Hamlet | Hamlet's Delay: An Objective and Subjective Analysis Compared
An examination of two schools of thought concerning Hamlet's character, as seen through two critical works: Elliot's Scourge and Minister and Peter Waldeck's "Anxiety, Tragedy, and Hamlet's Delay."
One of the most perplexing problems of Shakespeare's Hamlet, and certainly one which has received a great deal of critical attention, is the question of why Hamlet delays the killing of Claudius. The Prince eventually succeeds in avenging his father's death, but this occurs only in the play's final scene. Before that point, Hamlet has numerous opportunities to accomplish his task: the prayer scene, for example, in which both characters come face to face alone. Yet Hamlet demurs. On this matter critical opinion is divided into essentially two schools of thought. There are the...
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