Hamlet is Not a Coward Essay -- Essays on Shakespeare Hamlet

Hamlet is Not a Coward The first seven lines of Hamlets soliloquy in the third burst of the third act have been the cause of debate for centuries as to what they reveal about Hamlets character. Some say that he has chickened out of the prime opportunity to check the revenge that he has been commissioned to achieve by the ghost of his father. They accuse Hamlet of being a pacifist who hasnt the heart to put his thoughts into action-that he has merely talked himself out of the deed. My interruption of these lines, however, shows that just the opposite is true. The Prince of Denmark is indeed set upon avenging his fathers death, and rather than backing away from the task at hand, he is going forward in away which is int force outed to bring dishonor to Claudius and maintain his own honor at the same time. Now might I do it pat, now he is praying And now Ill dot. And so a goes to heaven And so am I revengd. that would be scannd A villain kills my father and for that, I, sole son, do this same villain engineer To heaven. Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge. --Hamlet III.iii.73-79 Hamlet becomes truly committed to revenging his fathers murder after the Mouse Trap scene in Act II in which the guilty conscience of Claudius is clearly brought forth. His little hunt down had a two fold effect which spurs Hamlet forward. First of all, by mimicking the exact way in which Claudius killed his brother and espouse his sister-in-law, Claudius knew that Hamlet was on to him. The second effect may or may not have been intend by Hamlet, but the murderer in his play happened to be the nephew of the king, which may have been interrupted by Claudius as Hamlets future intentions. Both of ... ...ational thought, for had he stopped and thought for a moment, he would have know that it couldnt possibly have been the King-he had just left Claudius praying. Revenge is a dangerous game to play as Hamlet well found out. In the end his fathers death is avenged, yet the kingdom has been lost to Norway - a greater tragedy than the death of all the main characters. Works Cited and Consulted Bloom, Harold. Modern Critical Interpretations Of Hamlet. New York, NY Chelsea mob Publishers, 1986. Charney, Maurice. All of Shakespeare. New York, NY. Columbia University Press. 1993. Evans, Gareth Lloyd. The Upstart Crow-An Intro. to Shakespeares Plays. London, England J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd, 1982. Magill, Frank N. Masterplots. Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1995. Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Garden City, NY Garden City Books, 1936