The TRUE Reason for My Delay

                Many people have debated what the cause of my delay in taking revenge for my father’s death was. I, Hamlet, am here to set the record straight. I will credit the ideas which are plausible but I promise you that by the time you finish reading what I have to say you will have the true reason for why it took so long for me to take revenge on my father’s murderer (brother). Just in case you’re worried, I will have you know that I will be to the point and precise, much unlike Polonius.

                First off I would like to get one theory out of the way right of the bat because it is so ridiculous. The theory that I wasn’t strong enough and lacked the nerve that hero’s are made of makes me laugh. I was more than strong enough. I was prepared to do it when I saw Claudius on his knees praying. The only problem with that was that I wasn’t going to get revenge that way. Killing him after he had asked forgiveness for his sins when he taken my father when my father had not the time to repent for his sins was not revenge. I knew that “...this is hire and salary, not revenge.” (III, iii, 80) and waited for a better opportunity to present itself. I needed true revenge, and I was strong enough and had the nerve to know that, so I waited until the proper moment arose; you may ask if dying was the proper moment for my revenge but I will explain that in a little bit. I feel much better with that one out of the way; it definitely won’t be on my list of hardest arguments to win.

                Now I will explain to you my true reason for the delay. A large part of my personality is that I think about things a lot, some people may say in excess, before I take action. That is because I like to think of myself as an amateur philosopher. It is true that “... the native hue of resolution is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought” (III, i, 85-86) and part of me was glad that the proper moment never arose until I was dying, for who can be mad at a dead man, and even if they are, what do I care? After my father’s death and talking to his spirit, I found it difficult to meet real world situations in some cases, and occasionally I was out of touch with the practical world. Although I was physically capable of accomplishing these things, since I am a thinker instead of a doer I found that it wasn’t uncommon for me to over think situations that I was in, which for common folks could be seen as being out of touch with the real world. I spent the entirety of my life from the time I saw my father’s ghost until I was dying and finally took revenge on Claudius thinking about what should, and what had to be done. By doing this I prevented myself from making a mistake and either killing the wrong man or killing him at the wrong moment. I was able to devise a plan to reveal the truth, because I am such a great philosopher. By putting on a play that showed a man killing his brother, the King, for the crown and all the other benefits that accompanied it I was able to discover that the true killer was indeed Claudius and it was not the ghost who was lying to me. I could see that Claudius was guilty because to us who “...have free souls, it touches us not: let the galled jade wince, our withers are unwrung.” (III, ii, 237-239) and Claudius not only winced but ordered the play to stop and left. I also was able to think of the wonderful plan to act crazy. I was able to trust Horatio and Marcellus to “Never make known what you have seen tonight” (I, v, 145) that cold night when the ghost first talked to me. Since I was able to trust those two men to keep my secret I was able to act crazy and convince everyone around me that I was crazy. While I had everyone believing that I was crazy I could think things through, I was able to be certain that my final choice was the best possible one that could be made. Claudius was too busy worrying about making sure that “Madness in great ones must not unwatch’d go” (III, i, 190) while what he had to be worrying about was what I was planning behind my curtain of madness. The facade of my craziness also misdirected other people, such as Polonius who then informed Claudius. Polonius believed “The origin and commencement of [my] grief sprung from neglected love” (III, i, 179-180) which further caused Claudius to stray farther from the truth of my plan. Now back to why dying was the right time for my revenge. First of all, if I had waited until after I had passed on I couldn’t have really carried out my revenge, so it had to be either at that point or before my final dual. However, the correct moment had not presented itself before my death arrived, and trust me, I wouldn’t have let it pass had it come. I had thought many hours about what the proper moment would be; for as a hobby I am a philosopher, remember? But like I had said, the moment hadn’t arrived before my death so it had to be as I was dying. 

                Similar to this theory is the one that I couldn’t persuade myself that murdering Claudius was the right thing to do. I can understand why some may come to this conclusion. I was conflicted with a decision, however it was not whether or not it was right to kill the king or not. The decision that I was faced with was when the proper moment to kill Claudius was. I knew that I must avenge my father’s death and to do this his murderer must die. I knew that by my morals it was okay to kill a man for revenge, for why should a murderer live while my father was taken from this earth too soon. “Hyperion to a satyr...” (I, ii, 140) was my father to his brother, his murderer, my uncle, my ‘father’, should I continue? I don’t believe that there are many people that wouldn’t agree with me that it was morally acceptable to remove from this earth a beast such as Claudius since he had taken the sun god from us. I wish not to continue on this subject so I will proceed to the next theory.

                I will accept the fact that the situation that I was faced with was far from normal and seeing the ghost of my dead father unnerved me. I am also aware that had I been faced with normal situations my revenge would surely have come sooner. The play that I planned for the king was indeed so that I could be certain that it wasn’t “a damned ghost that we have seen” (III, ii, 81) for should Claudius’ “occulted guilt do not itself unkennel in one speech” (III, ii, 79-80) we could be certain that the revenge was unjust, therefore I must not kill my new father. Had I not created this plan and not been certain that the man I was to take revenge on was undeniably the man that committed the murder, I would not have been able to carry out my revenge. These were far from normal circumstances and undoubtedly had my father’s ghost not appeared I would have not needed to devise such a plan, because when “my father’s spirit in arms [appears] all is not well” (I, ii, 153) and things must be thought out twice as carefully as under normal circumstances. The only problem with this theory is to believe that I was too damaged to act and eventually take revenge. Had I been that damaged I would not have been able to take my revenge even as I was dying, I would have simply waited to die as everyone else fell like flies around me.

                Finally I will explain why this last theory isn’t the real reason for why my revenge was so delayed. It is completely true that I waited until I could prove that Claudius was the true murderer and this was one of the major factors that slowed me in my quest for revenge. It was also tricky to make sure that my mother was kept out of this foul situation. Although not impossible, considering I accomplished it, this detail of my obligations did set my execution of the revenge back a fare bit. The part of this theory that I must straighten out with you uneducated people is that, alas I was still the King’s son, meaning that it was not hard for me to meet with him. The Swiss guards were far from an obstacle that I was faced with during my search for revenge. To add to that, it wasn’t like I was going to poison him in the cowardly manner that he did kill my true father. It was normal to have a knife in my position and once in a room alone with Claudius it was mine own choosing to whether I would kill him or not. Besides it would not have been hard to convince that thing that I had had a change of heart and wanted to get to know him better, have some father-son bonding time alone, and if I had decided that I was going to take my revenge I could have, easily. Just to restate, the guards were not an obstacle.

                Now that you have finished reading what I have to say I hope that you know now the true reason for why my revenge was so delayed. The fact that I am a philosopher and need to think things through multiple times slowed the process of revenge considerably. When courage is cast over with thought the outcome will most often be the best one possible, however it will take much longer for it to occur. My story is a prime example of how thought slows reactions, for my revenge was delayed a great deal (perhaps for too long). Facing real world situations and staying in touch with the practical world was also a flaw that set my revenge further back. I have enjoyed correcting all of you who were wrong about why I delayed and I suppose I should congratulate those who were correct, even though it should have been obvious. I look forward to the next time you need to be corrected.