Deanna Webb
Professor D’Arcy
English 100:15
200902392
The way in which Hamlet thinks and acts in Shakespeare’s Hamlet has been a debatable
question between scholars. Too much thinking can lead to action or inaction, as when Hamlet was going
to kill Claudius when he was praying. He thought about how since Claudius was praying his sins would be
forgiven and he would go to heaven. So Hamlet decides to wait and then kill him, while he is doing an
act that is not right in the eyes of the Church (3.3.98).The way in which Hamlet thinks, allows him to see
meaning behind words that are spoken, this is because language has a double meaning. When Polonius
asks Hamlet what is he reading, and Hamlet replies ‘words, words, words’. (2.2.192).Hamlet answered
the question differently than how it was asked; he is suggesting that words are meaningless. Hamlet’s
ability to read into what is being said is evidence of his great intelligence. Sigmund Freud said that
“Hamlet represents the type of man whose power of direct action is paralyzed by an excessive
development of his intellect.”(Strachey 298) This is saying that Hamlet is too smart, that he thinks too
much. Over the course of the play, Hamlet has stopped himself from completing an action because he
thought about it too much. As when he was going to kill Claudius when he was praying (2.2.192), and
when he was going to commit suicide (3.1.57). However there have been times throughout Hamlet,
where an act had been committed without thinking; as when Hamlet killed Polonius (3.4.25). However is
he actually paralyzed by this excessive development? I will argue that even though Hamlet does give a
great deal of thought into everything that he does, he is not paralyzed by this, but better equipped to
make the right decision.
It is not plausible to say that Hamlet is paralyzed with it comes to killing Claudius because he
was never given a direct order to kill Claudius, but rather to take revenge (1.5.11). Revenge doesn’t
necessarily mean to kill, but could mean to expose Claudius for what he really is. Hamlet doesn’t have
any proof that is it true that his father was killed by Claudius, Claudius was his father’s brother, and
perhaps Hamlet is too stunned by this news that he is unable to fully understand what is being said to
him. Hamlets inaction could also be blamed on how he doesn’t want to kill anyone, that he is too good a
person and Christian to kill his uncle.
However in Freud’s view of Hamlet, Hamlets excessive development of his intellect could have
caused him to not act because he was starting to wonder if the ghost was in his head or not.”In my
mind’s eye, Horatio” (1.2.86). Hamlet is not sure if he made up the story of his father’s ghost, or if what
he saw was real. When Hamlet was in his mother’s room, the ghost appeared, but only Hamlet could see
it (3.4.126). This would only cause Hamlet to think that he is imagining the ghost, therefore he is unable
to act until he is sure that what he suspects that Claudius did to his father is true.
“To be or not to be – that is the question…” (3.1.57) Here Hamlet is contemplating killing
himself, he knows that his uncle killed his father, and believes that his father’s ghost is telling him to kill
his uncle, he is unsure of life and what it means to live. He is going through a difficult time in his life,
there is a lot of treachery and acting, Hamlet himself is even acting as though he is mad. During this
great speech Hamlet is discussing why he should die, but in the end decides against it. This is because he
made the connection that death is like sleeping, and with sleeping comes dreams, these dreams can
sometimes be bad, so why die if it will be like a bad dream. Here Hamlet used his intelligence to realize
that he would rather be alive, therefore being frozen from committing what he first set out to do, and
that was to commit suicide
Hamlet’s ability to think about everything that he does, allows him to make informed decisions
on what to do. By thinking about committing suicide he in the end decides against it (3.1.91). This
however is not an act of being paralyzed by his excessive development of intellect, but rather the ability
to know what is right and wrong. If Hamlet were to die, who would know the truth about Claudius? And
be able to take revenge for his father, this is what Hamlet was first asked to do in the beginning of the
play. Hamlet’s decision to not commit suicide was because he knew that there was something that he
had to do, he was looking for comfort in his own words, for a reason as to why he should stay alive.
When Hamlet was in the room with his mother he is mad that she has married her dead
husband’s brother, (3.4.17) he has thought about how wrong it is, and how he feels betrayed. It is
possible that he has thought about killing his mother for a long time after seeing the ghost of his father,
but is paralyzed by the fact that Gertrude is still his mother. This is why when he heard the noise behind
the arras, he didn’t think before plunging his sword into whoever was behind it, because he hoped it
was Claudius (3.4.25). He was paralyzed by how much he thought about killing that when he had a
chance he couldn’t take it, that is why when the moment caught him by surprise he was able to act
without thinking.
When Hamlet heard the noise behind the arras he was already on edge about killing Claudius,
therefore when he heard the male voice cry out he thought it was Claudius, being that everyone in the
castle was sneaking around, hiding and spying (3.4.25). How was he to know that the king was not above
all of this espionage? Hamlets ability to assess the situation gave him the ability to act quickly; therefore
he was not paralyzed by his intellect.
When Hamlet does not think people die, as with Polonius, Hamlet heard someone behind the
arras and stabbed him thinking it was the king. If Hamlet had stopped to ponder who would be behind
the arras, or why someone would be there, or even to look and see who it was; could have saved
Polonius’s life. Hamlets intelligence allowed him to realize that making Claudius expose his own guilt
was a better idea than for Hamlet to kill Claudius with no proof. Hamlet is sometimes paralyzed by the
excessive development in his intellect, but really the actions that he decides not to take are ones that
wouldn’t have done him much good if he had. His inaction is caused by his logical analysis of what is
going on. If Hamlet didn’t think about everything that he did, would it have avoided all the bloodshed
that ended that happened in the end of the play?
References
Shakespeare, Hamlet. The Oxford Shakespeare Hamlet. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. Print.
Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, tr. James Strachey, Avon, N.Y. 1965.