Hamlet's Reaction In Hamlet

In the play Hamlet, the main character Hamlet is your typical tragic hero - he is destined for greatness, but he fails thanks to his fatal flaw: inaction. Throughout the story, he repeatedly contemplates what he should do, or focuses on torturing his mother and uncle instead of simply taking action like his father’s ghost told him to. He constantly sits back and does nothing while others around him take action. This gets him into a great deal of trouble and ultimately causes his own demise. This flaw of his is not only fatal to himself, but to others as well. One of the main causes of Hamlet’s inaction is his indecisiveness. He spends too much time trying to decide what to do instead of just doing something. He tries to weigh the good and

Fortinbras seeks revenge for his father’s death, Laertes seeks revenge for his father’s death, and Gertrude even takes action, marrying Claudius. This is all while Hamlet is just twiddling his thumbs, saying maybe I should, maybe I shouldn’t. When Hamlet’s father dies, all he does is sit around and grieve. Claudius says to him “How is it that the clouds still hang on you?” (Shakespeare, 1.2.66). Fortinbras took action, and he was still alive at the end of the play, Hamlet did not take action, and it turned out to be fatal for him. If he would have taken action right after he was informed of his father’s murder things might have turned out differently. This is what Fortinbras does, saying “Go, Captain, from me greet the Danish king. Tell him that by his license Fortinbras craves the conveyance of a promis’d march over his kingdom” (Shakespeare, 5.4.2785). One little change in the timeline of events could have potentially changed the course of the future for Denmark, several other characters, and Hamlet

For example, if he had not been so focused on his mother, Polonius would not have been hiding in her room, and Hamlet would not have killed him. But because he strays away from his task, he ends up killing Polonius, which causes his son, Laertes to of course seek out revenge. He still doesn’t even take action when Laertes challenges him, saying “How if I answer ‘No?’” (Shakespeare, 5.2.164). Because Hamlet has not taken action, he has ended up killing this man and has gotten himself into a bad situation, the one that leads to his death. His inaction once again proving fatal for himself and others. When he gets angry with Ophelia for lying to him, the things he says to her because of his anger are one of the reasons she loses her mind, which leads to her death. He denies even giving her anything. He says to her “No, not I. I never gave you aught” (Shakespeare, 3.1.98). Then he tells her that he didn’t even love her, saying “I loved you not” (Shakespeare, 3.1.120). He continually remains inactive at the expense of the lives of others. He causes the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as well, because instead of taking action and facing the king of England himself as he was supposed to, he pins it on these two, with the note that says to kill the messengers. His inaction cost Rosencrantz