Delay in Hamlet-Abdel El Karamany The concept of delay in Hamlet is quite complex; it involves the integration and consideration of other themes in the play to be able to fully apprehend the concept of delay itself. Shakespeare uses delay as a plot device and a stylistic one too, using it to add dramatic value to the play and create anticipation and tension amongst the audience. Cleverly, Shakespeare manages to use delay to its maximum effect, not only adopting its slowing or postponement traits but also the absence of these. “Anti“Anti-delay” is used to speed the plot or speech, creating excitement , and also uses it to contrast Hamlet’s delaying nature with Claudius’s contrary “Anti -delay” personality. personality. A tragic hero can be defined as: “A privileged, exalted cha racter of high repute, who by virtue of a tragic flaw and fate, suffers a fall from glory into suffering”. Hamlet can be seen as a tragic hero through this definition, his crucial character flaw being that of delay. We first encounter Hamlet’ s delay in 1.5.92-112, where although Hamlet had previously swore “ with wings as swift as meditation or the thoughts of love” to “sweep to [his] revenge”, immediately after the ghost exits , Hamlet instantly begins doubting the ghost’s words and identity, marking him as a part of the “host of heaven” but also a “couple” to “hell”; this juxtaposition of contrasting imagery shows this doubt and foreshadows hamlet’s future delay to kill Claudius. Howev er, in saying so, Hamlet had sworn his vengeance previous to him learning that it’s his uncle who is “The serpent that did sting thy father’s life”. We are forced to consider had the murderer not been kin, would hamlet still have delayed his vengeance? Hamlet’s Hamlet’s delay may be due to a m oral sense that if he is to kill Claudius it would be a violation of the natural bond of kinship, it would be “strange and unnatural” , much like Claudius killing King Hamlet. This is enough to stop Hamlet from acting immediately and leads him to think; Hamlet decides to examine if “the spirit that” he has “seen may be a devil” so that he can have “grounds more relative” than the words of a ghost figure. However, looking at Hamlet’s soliloquy from 2.2.534 -592 he rebukes himself for delaying vengeance: he is aware of his delay, and yet he chooses not to act until he has confirmed that his revenge will be just, he reasons that “perhaps” the ghost “abuses [him] to damn him”, him”, and so we can deduce that hamlet fears the Christian belief of damnation. Throughout the play there are no signs that Hamlet is incapable of acting, he was quick to kill Polonious, dispatch Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and “boarded” a pirate ship, these actions suggest that Hamlet can be rash and therefore, lack of action is not an innate or previous flaw in Hamlet’s character. And so, Hamlet’s flaw can be linked back to the cause of his delay: the Christian belief of damnation of pursuing unjust vengeance, and not his actual delay, however, looking at the cause of delay we see that it is based on Hamlet’s Hamlet’ s virtue: his reasons for delay are rational and sensible and do not reflect a tragic flaw. If we consider Aristotle’s Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero, we can see that “the tragic hero will most effectively evoke both our pity and terror if he is neither thoroughly good nor evil but a mixture of both; and also that the tragic effect will be stronger if the hero is better than we are in the sense that he is of higher than ordinary moral worth. Such a man is exhibited as suffering a change in fortune from happiness to misery because of a mistaken act, to which he is led by his hamartia ("error of judgment") or his tragic flaw." Humour reduces the impact of a tragedy; Shakespeare uses delay to provide comic relief. By delaying the plot in 5.1.1-190 using “two clowns” one of whom is a gravedigger, who is constantly joking and singing Delay plays a key role in the dramatic value of the play, as Shakespeare uses delay to build tension, anxiety, excitement and even character traits to the audience. Anti-delay and pace
