HAMLET’S DELAY AND PROCRASTINATION Hamlet has been a source of endless speculation to critics and readers and the main interest has been almost exactly fixed on the problem of delay. Why does Hamlet delay carrying out the task entrusted to him by the Ghost? Stoll is of the opinion that if at all there is any delay, delay, it is Shakespeare’s, Shakespeare’s, not Hamlet’s, for he believes if Hamlet had killed laudius at once there !ould have been no play at all. "radley strongly ob#ects to this opinion and says, ‘certainly there is delay. Two months elapse and Claudius still lives’. $ven the critics, !ho agree that there is delay, disagree about the causes of delay. "oth external and internal causes account for Hamlet’s delay.
External Causes %he external causes of Hamlet’s delay are physical difficulties in situation. laudius is not a !eak king. He is a shre!d man !ho does everything to protect his life from unforeseen attacks. He is not only surrounded by courtiers but also strongly protected by S!iss body&guards. Hence Hamlet !ould find it difficult to meet his enemy alone. 'lso he does not in the beginning have any strong proof of laudius’ guilt except the G host’s story. story. With this he cannot hope to !in the people’s help in deposing the king. Ho!ever, Ho!ever, these external difficulties are not ma#or hindrances. Hamlet himself does not speak as if there !ere external difficulties in the !ay of killing laudius. (n act (((, scene (((, !hen he sees laudius at prayer, prayer, he postpones the idea of killing saying that he !ill kill him, him, ‘when he is drunk asleep, or in his rage’.
Shakespeare sho!s )aertes easily raising the people against laudius. (f )aertes could do that, Hamlet, as a popular prince, could more easily have raised the people against laudius. Hence the external difficulties do not account much for this delay.
Internal Causes (nternal causes !hich make Hamlet delay his action are !ithin his o!n character. *ost of the time he is torn bet!een hristian scruples and the obedience to fulfill his father’s desire. (n his solilo+uies he !ishes to commit t he question’. suicide, ‘To be or not to be, that is the "ut he puts aside this thought on the ground of hristian ethics that committing suicide is a sin. We notice, ho!ever, ho!ever, that Hamlet hesitates to kill laudius not on the ground of hristian spirit but because of a most revengeful thought that his soul should go to hell straight and not to heaven. (n addition he feels no remorse at the deaths of olonius, olonius, -osencrant and Guildenstern. So this theory also does not account for his delay. Some feel that the cause of his delay is irresolution, !hich is due to an excess of thinking and reflection. %he energy that should have gone out as an action is spent in the process of cogitation.
Delay Related To Theme And Subject Hamlet is a procrastinator. /aced !ith the imperative act of bloody revenge, his intellect, his philosophical bent, his morality and his o!n emotional instability, instability, it is impossible for him to act s!iftly and decisively. He has to be sure of laudius’ guilt. When everyone at court is pretending to be !hat they are not, it is difficult to distinguish bet!een appearance and reality, and this inhibits action. (f ho!ever !e analye the action of Hamlet , !e find the cause of delay linked to the theme of the play. Hamlet Hamlet is not merely concerned !ith 0illing of his father’s murderer. murderer. (n doing so he feels he must set right the decay in the !orld around him and in the heart of man. The time is out of joint, O cursed spite, That ever I was born to set it right.
Shakespeare has endo!ed Hamlet and and the action of the play !ith a complexity in the context of !hich the delay is understandable and inevitably has tragic conse+uences. shuaib1232.blogspot.com shuaib1232.!ordpress.com
!"#I$ #%!#& 4$'-%*$5% 6/ $5G)(SH G67%. -'87(' (S)'*(' 6))$G$ H'-665'"'4
