Hamlet Analytical Essay

William Shakespeare has been classified as the greatest playwright of all time, he is known for his plays characterized by tragedy, comedy and history. In his best tragedy, Hamlet, Shakespeare himself depicts many different themes such as murder, misogyny, mystery of death, complexity of action and impossibility of certainty. Hamlet is the main character who seeks to avenge is father's suspicious death. His father's ghost appears and discloses that his brother, Claudius, was the one who murdered him, leaving Hamlet as his only advocate to gain revenge. Hamlet is just a philosophical man disappointed with those around him and the world at large. He tries to make sense of all the conflict transpiring around him and his indecision causes more conflict than he'd begun with. Hamlet's tragic flaw is his inability to act and when he does, he acts impulsively with no rationality and illustrates himself as a lunatic. Ultimately in this story, his most tragic flaw brings the most tragic ending.

Hamlet's initial flaw of indecision is unfortunate, he wants to take action and make things right but simply cannot trust anyone, even his own illusions. He's constantly faced with all evil in this world and has a frustration with the deception he encounters which prevents him from acting. With all of the disgusting decisions that people around him have made, like his mother's pursuing an incestuous relationship with his uncle, he seems hesitant to act so he can avoid an equally horrendous outcome. An example of this would be when he wanted to kill Claudius in church as he confessed but knew if he murder him while he was praying, he'd go to heaven, "Now might I do it pat. Now he is a-praying. And now I'll do 't. And so he goes to heaven. And so am I revenged.--That would be scanned. A villain kills my father, and, for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send To heaven." (III.iii.73-79). After he decides not to kill Claudius, he mistakes Polonius behind a curtain for him later and stabs him, exhibiting himself as a madman and creating a turning point in the story.

The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster from January 28, 1986 is a prime example of indecision. The engineers knew that the spacecraft was unsafe for launch and the temperature would cause technical difficulties while ultimately killing all passengers. The overall theme is connected to Hamlet, the supervisor suffered from indecision on whether or not to launch and he took the opportunity to make a rash choice, well knowing that it was wrong. Hamlet suffered from similar indecision, had he killed Claudius right then and there in the church, he wouldn't have killed Polonius by accidentally mistaking him as Claudius and making himself look completely crazy. Both made decisions with consequences that cost them and those choices were the very ones that created havoc in their own ways.

In summation, Hamlet's indecision

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