The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark is one of William Shakespeare's most
popular works. One of the possible reasons for this play's popularity is the way
Shakespeare uses the character Hamlet to exemplify the complex workings of the
human mind. The approach taken by Shakespeare in Hamlet has generated countless
different interpretations of meaning, but it is through Hamlet's struggle to
confront his internal dilemma, deciding when to revenge his fathers death, that
the reader becomes aware of one of the more common interpretations in Hamlet;
the idea that Shakespeare is attempting to comment on the influence that one's
state of mind can have on the decisions they make in life. As the play unfolds,
Shakespeare uses the encounters that Hamlet must face to demonstrate the effect
that one's perspective can have on the way the mind works. In his book Some
Shakespeare Themes & An Approach to Hamlet, L.C. Knight takes notice of
Shakespeare's use of these encounters to journey into the workings of the human
mind when he writes: What we have in Hamlet.is the exploration and implicit
criticism of a particular state of mind or consciousness.In Hamlet, Shakespeare
uses a series of encounters to reveal the complex state of the human mind, made
up of reason, emotion, and attitude towards the self, to allow the reader to
make a judgment or form an opinion about fundamental aspects of human life.
(192) Shakespeare sets the stage for Hamlet's internal dilemma in Act 1, Scene 5
of Hamlet when the ghost of Hamlet's father appears and calls upon Hamlet to
"revenge his foul and most unnatural murder" (1.5.24). It is from this
point forward that Hamlet must struggle with the dilemma of whether or not to
kill Claudius, his uncle, and if so when to actually do it. As the play
progresses, Hamlet does not seek his revenge when the opportunity presents
itself, and it is the reasoning that Hamlet uses to justify his delay that
becomes paramount to the reader's understanding of the effect that Hamlet's
mental perspective has on his situation. In order to fully understand how
Hamlet's perspective plays an important role in this play, the reader must
attempt to answer the fundamental question: Why does Hamlet procrastinate in
taking revenge on Claudius? Although the answer to this question is at best
somewhat complicated, Mark W. Scott attempts to offer some possible explanations
for Hamlet's delay in his book, Shakespeare for Students: Critics who find the
cause of Hamlet's delay in his internal meditations typically view the prince as
a man of great moral integrity who is forced to commit an act which goes against
his deepest principles. On numerous occasions, the prince tries to make sense of
his moral dilemma through personal meditations, which Shakespeare presents as
soliloquies. Another perspective of Hamlet's internal struggle suggests that the
prince has become so disenchanted with life since his father's death that he has
neither the desire nor the will to exact revenge. (74) Mr. Scott points out
morality and disenchantment, both of which belong solely to an individuals own
conscious, as two potential causes of Hamlet's procrastination, and therefore he
offers support to the idea that Shakespeare is placing important emphasis on the
role of individual perspective in this play. The importance that Mr. Scott's
comment places on Hamlet's use of personal meditations to "make sense of
his moral dilemma" (74), also helps to support L.C. Knight's contention
that Shakespeare is attempting to use these dilemmas to illustrate the inner
workings of the human mind. In Hamlet, Shakespeare gives the reader an
opportunity to evaluate the way the title character handles a very complicated
dilemma and the problems that are generated because of it. These problems that
face Hamlet are perhaps best viewed as overstatements of the very types of
problems that all people must face as they live their lives each day. The
magnitude of these "everyday" problems are almost always a matter of
individual perspective. Each person will perceive a given situation based on his
own state of mind. The one, perhaps universal, dilemma that faces all of mankind
is the problem of identity. As Victor L. Cahn writes, "Hamlet's primary
dilemma is that of every human being: given this time and place and these
circumstances, How is he to respond? What is his responsibility?" (69).
This dilemma defined by Mr. Cahn fits in well with the comments of both L.C.
Knight and Mark Scott, because it too requires some serious introspection on the
part of Hamlet to resolve, and also supports the idea that Shakespeare is using
Hamlet's dilemma to illustrate the effect that perspective, or state of mind,
can have on a given situation. Hamlet's delay in seeking revenge for his
father's death plays an important role in allowing Shakespeare's look into the
human mind to manifest itself. If Hamlet had killed Claudius at first
opportunity, there would have been little chance for Shakespeare to develop the
internal dilemma which all three critics, L.C. Knight, Mark Scott, and Victor
Cahn, mention in support of the widely held view that, in Hamlet, Shakespeare is
attempting to make a comment about the complexity of the human mind, and the
power that a person's mental perspective can have on the events of his life.