Hamlets Impractical Thinking A
Shakespeare’s Hamlet revolves around the title character’s undeniable obligation to immediately avenge his father’s death by killing Claudius. Yet much time elapses before Hamlet finally does slay his evil uncle, leading to a fundamental question: what causes the hero to delay before eventually managing to salvage some retribution? The answer is that Hamlet’s reoccuring state of impractical contemplation renders him incapable of any decisive action that could have brought quick revenge.
A key moment in the play comes in the first act, when the ghost of Hamlet’s father informs the prince of his duty: “If thou didst ever thy father love/...Revenge his foul ...
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to truly ease the suffering of his father’s spirit, he must avenge the murder immediately.
Hamlet initially meets his challenge with zeal, promising the Ghost that he will produce quick results:
Yea, from the table of my memory
I’ll wipe away all trivial, fond records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,
That youth and observation copied there,
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain,
Unmixed with baser matter. Yes, by heaven! [1.5: 105-111]
Yet despite this stirring vow to sweep to revenge, one major obstacle lies ahead: Hamlet’s impractical thinking.
Our first experience with Hamlet’s tendency to wander into the realm of the abstract comes even before he meets the Ghost. In Act I, Scene iv, as Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus await the spirit, they observe Claudius, who is drunk. His scholarly mind always searching for new intellectual morsels, Hamlet uses the king’s seemingly ...
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Hamlets Impractical Thinking A. (2008, January 14). Retrieved June 19, 2025, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hamlets-Impractical-Thinking-A/77445
"Hamlets Impractical Thinking A." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 14 Jan. 2008. Web. 19 Jun. 2025. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hamlets-Impractical-Thinking-A/77445>
"Hamlets Impractical Thinking A." Essayworld.com. January 14, 2008. Accessed June 19, 2025. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hamlets-Impractical-Thinking-A/77445.
"Hamlets Impractical Thinking A." Essayworld.com. January 14, 2008. Accessed June 19, 2025. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hamlets-Impractical-Thinking-A/77445.
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