Hamlet's Delay In Killing Claudius Analysis

The Tragedy of Unwanted Murder: Hamlet’s Delay

Faced with the task of killing his uncle to avenge his father’s death, Hamlet delays his duty. This delay sparks a debate over the question, why? A common misconception is that Shakespeare’s delay in murdering Claudius was because he was a “natural philosopher” and needed empirical evidence to act, as he devises a plan that would suggest Claudius’s guilt in murdering Hamlet’s father. However, this theory is flawed because Hamlet at times has acted impulsively, such as his swift stabbing of Polonius. An analysis of Hamlet’s non-committal dialogue and his avoidance of murdering Claudius help prove a stronger understanding of why Hamlet’s actions were delayed. Through this

It could be a reasonable interpretation, as Hamlet devised a plan to “prove” Claudius as guilty of his father’s murder, by setting up a scene in the play that replicated the murder, and watch how he reacted. His reasoning behind it was relatively sound, as he said in lines 509-513 of Act 3 Scene 1, “I have heard that guilty creatures sitting at a play have by the very cunning of the scene been struck to the soul that presently they have proclaimed their malefactions.” Additionally, all of the murders that he was responsible for had happened chronologically after his father had failed this test and proved himself guilty. It would also explain Hamlet’s avoidance to commit to enacting revenge, as he had no proof as to whether the ghost was telling him the truth about his charges against

In Act 3, Scene 4, Hamlet finds Claudius alone and kneeling, making him vulnerable to attack. After drawing his sword, prepared to do the deed, Hamlet stops and states that killing Claudius then would be “hire and salary, not revenge” (line 79) . He instead decides to wait to wait until he catches Claudius performing “some act that has no relish of salvation in’t” ( lines 91-92). Essentially, Hamlet is procrastinating on killing Claudius, although he is given the opportunity to easily kill Claudius with no witnesses. To commit a murder and get away with it, these are ideal circumstances to work with. Procrastination in any task usually means that a person does not want to do the task, so, given what we currently know about Hamlet’s tendencies to avoid the subject of murdering Claudius, Hamlet’s excuse is simply his way of avoiding the unpleasant