Hamlet's Dilemma Essay

Alexander Davis
D40046543
Devry University
2/13/14
Hamlet’s Dilemma

"The time is out of joint! O cursed spite that ever I was born to set it right."-Hamlet

William Shakespeare is one of the most influential writers of English literature and proves this with one of his most famous works, Hamlet. Hamlet is a play written in the early seventeenth century during the Elizabethan era. To the modern ear Shakespeare’s plays use language that may seem outdated or difficult to interpret, but nevertheless the conflicts and dilemmas encountered by the play’s characters are very much relevant. The above quote is from the play and I feel it summarizes the main conflict in the work. For as long as we can record, literature
The Ghost claims to be the spirit of Hamlet’s dead father, the King. The ghost says “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder” and then continues with “Murder most foul, as in the best it is; But this most foul, strange and unnatural” (Shakespeare, Act1 Scene 5). At first Hamlet seems to welcome the idea of vengeance on the murderer of his father until he finds out that he must take this vengeance out on his Uncle. This creates the dilemma and now Hamlet is a little reluctant to kill his uncle. Hamlet must be sure that his uncle is in fact guilty of killing his father and comes up with a scheme for the truth to come to light. Hamlet knows no haste with exacting his vengeance because he is a very contemplative and philosophical individual he takes more time than most on deciding what he wants to do. Hamlet soon also discovers that his mother Gertrude had relations with his uncle before the death of his father and is highly upset that they married so soon after the king passed away. I feel as though this web of complications causes a dilemma that can be directly contributed to the flaw Hamlet has. Most people in Hamlet’s position would take revenge for their father’s death as soon as the opportunity arises, but Hamlet goes through a much more internal conflict that postpones him from killing his uncle Claudius until the end of the
In Hamlet the personality and characterization of the main protagonist is his flaw and obstructs him from getting revenge right away, and when he does, he ends up dying because his plan of vengeance was not well executed. In Memento Lenny’s flaw is that he cannot create any new memories and he is trapped in an infinite cycle of vengeance that he has already sealed. Both stories of vengeance turn into stories of tragedies in my opinion. The protagonists in these works hold themselves back and end up hurting rather than helping themselves in achieving revenge for their lost