The Delay in Hamlet’s Revenge Essay example -- Revenge and Vengeance i

The Delay in Hamlet’s Revenge  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   Hamlet's first thoughts after learning of his father's murder are of an immediate, violent revenge upon Claudius. However, his subsequent actions do not live up to these resolutions. Over four acts he takes little deliberate action against his uncle, although the ghost explicitly demands a swift revenge. In S. T. Coleridge's words, Hamlet's central weakness is that he is "continually resolving to do, yet doing nothing but resolve". Hamlet's first soliloquy, following a hostile conversation with Claudius and Gertrude, shows him grief-stricken, bitter and despairing. The source of Hamlet's melancholy is "his father's death" and the "o'er-hasty marriage" of his mother and uncle. He feels he has to do something, but he does not know precisely what. He expresses his disgust at his mother's inconstancy and incestuous remarriage, but is bound to suffer in silence: he must "hold [his] tongue" for reasons of diplomacy. The world seems empty, and he uses imagery of corruption, darkness, disease and imprisonment to reveal his state of mind. At the beginning of the play, all Hamlet sees is a terrible situation which he has no power to change. The ghost's command therefore gives Hamlet purpose; a reason to live. Its instruction is unmistakable: "if thou didst ever thy dear father love...revenge his foul and most unnatural murder." The apparition, armed "from head to foot", then relates the story of Claudius' treachery in graphic and horrible detail. It is now apparent to Hamlet what is "rotten in the state of Denmark". Shakespeare makes it very clear what Hamlet's duty is and who his enemy is. Hamlet is charged to avenge his father's murder and free Denmark from the shadow of the king's fr... ...e. N.p.: Princeton University Press, 1972.    Pitt, Angela. â€Å"Women in Shakespeare’s Tragedies.† Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint from Shakespeare’s Women. N.p.: n.p., 1981.    Rosenberg, Marvin. â€Å"Laertes: An Impulsive but Earnest Young Aristocrat.† Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from The Masks of Hamlet. Newark, NJ: Univ. of Delaware P., 1992.    Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http://www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html    West, Rebecca. â€Å"A Court and World Infected by the Disease of Corruption.† Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from The Court and the Castle. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1957.