How Is Hamlet A Sympathetic Character

Throughout the play Hamlet is seen as a fairly sympathetic character. After all, the play starts with us learning that no one seems to understand his grievances even though his father has recently passed. He seems to have been put in an awful situation by his uncle, and even his father's ghost. It seems understandable that a sensitive boy like him would have trouble doing something so dark as murder. But as the play advances our sympathy for Hamlet dwindles until it is non-existent. Once we find out Hamlet is not a boy but a thirty year old man, it sheds a new light on our view of Hamlet. We see his excuses for not killing his father as much weaker and we see him as crazy, and impulsive. The fact that Hamlet is thirty makes us wonder
We see him taken advantage on many occasions throughout the play. He seems unable to act to further his cause, instead making excuses as to why he should be passive in a given situation. The first example we see of this is when Hamlet is not quite ready to kill Claudius even after his father’s ghost has told him too. He makes the excuse saying that the spirit he saw, “May be a devil, and the devil hath power / T’ assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps, / Out of my weakness and my melancholy, / As he is very potent with such spirits, / Abuses me to damn me”(2.2.627). He seems incapable of acting aggressively here as he finds a way to get out of the situation. He seems to lack motivation to do anything with the power he has been born into, including avenging his father. This is not the only time we see Hamlet afraid to take action, for in act three scene three he has another opportunity to avenge his father’s death. He seems all geared up to kill Claudius when Claudius is seemingly preying. At the last moment he sees this preying and uses it to make an excuse as to why he should not act in that moment saying, “Now might I do it pat, now he is a-praying, / And now I’ll do ’t. [He draws his sword.] And so he goes to heaven, / And so am I revenged. That would be scann'd: / A villain kills my father, and for that, / I, his sole son, do this same
Even though Hamlet remains fairly passive throughout the play he manages to cause much tension throughout the play. We see Claudius afraid of Hamlet’s suspicious behavior from the very beginning of the play. We see Claudius summon two of Hamlet’s friends in a ploy to find out the true reason of Hamlet’s behavioral change. Claudius is uneasy about Hamlet’s behavioral change so he asks Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to meet with Hamlet and, “gather / So much as from occasion you may glean”(2.2.15-16). Hamlet is creating tumult in the government even by staying passive. He is like a bacteria that lifelessly infects the host. This fear of Hamlet develops through they play as we see in act four scene one. When Claudius asks Gertrude about the state of Hamlet she refers to him as, “Mad as the sea”(4.1.7). So while Hamlet remains relatively passive throughout the play he manages to create turmoil among the government. He feeds into the conniving Claudius’ ability to gain more control be acting suspicious. He seems to become dispensable to high government