterlife so soon if he didn’t think about the afterlife so much. Hamlet had a good opportunity to kill Claudius earlier in the play when Claudius was praying; although because Hamlet waiting to try and kill Claudius at a better moment, he found himself in a situation where he’s poisoned and only has a few minutes left to kill Claudius. Whether or not it was better for Hamlet to wait for Claudius to die during a sin, and in turn end up dying too, or not is debatable. The argument could be made that Hamlet dying was a worthy sacrifice because he died nobly avenging his father and will go somewhere nice in the afterlife while Claudius will go somewhere unpleasant for having been killed during a moment of his own sin. So, Hamlet sacrificed his physical life to kill Claudius at the right moment to send him to an unpleasant afterlife, but he (Hamlet) went to a pleasant eternal afterlife himself as a result, which is worth the sacrifice. Horatio and Fortinbras saw Hamlet’s vengeance as noble, as can be seen in their decision to give him a noble funeral.

Another way to see the final scene is that, in another ironic turn of events, Hamlet dies during an unpleasant moment of sin, which is how he wanted Claudius to die. Hamlet died during an onslaught of violence, and although Horatio and Fortinbras saw Hamlet’s final moments as righteous instead of evil, perhaps God did not. Perhaps God saw Hamlet’s vengeance as sinful, and since Hamlet died as he finally got his vengeance on Claudius, Hamlet will suffer the fate he was trying to give to Claudius. This ending assumes that Hamlet is correct in his view of God: that God chooses where to put people in the afterlife based on their final moment when alive^{*which, unrelated to the essay, I strongly disagree with}. Where he came to this conclusion is debateable: it could be Hamlet’s own personal experiences with God that led him to think this, it could be Shakespeare’s own view projected through his character Hamlet, or it could be the view of a church that Shakespeare followed at the time.

In conclusion, Hamlet’s hesitation, whether justified or not, was caused by his thoughts of the afterlife. The viewer of the play knows that Hamlet dies in the end, and they get to watch and see Hamlet ruminate about fear of the afterlife unsuspecting of his upcoming visit to it. The reason, most specifically, for Hamlet’s rumination of the afterlife is his suspicion that the ghost of his father is an imposter: a demon trying to trick Hamlet into murdering Claudius to try and drag Hamlet to an unpleasant afterlife. Hamlet, fearing this, takes the right precaution to ensure that the ghost really is his dad and then acts. Although others may consider Hamlet’s indecisiveness to be a flaw, it makes sense that he would be indecisive in such a serious decision. If Hamlet makes the wrong decision, then his fear of an unpleasant afterlife can come true.

Work Citation

Shakespeare, William, and Cyrus Hoy. Hamlet. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996.

“MenuDramatica®The Next Chapter in Story Development.” Hamlet – Analysis – Dramatica, dramatica.com/analysis/hamlet.