Stephanie Pham

Mrs. Angus

AP Literature

4 December 2017

Hamlet #7 pg.833

What is the purpose of living? Why do we exist on this earth? These questions have

crossed our minds at least once in our lives. Each individual is just one person among many who

are just like us. People are going through their own problems as they experience life, but the

more important question concerns the things that we do for our own lives and our responses to

crises. How do our surroundings affect us, our behaviors, and our actions? In ​Hamlet​ by William

Shakespeare, young Hamlet asks the same question. His life is in turmoil once he comes back to

Denmark having discovered that his father has been assassinated by his uncle. Many other

dilemmas come into play that foster Hamlet’s internal conflict on whether he should kill himself

or continue living and proceed with killing his uncle. It is Hamlet’s internal thoughts that hinder

him from executing his plans. He is paralyzed by his own overthinking and concerns, leading

him to delay killing Claudius until at the end of the play. Throughout the story, Hamlet is

conflicted by reason and passion. He is driven by passion as he wants to to avenge his father, but

reason also resides within his morality as he knows it would be wrong to kill Claudius and

deprive the kingdom of their ruler and stability. Hamlet’s personal conflict connects with the

major theme of the difficulty of uncertainty.

 It all begins when Hamlet comes home and finds that his father has mysteriously died

from a serpent bite while he was sleeping. The next surprise is his mother’s sudden marriage to

his uncle, Claudius, who has also just become king. To make matters even worse, Hamlet sees

the ghost of his father who tells him that Claudius was actually the one who killed him through

pouring poison into his ear while he was sleeping which is the catalyst for Hamlet’s revenge.

Reason is why Hamlet continues to postpone killing his uncle Claudius. He constantly

over thinks the situation and chooses not to act upon it. However, he does believes he is doing

the right thing by killing his uncle to avenge his father. One reason why Hamlet is so intent on

killing Claudius is because he is disgusted by his mother and uncle’s marriage since he views it

as incestous and a betrayal his father. In addition, he believes that his own life is in danger and

therefore sets out to protect himself. He knows from the ghost of his father that Claudius had his

eyes set for the throne and the former king was an obstacle to the throne which is why Claudius

poisoned him, but now that Hamlet is back, he is another obstruction as he is the rightful heir to

the throne. This causes Hamlet to pretend to be a madman so Claudius will not view him as a

threat. In the end however, Hamlet knows that none of the reasons he tells himself prove that he

isn’t a coward, ‘‘I do not know / Why yet I live to say “This thing’s to do”, / Sith I have cause,

and will, and strength, and means / To do’t’’ (Act 4 Scene 4 Lines 43–46). He does not want to

take another person’s life and live with the guilt. He continuously talks himself out from killing

Claudius showing himself to be a coward.

Passion overcomes Hamlet as well when he decides to ignore his friends’ and mother’s

advice and chooses to kill Claudius instead. This passion motivates Hamlet’s plan for vengeance.

Passion intrudes when Hamlet decides to kill Polonius believing that it was Claudius. This shows
that Hamlet does not fully process that the person might not be his uncle and just blatantly kills

him. This also displays an imbalance between reason and passion. Furthermore, the spirit of

King Hamlet comes back and tells Hamlet that his only mission is to avenge his death, not to

drag other people into the situation and killing them in the process.The former king tells Hamlet,

“​Do not forget! This visitation / Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose” (Act 3 Scene 4 Lines

110–111).​ Additionally, Hamlet considers Polonius and Gertrude’s death as mere casualties

compared to his ultimate goal of killing Claudius to avenge King Hamlet. Another instance of

when Hamlet’s passion overrules all logic and reasoning is when Hamlet refuses to kill Claudius

while he is praying because he believes that when one dies while praying to God, they will be

sent to Heaven, but killing a man during sinning will have them be sent to Hell. As he is pulling

out his dagger to kill a clueless Claudius, Hamlet says “Now might I do it pat, now he is

praying;/ And now I’ll do’t” (Act 3 Scene 3 Lines 73-74). He struggles to make up his mind on

whether to leave Claudius alone or to just end it once and for all. Even when Claudius is

unarmed and can easily be killed, Hamlet over thinks and chooses not to seize the opportunity.

Hamlet continues to question he’s doing the right thing throughout the entire play. This

back and forth between reason and passion are what lead to Hamlet and almost all of the

characters’ demises. His procrastination results in killing the people that he loves just like a

domino effect, his passion leads to him accidentally killing Polonius, leading to Ophelia going

mad due to her father’s death and her love for Hamlet. Hamlet had many opportunities to just kill

Claudius, but decided to wait until the moment was right like when Claudius was praying, he

could have just killed him right there on the spot but decided to hold back due to religious

beliefs. If Hamlet had just killed his uncle when he had the chance, then he could have prevented
his mother’s death as well as his own. Hamlet is a prime example of passion versus reason as he

displays the detrimental effects of the imbalance and internal conflict between the two. In this

case, Hamlet’s passion clearly dominates reason as Hamlet kills so many people along the way

due to his procrastination and indecisiveness.