Hamlet Opinions: Discuss & Debate

Opinion:

“Hamlet waits to avenge his father murder because he fears the kind of person he will become if he does. Hamlet worries that by committing murder he will become no better than Claudius. He describes this fear when addressing Claudius. He says "...I am to much i' the sun." In this scenario Claudius is the sun and Hamlet already feels his poisonous moral influence. He warns other characters to avoid Claudius. For example he asks Polonious if he has a daughter. When he answers yes Hamlet advises him to "let her not walk i' the sun." He desires that Ophelia experience the same moral degradation he feels himself going through. However, once he kills Polonious, in a fit of passion, he is already morally corrupt so he has nothing to lose in killing Claudius and therefore carries on with his revenge.”

Opinion:

“I think Hamlet is in shock. His dad just died, and his uncle just swooped in and married his mom - and became King on top of it all. That's enough to freak anyone out, to say the least. Hamlet, probably a brooding guy to begin with, is stunned by all of these enormous changes and can't figure out how to deal with everything. He knows he needs to avenge his dad, but he is also still grieving -- both the loss of his father and his primary family unit.”

Opinion:

“He delays so long because he is unsure what to do. He is trying to live with his principles and do right by his father.”

Opinion:

“Hamlet is too smart for his own good. He asks too many questions and thinks too hard; this is the only reason revenge is delayed in the play, because of Hamlet’s inherent nature to over think everything to death. Even he admits that he can’t think of a reason why he delays revenge so long and that he wants to be more like Fortinbras and Laertes – characters that act without as much thought.”

Opinion:

“Hamlet has a lot on his mind in the beginning of the play and is distracted. He's trying to come to terms with several things at the same time: his father has been murdered and replaced by Claudius; his mother has moved on too quickly; Ophelia is going mad over him, and Hamlet himself is grappling with his own mortality. Hamlet is ill equipped to address everything at once; he can't switch into vengeance mode before first analyzing the many crises with which he is confronted. It's not accurate to say that Hamlet chooses inaction over action for the majority of the play. Rather, he chooses to make informed decisions, and thus chooses deliberation as his first response.”

posted by jasonwiener - 14 days ago

Citations/Sources:

http://www.shmoop.com/intro/literature/f-scott-fitzgerald/the-great-gatsby.html
http://www.shmoop.com/literary-devices/literature/f-scott-fitzgerald/the-great-gatsby.html
http://www.shmoop.com/character-roles/literature/f-scott-fitzgerald/the-great-gatsby.html