Hamlet's Delay or Tragic Flaw

HAMLET’S DELAY OR TRAGIC FLAW

Harold Wilson says about Hamlet’s delay:

                  “The question of Hamlet’s delay in avenging himself upon Claudius

                      is not different, essentially, from the question of  Claudius’ lack of

                      success in coping with Hamlet”.

“Hamlet” has been a subject of endless speculation to the critics and the students of literature and the main interest has been almost fixed on the problem of delay.

Out of all Shakespearean tragedies, “Hamlet” is the most appealing where the hero hesitates to kill the murderer of his father immediately. This delay costs the lives of his mother, his beloved Ophelia, her father Polonius, her brother Laertes as well as Hamlet’s own friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and above all his own life. Critics have divergent views on Hamlet’s delay. Some critics are of the view:

“There is no delay at all”.

But A.C. Bradley strongly objects to the critics’ view and says:

                                                          “Certainly there is delay

                                                         Two months elapse and

                                                         Claudius still lives”.

Hamlet himself realizes that he is guilty of delay and irresolution:

                                         “How all occasions do inform against me,

                                           And spur my dull revenge!”

Whereas Verity says:

                                      “As Hamlet thinks too much, so he feels too much;

                                        Thinking less, he would have more power to act”.

Tragic flaw plays an important role in the sufferings of a character in Shakespeare’s tragedies. Hamlet’s tragedy is mainly due to a defect, irresolution in his character. He is capable of impulsive action but not preplanned action. The consequence is that he avenges his father’s murder at the cost of his own life. If Hamlet had killed Claudius at the time of prayer, he would have avoided his tragic death as well as the death of others. There would have been no play at all. So the dramatist is bound to delay the hero’s revenge.

In this regard, the critics who believe that there is delay in ‘Hamlet’ say that both external and internal causes account for Hamlet’s delay. The internal causes are within his character while the external causes are the physical difficulties he encounters. As Earnest Jones says:

                                  “One   part   of   him   tries   to   carry  out   the  task, 

                                  the other flinches relentlessly from the thought of it.

                              This paralysis arises from not only physical or moral

                                  cowardice but also from the intellectual cowardice.”

The external causes of his delay are as under. First of all we see that Claudius is not a weak king. He is very cunning and shrewd person and has made all the possible arrangements for the protection of his life from unseen attacks. He is not only surrounded by courtiers but there are also Swiss body-guards to protect him. So it is very difficult for Hamlet to meet his enemy alone.

The second reason according to Earnest Jones as he claims in “The Disciple of Freud” is that the Oedipus complex accounts for Hamlet’s delay.

Hamlet hesitates to kill his father’s murderer when he is offering his prayer because he wants eternal damnation of his enemy. So he decides to kill him at the time.

                                               “When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage;

                                              Or in th’ incestuous pleasure o his bed;”

The third reason, according to the critics, is that Hamlet is an intellectual man and he is not confirmed about his uncle’s offence. He does not have any proof of Claudius’ guilt except the Ghost’s story and he wants to confirm Ghost’s information saying.

                                                “The Spirit that I have seen

                                                 May be a devil; and the devil hath power

                      T’ assume a pleasing shape.”

He does not have any hope to win people’s help in deposing the king with Ghost’s words. The question is that when Laertes can easily raise the people against the king why not Hamlet. So it seems that Hamlet gets the play enacted to get the proof against Claudius not only to convince the people but also to convince himself of the Ghost’s words. Therefore, the external difficulties do not account for his delay. As A.C. Bradley says:

                                    “Nowhere in the play, Hamlet makes the slightest

                                      reference to external difficulties”.

Internal causes of Hamlet’s delay are within his own character. Some critics say that Hamlet’s procrastination or delay is chiefly due to his own self. They have formulated certain theories.

First of all they say that Hamlet’s cowardly nature is the cause of his delay. He prevents himself from taking revenge because he fears of the consequences. But it does not seem true because Hamlet has proved himself bold and courageous man through fearless acts of heroism in the face of danger and difficulty e.g. when the Ghost beckons him to follow it, Marcellus and Horatio try to detain him but he warns them saying:

                                        “Unhand me gentlemen.

                                       By heav’n, I’ll make a ghost of him that lets me.”

Again he is not timid when he sarcastically and insultingly talks to Polonius and Claudius. He kills Polonius, sends his school fellows to their deaths, boards the pirate ship, returns to Denmark to meet his tragic end, rushes on the king and kills him with the poisoned sword.

Another class of critics including Schelegal and Coleridge views that the cause of Hamlet’s delay is his irresoluteness which is due to over reflective and over-speculative habit of mind. He wastes his energy in thinking rather than taking action against the king. Hamlet himself confesses his excessive thinking and says:

                                       “And thus the native hue of resolution

                                        Is sicklied over with the pale cast of thought.”

The fourth and the most important cause of his delay is the theory of melancholy according to which Hamlet suffers from “melancholia” a mental disease, a depressive, indecisive and irresolute state of mind. It means Hamlet is not in his normal health. He suffers from nervous instability. His father’s murder, his mother’s hasty second marriage, his beloved’s changed attitude and his unintentional killing of Polonius are some of the important elements causing a burden on Hamlet’s sensitivity and throwing him into a melancholic inactive state of mind. As A.C. Bradley says:

“Melancholy accounts for Hamlet’s inaction”.

To conclude we can say that every critic has his own interpretation of Hamlet’s delay. But until now, the critics have not reached a single point which can be the only cause of his delay due to the complex nature of Hamlet.

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