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One of the most popular and highly received plays ever written. Hamlet owes its greatness to the

character of the prince, a man of thought rather than action, a philosophical, introspective hero who

is swept along by events rather than exercising control on them. Through the medium of some of

the most profound and superb poetry ever composed. Shakespeare transforms a conventional

revenge tragedy into a gripping exploration of the universal problems of mankind. In Hamlets

struggle with duty, morality, and ethics are mirrored the hopes, fears, and despair of all mankind.

Hamlet has remained the most perplexing, as well as the most popular, of Shakespeares major

tragedies. Performed frequently, the play has tantalized critics with what has become known as the

Hamlet mystery. The mystery resides in Hamlets complex behaviour, most notably his indecision

and his reluctance to act.

Freudian critics have located his motivation in the psychodynamic triad of the father-mother-son

relationship. According to this view, Hamlet is disturbed and eventually deranged by his Oedipal

jealousy of the uncle who has done what, we are to believe, all sons long to do themselves. Other

critics have taken the more conventional tack of identifying Hamlets tragic flaw as a lack of courage

or moral resolution. In this view, Hamlets indecision is a sign of moral ambivalence which he

overcomes too late.

The trouble with both of these views is that they presuppose a precise discovery of Hamlets

motivation. However, Renaissance drama is not generally a drama of motivation either by

psychological set or moral predetermination. Rather, the tendency is to present characters, with

well delineated moral and ethical dispositions, who are faced with dilemmas. It is outcome of these

conflicts, the consequences, which normally hold centre stage. What we watch in Hamlet is an

agonizing confrontation between the will of a good and intelligent man and the uncongenial role

which circumstance calls upon him to play.

The disagreeable role is a familiar one in Renaissance drama- the revenger. The early description of

Hamlet, bereft by the death of his father and the hasty marriage of his mother, makes him a prime

candidate to assume such a role. One need not to conclude that his despondency is Oedipal in order

to sympathize with the extremity of his grief. His father, whom he deeply loved and admired, is

recently deceased and he himself seems to have been finessed out of his birthright. Shakespeare, in

his unfortunate ignorance of Freud, emphasized Hamlets shock of Gertrudes disrespect to the

memory of his father rather than love of mother as the prime source of his distress. The very

situation breeds suspicion, which is reinforced by the ghastly visitation by the elder Hamlets ghost

and the ghosts disquieting revelation. The ingredients are all there for bloody revenge.

However, if Hamlet were simply to act out the role that has been thrust upon him, the play would be

just another sanguinary pot-boiler without the moral and theological complexity which provides its

special fascination. Hamlet has, after all, been a student of theology at Wittenberg. Hamlets

knowledge complicates the situation. First of all, he is aware of the fundamental immortality of the

liaison between Gertrude and Claudius. Hamlets accusation of incest is not an adolescent excess but

an accurate theological description of a marriage between a widow and her dead husbands brother.

Hamlets theological accomplishments do more than exacerbate his feelings. For the ordinary

revenger, the commission from the ghost of the murdered father would be more than enough tostart the bloodletting. But Hamlet is aware of the unreliability of otherworldly apparitions, and

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consequently he is reluctant to heed the ghosts injunction to perform an action which is objectively

evil. In addition, the fear that his father was murdered in a state of sin and is condemned to hell not

only increases Hamlets sense of injustice but also, paradoxically, casts further doubt on the

reliability of the ghosts exhortation. Is the ghost, Hamlet wonders, merely an infernal spirit goading

him to sin?

Thus Hamlets indecision is not an indication of weakness, but the result of his complex

understanding of the moral dilemma with which he is faced. He is unwilling to act unjustly, yet he is

afraid that he is failing to exact a deserved retribution. He debates the murky issue and becomes

unsure himself whether his behaviour is caused by moral scruple or cowardice. He is in sharp

contrast with the cynicism of Claudius and the verbose moral platitudes of Polonius. The play is in

sharp contrast with moral simplicity of the ordinary revenge tragedy. Hamlets intelligence has

transformed a stock situation into a unique internal conflict.

He believes that he must have greater certitude of Claudiuss guilt if he is to take action. The device

of the play within a play provides a greater assurance that Claudius is suffering from a guilty

conscience, but it simultaneously sharpens Hamlets anguish. Having seen a re -creation of his

fathers death and Claudius response, Hamlet is able to summon the determination to act.

However, he once again hesitates when he sees Claudius in prayer because he believes that the king

is repenting and if, murdered at that moment, will go directly to heaven. Here Hamlets inaction is

not the result of cowardice nor even of a perception of moral ambiguity. Rather, after all of his

agonizing, Hamlet once decided on revenge is thoroughly committed that his passion cannot be

satiated except by destroying his uncle body and soul. It is ironic that Claudius has been able to

repent and that Hamlet is thwarted this time by the combination of his theological insight with the

extreme ferocity of his vengeful intention.

That Hamlet loses his mental stability is clear in his behaviour toward Ophelia and in his subsequent

meanderings. Circumstance had enforced a role whose enormity has overwhelmed the fine

emotional and intellectual balance of a sensitive, well educated young man. Gradually he regains

control of himself and is armed with a cold determination to do what he decides is the just thing.

Yet, even then, it is only in the carnage of the concluding scenes that Hamlet finally carries out his

intentions. Having concluded that the readiness is all, he strikes his unc le only after he has

discovered Claudius final scheme to kill him and Laertes, but by then he is morally wounded.

The arrival of Fortinbras, who has been lurking in the background throughout the play, superficially

seems to indicate that a new, more direct and courageous order will prevail in the place of the evil of

Claudius and the weakness of Hamlet. But Fortinbras superiority is only apparent. He brings stasis

and stability back to the disordered kingdom, but he does not have the self-consciousness and moral

sensitivity which destroy and redeem Hamlet.

Gerald Else has interpreted Aristotles notion of catharsis to be not a purging of emotions but a

purging of a role of the moral horror, the pity and fear, ordinarily associated with it. If that is so,

Hamlet, by the conflict of his ethical will with his role, has purged the revenger of his horrific

bloodthirstiness and turned the stock figure into a self-conscious hero in moral conflict.

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