Principal Topics The most fundamental issue in Hamlet, one which opens the door to countless readings of the play, can be stated in one simple question: Why does Hamlet delay taking revenge on Claudius? While critics offer various answers to this question. their theories generally differ in two distinct ways: one group focuses on the inner workings of Hamlet's mind as the primary cause of his procrastination; the other stresses the external obstacles that prohibit the prince from carrying out his task. Critics who find the cause of Hamlet's delay in his internal meditations typically view the prince as aman of great moral integrity who is forced to commit an act that goes against his deepest principles. On numerous occasions, the prince tries to make sense of his moral dilemmathrough personal meditations, which Shakespeare presents as soliloquies (asoliloquy is aspeech delivered while the speaker is alone and devised to inform the reader what the character is thinking, or to provide essential information concerning other participants in the action). Another perspective of Hamlet's internal struggle suggests that the prince has become so disenchanted with life since his father's death that he has neither the desire nor the will to exact revenge. In addition. Hamlet has been shocked and appalled that. in the midst of his grief, Gertrude has yielded to Claudius's affections, marrying him only two months after her husband's funeral. To the prince, these events have degraded the Danish court to nothing more than "an unweeded garden / That grows to seed, things rank and gross in nature / Possess it merely" (1. ii. 135-37). Hamlet's strongest impulse is to kill himself to avoid further debasement, and yet he fears the damning consequences of suicide. With such heavy matters weighing on his mind, the Ghost's call for revenge only complicates Hamlet's ability to make decisions. leading to many other interludes of selfquestioning and prolonged inaction. Critics who view Hamlet's hesitation as aresult of external rather than internal obstacles often emphasize one point: the prince's difficulty in determining the difference between appearance and reality as aprimary barrier that restricts him from., taking action. For example, Hamlet questions whether the Ghost is really abenevolent spirit or adevil who tries to trick him into killing Claudius. In addition, the Ghost's accusations pose avery practical problem for Hamlet because Claudius does not at first seem to be avillainous murderer, but rather acompetent and responsible monarch. As far as Hamlet is concerned. the king's only transgression is his hasty and incestuous marriage to Gertrude. Other impediments prohibit Hamlet from killing Claudius once he has convinced himself that the king is indeed guilty. The most obvious is that the monarch is almost always surrounded by guards. The one instance in which he is not protected occurs during the prayer scene (Act III, scene ill), where Hamlet hesitates killing Claudius for fear of sending his soul to heaven. The prince's inaction here is perhaps the most controversial aspect of his delay: critics who see Hamlet's procrastination as the result of an internal struggle maintain that this episode clearly demonstrates his inability to exact revenge; on the other hand. commentators who support the theory of external influences assert that the prince delays killing Claudius not only because he fears sending the king's soul to heaven, but-more importantly because he has not proven to anyone (except possibly Horatio) that his uncle is amurderer. If Hamlet is thus viewed as avictim of external influences, his internal meditations on his hesitation do not necessarily demonstrate his inability to act; rather, they reflect his need to vent his frustration through self-reproaches at the fact that he cannot find an adequate opportunity to avenge his father's murder. Closely related to Hamlet's delay is the theme of revenge. The prince is not the only character preoccupied with revenge in Hamlet: Fortinbras bears agrudge against Denmark because King Hamlet killed his father, and Laertes-infuriated by Polonius's murder-threatens to overthrow the Danish government before joining Claudius in aplot to murder the prince. Further, Hamlet belongs to the genre of the Revenge Tragedy. Revenge Tragedy is adramatic form made popillar on the English stage by Thomas Kyd, whose Spanish Tragedy is an early example of the type. Such plays call for the revenge of afather's death by ason, or vice versa; this act is usually directed by the ghost of the murdered man. Other devices found in Revenge Tragedies include hesitation by the hero, real or feigned madness, suicide, intrigue, and murders on stage. Some critics theorize that Shakespeare despised the Revenge Tragedy as aform whose conventions had become trite. Yet because revenge theater was immensely popillar with Elizabethan audiences, the playwright had to follow certain guidelines to produce afinancially successful play. As aresillt, Shakespeare modified the theatrical type by creating adouble entendre (double meaning) in which he subtly denounced the banality of the Revenge Tragedy without denying his audience many of its popillar components. Hamlet's distaste for revenge throughout the play therefore reflects Shakespeare's disgust with revenge theater, and yet the dramatist fulfilled the audience's expectations for atragic conclusion. Many different patterns of imagery give avisual dimension to the dramatic action of Hamlet. Perhaps the most striking imagery is that of bodily corruption and disease. Throughout the play, Hamlet is preoccupied with the degeneration of the Danish court and the foill implications of Claudius and Gertrude's incestuous relationship. Although images of corruption and disease run throughout the play, they are never associated with Hamlet himself; however, asense of infection underscores Claudius's crime and Gertrude's sin. Further, the description of disease and corruption exceeds the visual dimension and operates on an olfactory level (relating to the sense of smell). Shakespeare offers avivid depiction of decay and stench by employing imagery of cancerous infection, rotting flesh, and the sun as an agent of corruption. These rank odors highlight the cunning and lecherousness of Claudius's evil crime, which has poisoned the whole kingdom of Denmark. War imagery is another important visual pattern that frequently occurs in Hamlet In fact, images of war occur more frequently than those of corruption and decay; their dramatic function is to underscore the notion that Hamlet and Claudius are in aduel to the death.
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