Hamlet by William Shakespeare Essay

You make decision e very(prenominal)day whether it is choosing what you make for breakfast or choosing what you want to be when you grow up. It is natural in homo to make decisions and act on what they believe is to be true. This not only applies to humans, but authors use them in their sacred scriptures or plays to create different types of characters. In ane of the greatest works by William Shakespeares crossroads, there are characters that make more different kinds of decisions that determine their role in the book. In the play, the protagonist Hamlet, later his fathers death, is angry about his mothers hasty marriage to Claudius.He sees a ghost of his father one night and tells him that Claudius had violent death him. Hamlet plans to kill Claudius but he has trouble making decisions and throughout the play, his poor decision making skills bring downf whole to himself and umteen others. Every tragical hero has a tragic flaw and Hamlets tragic flaw is his inability to make decisions. Hamlets inability to kill Claudius afterward hearing from the ghost, that he had killed Hamlet Senior, contributes to his stubborn indecisiveness, which brings about his own downfall.His indecisiveness leads to many characters deaths such as Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Laertes, Polonius and his own mother. He had many chances of killing Claudius but he constantly over thinks the situation thus delaying his major task of killing Claudius To take him in the purging of his soul When he is fit and seasoned for his passage? No. Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent. When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, Or in th incestuous pleasure of his bed, At game a-swearing, or about some act That has no relish of salvation in t. whence trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven (III. III. 85) This is an example of Hamlet being indecisive on whether or not to kill Claudius in the church service after the Mouse Trap play. He decides not to kill him there because he is praying a nd therefore will be forgiven for his sin. This results in delaying of his main task and in addition made more room for error such as killing Polonius and as well as getting sent to England, which leads to Rosencrantz and Guildensterns deaths. If Hamlet would have decided to kill him then, he would not have created the mess he sacks up making at the end.Hamlets inability to talk and discuss to Ophelia about what is happening, after she starts rejecting his messages, leads to losing his recognise and ultimately ends up to her demise. Even though they were in love, when Ophelia begins rejecting Hamlets messages because Polonius told her to, Hamlet tells Ophelia that she was not worth anything to him. This leads her to believing that Hamlet does not love her anymore. As a conclusion, she goes crazy and out of control for example By Gis and by Saint Charity,Alack, and fie, for shame Young men will do t, if they pay off to t. By Cock, they are to blame.Quoth she, Before you tumbled me, You promised me to wed. So would I ha done, by yonder sun, An thou hadst not come to my bed. (IV. V. 40) This is the scene where she has become insane. She sings about how a man promised her to marry her before they went into bed together but he left her. On top of Hamlets rejection, Hamlet has killed her father, Polonius, so she has completely lost control of herself.She sings a very sorrow song in front of many people and also gives out fake flowers to people. After this scene, she ends up committing suicide at the lake. If Hamlet had talked with Ophelia about what was going on and why she was ignoring her messages, she would have not become insane and Hamlet and Ophelia would still be in love. Hamlets final flaw is his inability to decide whether life is worth living or not, which contributes to his stubborn indecisiveness, which ultimately leads to his own downfall. Hamlet is very confused about his own life and is out of his mind.He is very depressed from his fathers death and the feeling of betrayal he has from Gertrude, his mother, who remarried effective after his fathers death. He does not know if life is worth living or not and this is obvious when he says To be, or not to bethat is the question Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune Or to take arms against a sea of troubles And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep No moreand by a sleep to say we end The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to.Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep To sleepperchance to dream ay, theres the rub, For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause. (III. I. 56) This is his famous soliloquy on the topic of life. He compares life and death and he cannot decide whether or not to lie alive or to be dead. He believes that death is the way to escape all his troubles and his depression but then on the other side, he k nows he needs to complete the task of killing Claudius.His indecisiveness about his own life delays his action from doing what he really wants to accomplish. Even though Hamlet kills Claudius at the very end, as a result of his indecisive behavior, he has taken way too much time to accomplish one single task. Also, it killed many innocent people he could have prevented from killing them. If Hamlet would have not been so depressed and actually decide whether or not he should stay alive or die, he might have had a better chance accomplishing his tasks much faster and efficient.Clearly, Hamlet is very indecisive all over and his indecisiveness brought about his own downfall. His mothers death, his loves death and his friends deaths are all caused by Hamlet. If he were to be decisive and straightforward, he could have killed Claudius much faster and he also could have prevented all of the deaths that happened. Many theories attempt to explain why Hamlet takes so long to kill Claudius bu t out of many theories, Hamlets indecisiveness is the only one with full satisfactory answers.Every book or play has a tragic hero and every tragic hero has a tragic flaw and in the play Hamlet, there is no exception. These themes present in many of William Shakespeares plays are relevant even today. There are times when we are indecisive when it comes to difficult situations. To be adequate to(p) to decide and to act on what you decided to do is what we try to aim for, however, since Hamlet did not complete this, he led himself to his own downfall and also many others to their downfall as well.