What Is Hamlet’s Problem?

Isaac Atayero

Sir John Campion

Advanced Placement English

March 11, 2011

What Is Hamlet’s Problem?

   Everyone has  a problem, a tiny or maybe even large crack, that hinders the from being perfect. Problems are the fateful part of every human being’s life that makes people people. Many problems can stem one from problem causing a chain of reaction of problems that extend to parties that were not involved with the original problem. In the brilliant play that is The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, William Shakespeare Introduces his audience to the tumultuous life of the fictional character, Hamlet. At the beginning of the play the audience meets Hamlet mourning his father, who was recently killed by his own power hungry brother. Hamlet learns this Information from his father’s ghost, who asks Hamlet to avenge his father.

        The entrance of the ghost of Hamlet’s father is very Important because It signifies the beginning of Hamlet’s many problems. The ghost’s request begins a series of events that are caused by Hamlet’s problems, which are caused by the Ghost.  The reader or the audience follows Hamlet’s Indisputable madness throughout the play as Hamlet tries several times to grant the ghost’s wish. It is no surprise that after watching the play or reading the book, the reader or the spectator would ask “What is Hamlet’s problem?”. However, a better question would be “What are Hamlet’s problems?”. Anyone who has read or seen Hamlet would agree that Hamlet is an extremely troubled character.

            To conclude that Hamlet is troubled by only one problem would be to do Injustice to Hamlet’s character and the most essential theme of the play.  The source of all of Hamlet’s many problems is the ghost of his dead father. The assignment that the ghost gives Hamlet drives all of Hamlet’s problems from the moment that Hamlet meets the ghost to the second that he dies. At the beginning of the play, Hamlet’s audience encounters the scholarly Hamlet, who over thinks everything. As the play progresses, the moral Hamlet is Introduced to the readers and theatergoers. The moral side of Hamlet, like the scholarly side, hinders Hamlet from acting because it causes him to become overly scrupulous . Hamlet also has loyalty Issues because he feels he that the decisions  he make cause him to be disloyal to his closed ones.

        Then there is Hamlet’s melancholia, the mood changes that causes Hamlet to act in an extreme manner. Finally, Hamlet’s most dynamic problem is his madness. Although he claims that his madness Is really only antique disposition, It is clear that Hamlet is Inarguably mad. At the beginning of the play, the audience becomes aware of the existence of the ghost of the former king. The ghost is obviously “wandering out of (its) their element” (Johnson, 187) and it caught the attention of the guards that watched the palace gates. The guards note the resemblance between the ghost and the late king so they Inform Hamlet’s friend, Horatio. At first Horatio is quite skeptical of the guard’s claims but after he sees the mute ghost himself , he “describes the three appearances of the ghost” (Cohen, 26) to Hamlet.

       Hamlet’s scholarly side causes him to “analyzes virtually every alternative”(Frye, 14) to the actual appearance of the ghost of is father. The audience is first introduced to Hamlet’s intellectual side when they witness him interrogating Horatio about what he really saw. Hamlet starts asking Horatio many questions, such as:

          Hamlet : Armed , say you?

          All:                               Armed , my Lord.

          Hamlet: From top to toe?

          All:                               My lord, from head to foot.

          Hamlet: Then saw you not his face?        (1.2.240-244).

        As Michael Cohen noted, “even in the midst of strange and troubling news”(26), Hamlet’s critical side allows him to carefully examine the Information that he is given. Initially Hamlet does not give “any Indication of believing the Ghost to be true soul of the dead king”(Prosser, 118). Hamlet’s critical side becomes a major problem for Hamlet as the play progresses.

        When Hamlet meets the ghost of his father, the ghost tells him that his father was killed by his brother, the new king, Claudius. The ghost tells Hamlet to avenge his father’s death and kill the evil and cunning King Claudius. Hamlet’s father’s ghost wants Hamlet to “revenge his foul and most unnatural murder”(1.5.31). Hamlet’s scholarly side hinders Hamlet from granting the ghost’s wish on several occasions. Hamlet’s Intellectual capacity causes contributes to the delay of Hamlet’s actions. Hamlet’s scholarly side and his morality worked hand in hand to hinder Hamlet from fulfilling the ghost’s wish. An example of an instance when Hamlet’s hinders him from killing Claudius occurs after the play that Hamlet puts on.

        In the play, Hamlet recreates the murder of his father by his uncle in the garden. Claudius is reminded of the treacherous deed he committed so he runs to the chapel to ask God for forgiveness. Claudius is alone in the chapel, unharmed and vulnerable , praying for forgiveness. Hamlet is presented with the perfect opportunity to avenge his father’s ghost but he does not make use of it. Hamlet says to himself :

   Now might I do it pat, now he is praying:

   And now I’ll do it: and so he goes to heaven:

   And so am I revenged. That would be scanned (3.3.77-80).

    Hamlet’s moral side “has no effective desire to ‘do it’ ”(Bradley, 132) so his scholarly side comes with a perfect reason for “justifying his delay by the plea that he was waiting for a more perfect vengeance”(Bradley, 132).

         This scene in which Hamlet spares the king life gives the audience “extraordinary dramatic insight”(Bradley,132) on the character of Hamlet. It shows the audience that Hamlet is brilliant enough to come up with any excuse to allow him to procrastinate taking action. It also proves that his scrupulosity and knowledge are real problems for Hamlet because they are capable of creating an “unconscious excuse for delay”(Bradley, 132). Hamlet makes this excuse quickly without realizing It. These behaviors have become second nature to Hamlet but he cannot Identify them as problems. The reason why these problems prove to be particularly difficult is because they make Hamlet “ a man contrariety of desires and overwhelmed with...purposes”(Johnson, 188).

