Harold Skulsky Hamlet

Within his article, Harold Skulsky investigates the motives of Hamlet’s actions throughout the play, along with Hamlet’s transformation as the play goes on. First, Skulsky explains that the Ghost of Hamlet Sr. leaves much to Hamlet, who must now decide how to best carry out his quest for vengeance. Specifically, Skulsky writes that there are two ways of carry out actions in one's life: first, there is the law of talon, which is the hate for another being, and second, there is the code of honor. The difference between the two sides is that the law of talon is based up on the hatred for another person, while when follows the code of honor, they act in the name of the greater good, which can be a person. Though Hamlet wishes to uphold a life of
honor, he falls to his own conscience throughout the play, inflicting harm upon a number of other characters who were mostly innocent. Moreover, there is a clear transformation of Hamlet’s character as the play goes on. At the start of the play, Hamlet questions if he should enact his revenge, indicating that he has no desire to kill without reason. Yet,as the play evolves, Hamlet metamorphoses from a questioning son to a character with a mentality of “kill at all costs”, as illustrated in his killing of Polonius, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Ophelia (though inadvertently). Furthermore, Hamlet’s famous soliloquy regarding “to be or not to be” draws a connection between suicide and revenge, comparing the two and creating similarities between the motives of both: cowardice and conscience. At the start of the play, Hamlet follows his conscience and his honor, but this simply leads him to a situation where he must act against his conscience and kill another man. Therefore, Skulsky thesis is that Shakespeare wished to show readers that no human being is free from taint, and even the purest of conscience, such as Hamlet, can devolve into a scourge.