Nobility and Imperfections of a Hamlet - Essay Example

“To be, or not to be that is the question.” This is Hamlet’s famous line in his soliloquy. Much has been said about the young Prince Hamlet, the lead character of Shakespeare’s world-famous play. It is about a prince whose father, the king has just died and the queen marries the king’s brother. Knowing the betrayal and the injustice that his uncle has done, killing Claudius will rid his country of the evil that he has brought.  This truly is a noble aim. But the story, as readers will see, is that Hamlet, in all his nobility has character flaws that tainted it. Readers will see the imperfections in his character in all his careful actions and manipulation of events and people to avenge the death of his father and reclaim his honor.

His actions, one of them feigning lunacy, as Shakespeare has shown, when Hamlet said to Horatio, “Here, as before, never, so help you mercy, How strange or odd soever I bear myself (As I perchance hereafter shall think to meet To put an antic disposition on) (1.5.925) was done to distract and confuse Claudius and his men. This proved to be both an advantage and a flaw. His antics bought Hamlet time to think about what to do to manipulate Claudius into confessing, directly or indirectly his hand in Hamlet’s father’s death but the reactions of people made him overthink his plans of revenge.

His ability to overthink, which was shown in Hamlet’s soliloquy (3.1.1,750), and his inability to act on things result in his will being crippled, sinking to inaction while Claudius reigns secure (John Russel, 13) and also resulted in his confusion. His indecision and his inability to act on his desires or even the suspension of his planned action proved to be one of his character flaws. “Now might I do it pat, now he is praying; And now I'll do. And so he goes to heaven; And so am I revenged. That would be scanned: A villain kills my father; and for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send To heaven” (3.3.2356-2360). This was his chance to avenge his father’s death but he had second thoughts about it.

He was so affected by a melancholy which resulted in low self-esteem and doubt in himself that either made him suicidal as Hamlet said "O that this too sullied flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into dew, Or that the Everlasting had not fixed His canon against self-slaughter"  (1.2.333-336) or so enraged to resort to murder. "How now, a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead… A bloody deed - almost as bad, good mother, As kill a king and marry with his brother" (3. iv.2410). But Lee Lady has said “Hamlet, as I see it, is not debating whether to kill himself or not, but saying to the audience, "You know, at times like this, one has to wonder what the point of it all is? Why is it that we struggle so much to be alive when being alive is so difficult? You know, if we had any guts, we'd just do it: just ourselves. Of Course, we don't. We just sit here, and can't make up our minds to do anything at all". Read More