Hamlet's Indecisiveness: A Good Thing?

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses how "Hamlet" shows the causes and results of agonizing indecisiveness on Hamlet's part. The paper presents the position that despite the harm by Hamlet waiting to kill Claudius, it also allowed him to at least die with the clarity that he had uncovered the mystery of his father's death and discovered the root causes of Denmark's rottenness.

From the Paper:

"A truism about Shakespeare's title character in perhaps his greatest play Hamlet is Prince Hamlet's perceived "tragic flaw" of waiting much too long to avenge his father's death by not killing Claudius; the main architect of the King's premeditated murder, sooner than he does. Despite the fact that Hamlet comes to a bad end his waiting to kill Claudius allows him to at least die with the clarity that he has not just uncovered the mystery of his father's death but discovered, also, the root causes of Denmark's "rottenness" (Reed; McCullen). Hamlet dies trying to put things right, finally destroying what he knows is the main source of that rottenness, Claudius, and with the certainty that Fortinbras will now take the place of his treacherous uncle."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Conrad, Bernard R. "Hamlet's Delay-A Restatement of the Problem." PMLA, Vol. 41, No. 3 (Sep., 1926) 680-687.
• Eliot, T.S. "Hamlet and his Problems." The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism. London: Methuen, 1922. 74-88.
• Lawall, Sarah, et al. "William Shakespeare 1564-1616." The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Vol. C (Pkg. 1). New York: Norton, 2002. 2821-2825.
• Levy, Eric P. "The Mind of Man in Hamlet." Renascence. July 1, 2002. 219-223.
• McCloskey, John C. "Hamlet's Quest of Certainty." College English, Vol. 2, No. 5 (Feb. 1941) 445-451.

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