     Hamlet suffers not only from “the dignity of reason”(Johnson, 188) and the the pressure to act morally. It is also Important that pressure to be moral and brilliant comes from no one but Hamlet himself.  Hamlet does not want to kill Claudius because he feels It is the immoral thing to do but he also feels that he has a duty to be loyal to his dead father. Hamlet loved his father and after his father’s death he becomes severely “injured in the most enormous degree”(Johnson, 188). Hamlet also knows that if he does not avenge the ghost, whom he decided is angel from Heaven, he will Fbe committing a sin. Hamlet did not want to disobey his call to be Heaven’s “scourge and minister”(3.4.196). Although Hamlet believes this, he behaves more like Heaven’s “instrument than an agent”(Johnson, 192).

      This places Hamlet in whats seems to be the perfect dilemma for such a troubled character. It seems that Hamlet’s delay to action stems from fear of many things, especially the fear of being disloyal to the his father, the honorable late king of Denmark. As Samuel Johnson notes, “this fear gives efficacy to conscience”(189), causing Hamlet to become such a problematic character. Hamlet is called to lay “aside his dress of mourning”(Johnson, 189) for an armor of vengeance, an armor of loyalty. Hamlet struggles with the decision of being either loyal to his father or being loyal to his faith from the appearance of the ghost to his death. Because of this, Hamlet attempts “to shelter himself in falsehood”(Johnson, 191) by repeatedly procrastinating and constantly delaying throughout the play.

       One of the ways by which Hamlet hides himself in ‘falsehood’ is by playing a madman that often resorts to “rudeness...(and) wanton cruelty”(Johnson, 192). The inspiration for Hamlet’s decision to put on antic disposition comes from his apparent melancholia. Hamlet’s melancholia works in cohorts with his madness in a manner similar to that of his Intelligence and his morality. Hamlet’s melancholia inspires him to create a character that disrespects and criticizes everyone that he encounters. Hamlet’s melancholia caused the former prince of Denmark to be mad , which means that Hamlet’s claim to antic disposition is a lie. Hamlet is simply in denial of his madness and tells himself that he is feigning madness as a lie to cover up his true madness.

       Hamlet is able to create this lie and convince himself that it is true because of scholarly side. All of Hamlet’s problems produce other problems and this is the very reason that Shakespeare’s Hamlet is so undeniably brilliant. In the play, every time that Hamlet has a surge of energy and is ready to act, he finds a way to back out and “relapse into melancholy”(Bradley, 122). Hamlet struggles with different instances of melancholy through out the play. The first time being the mourning of the death of his father. During this time Hamlet is thoroughly depressed and performs his notorious soliloquy in which he says the infamous line “To be or not to be-that is the question”(3.1.64) .

       During this time Hamlet even considers suicide but decides against It because he knew It was Immoral. After Hamlet is introduced to his father’s ghost, he enters his next phase of melancholia. At first he is not sure if the ghost actually exists then he wonders if the ghost is really a “spirit of health or goblin damned”(1.4.44). Hamlet then struggles with the assignment he is given , he begins to ask himself questions such as :

       Was I deceived by the Ghost? How am I to do the deed? When? Where?...

       Can it be right to do it, or noble to kill a defenceless man?...(Bradley,122).

These questions and more drive Hamlet to madness as he unconsciously falls for the wiles of his own problems.

       Over thinking everything “only increased it (melancholia) by deepening self contempt”(Bradley, 122). After Hamlet has a sudden surge of energy, it is usually followed by passive moment that usually makes whatever progress Hamlet has made as a character invalid. Hamlet’s madness stems from “his waxing desperate with imagination and not fit thus to be obeyed”(Cohen, 38). Hamlet pressures himself because he believes that he “was born to set it right”(1.5.211).

      It is very clear that the arrival of the ghost of Hamlet’s late father begins a sequence of ill willed events for Hamlet. These events tests Hamlet’s best attributes and makes them Hamlet’s flaws. Hamlet’s impressive wit becomes a major problem for the grieving prince because It causes

Hamlet to always second guess himself. Hamlet’s morality also causes him to delay because it always provides him a perfect excuse . The pressure to be loyal to his father causes Hamlet to have melancholy which ultimately leads to his madness. All of Hamlet’s problems are interconnected

and they stem from the assignment of ghost of Hamlet’s father. This play is brilliant because It is able to use all of Hamlet’s actions and thoughts to narrate the essence of the character of Hamlet and the causes for all of his problems.

Works Cited

Bradley, A.C. Shakespearean Tragedy. New York: St. Martin’s Press. 1992.

Bradley, A.C. Shakespearean Tragedy. Ed. by Joseph Price New York; Garland, 1986

Cohen, Michael. Hamlet in My Mind’s Eye. Athens ,GA: University of Georgia Press, 1989.

Corum, Richard. Understanding Hamlet. Westport , Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1998.

Elrich, Avi. Hamlet’s Absent Father. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 1985.

Johnson, Samuel Critical Responses to Hamlet, Volume 1, 1600-1790. Ed. by David Farley-Hills.

        New York   : AMS press, 1997.                        

Elliott, George Roy. Scourge and Minister. New York: AMS Press, 1965.

Frye, Roland Mushat. The Renaissance Hamlet. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984.

Prosser, Eleanor. Hamlet and Revenge. Standford: Standford University Press ,1971.

Wood, William Dyson. Hamlet: A Psychological Point of View. New York; AMS Press, 1972.