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Why Hamlet Took to Long to Kill Claudius? Essay

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Why Hamlet took to long to kill Claudius?

Shakespeare's drama Hamlet has become a central piece of literature of Western culture. It is the story of a prince named Hamlet, who lost his father. Soon after that he has to confront multiple obstacles and devises a series of situations to defend the new king's royalty. Furthermore, he had to prove that King Claudius, who was the prince's uncle, had killed Hamlet's father. This story has remained among the most popular and the most controversial plays around the world. It generates controversy for all the doubts that this play leaves with the readers. One of the most questioning situations in the play is the delay of Hamlet in avenging Claudius' for his father's death. As a reader this …show more content…

Apart from Hamlet's moral dilemma, he is also trying to prove or disprove what a ghost told him. This ghost is apparently the prince's progenitor, who tells Hamlet that his father's death was caused by Claudius pouring poison into his ear. The ghost encourage Hamlet to "Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder" (1012) For this reason Hamlet has to prove if the ghost is an evil spirit deceiving him, testing him, or even if he is who he really says he is, and has the implicit endorsement of a higher power. As Hamlet expresses in act 1:
"Angels and ministers of grace defend us: Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin dammed, Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blast from hell, Be thy intents wicked or charitable …" (1010)
After analyzing these thoughts, they produce doubt like: if the ghost is coming from purgatory, why would the ghost commit another sin inciting his son to do something wrong? This will generates more punishment to the ghost, making him to have more chances to go hell. As this doubt came to my attention, it came to Hamlet's reflection too. Therefore this doubt causes Hamlet to delay in taking action since he needs more evidence to prove the ghost's words.

The Ghost's accusations increase Hamlet's dilemma, since one of his main concerns is the afterlife of Claudius. After proving Hamlet that Claudius is a murderer, the prince delays in getting revenge against his uncle. The reason for his delay is that he does not want

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