Hamlet's to Be or Not to Be

Shakespeare’s characters are often said to possess what is known as a tragic flaw. A fatal character flaw that is ultimately the cause of an otherwise noble/respectable characters downfall. For Hamlet, his tragic flaw is his indecisiveness and inactivity.

“To be or not to be: that is the question.” Hamlet is obviously depressed, as he compares death, which many people would find to be a horrendous thing, to sleep, which is a calm and peaceful thing people do everyday. He repeats this comparison further down the soliloquy, which portrays him to be obsessed with the idea of death and how easy and painless it would be. However, the use of the famous question, “To be or not to be”, suggests that Hamlet cannot be that suicidal if he has to question whether or not death is for him.

Reasons for Hamlet’s uncertainty are given, “ay, there’s the rub;” he speaks of “shuffling off the mortal coil” and I think that part of why he has such conflicting thoughts about the idea is that in his religion, if you commit suicide you don't enter heaven. Hamlet never directly refers to suicide either which shows that maybe he doesn’t want to admit to himself/anyone that he feels this way. Partly because of how people would view it, and also he may be afraid that suicide is simply not worth it and he could be worse off if he commits suicide than if he stays on earth, this helps us understand why he asks the ultimate question, “to be or not to be”.

The intensity of his confusion is shown as he says, “For who would bear the whips and scorns of time” yet he still isn’t sure if he wants to die. Where, just previously he has said that the consummation of death is one to be ‘devoutly’ wished, which suggest that he is indeed very worried about the religious effects, although he wants to die with a somewhat religious fervour.

I believe that this soliloquy alone proves that Hamlet’s tragic flaw is his inability to make decisions, because he uses contrasting ideas throughout the soliloquy to show his deep seated conflict within himself in whether or not he should commit this deed. His true indecisiveness is shown by the way that he is sharing his thoughts with the reader, he is alone and he is not saying the things he is to impress anyone, he is saying it because he truly does not know what he wants and he finds this infuriating.