Hamlet's Indecision and Shakespeare's Mousetrap for Impatience

Shakespeare catches the conscience of audiences impatient for action:

1. Speaking to the ghost, Hamlet says he’ll act with wings swift as... lightning?
Nope. As “meditation or thoughts of love” [1.5.36].

In other words, NOT SWIFT.
He's not planning swiftness but caution.

2. After the players arrive, Hamlet scolds himself for cowardice:
"O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I! [...]
A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, [...]
I am pigeon-livered" [2].

Whether or not we condone revenge, we may admire Hamlet scolding himself for apparent cowardice. 

3. Hamlet ends this speech saying he needs to be more certain of the ghost’s honesty and Claudius’ guilt, so he’ll put on a play to catch the conscience of the king [3]. This may inspire a public confession from Claudius.

If not, then what should Hamlet do? 

4. Next act: To be or not? Should Hamlet patiently tolerate the scandal of his father's murder and his mother's hasty remarriage - "suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" [4]?

5. He considers action: "to take arms against a sea of troubles / And, by opposing, end them." [5]. 

6. Succeeding (and  labeled a king-killer) may damn him: "For in that sleep of death what dreams may come [...] / Must give us pause." [6]. 

7. He scolds himself: "conscience does make cowards of us all [...] And enterprises of great pitch and moment [...] lose the name of action." [91-96].   

8. He puts on the play. To him, Claudius reacts with guilt [8].

9. Later he catches Claudius at prayer, but doesn't kill him: At prayer, that might send him to heaven [9]. 

10. He thinks he catches Claudius sinning, spying, eavesdropping from his mother's closet, ready for hell, so he stabs through the arras (DECISIVE HAMLET, TAKING ACTION! YES!), and kills Polonius by mistake [10]. OOPS. 

11. On the ship to England, he sends his former school friends to their deaths [11]. (DECISIVE HAMLET, TAKING ACTION! But OOPS. Dead friends?)

Shakespeare thereby catches the conscience of audiences impatient for action [12]. 

The fact that Hamlet's violent actions include mistakes also reflects English Protestant concern about salvation by faith or by works: Hamlet killing Polonius by mistake demonstrates the limitations of works. 

NOTES: All references to Shakespeare plays are to the Folger Shakespeare Library online versions: https://shakespeare.folger.edu

[1] Hamlet 1.5.36.

[2] 2.2.537-604.

[3] 2.2.63.4

[4] 3.1.65-66.

[5] 3.1.67-68.

[6] 3.1.74-76.

[7] 3.1.91-96.

[8] The play, “The Mousetrap,” is in 3.2. Hamlet and Horatio discuss what Hamlet believes is Claudius’s guilty looks in 3.2.313-316.

[9] 3.3.79-100. 

[10] 3.4.28-40. Many others have noticed that Hamlet delays, but when he finally acts, he kills Polonius, a disastrous action and turning point in the play.

[11] 5.2.35-52. 

[12] Others have noticed that Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, seems to work like a mousetrap for the audience. See Mack, Michael, “Hamlet: Shakespeare’s Mousetrap?” The Catholic University of America, February 7, 2011. https://media.christendom.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Hamlets-Mousetrap.pdf

IMAGE: 
Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863), Hamlet, III, 4 - Hamlet and the slain Polonius's body (1835). 
The Museum of fine arts, Reims, France. Slightly cropped. Public domain via https://arthive.com/res/media/img/oy800/work/fef/359205@2x.webp


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