Towards the beginning of the play, the ghost of Hamlet’s father visits Hamlet and asks him to avenge his death. He eagerly agrees to do so saying, “Haste me to know’t, that I, with wings as swift/as meditation or the thoughts of love,/ may sweep to revenge”(1.5.29-31). Here Hamlet is ready to take action, and that he will do it as fast as one falls in love. He is already showing free will only a few scenes into the play. Another example of Hamlet making a clear decision based on his plans for revenge is when he has the perfect opportunity to kill the king. After stumbling upon king Claudius while he is praying Hamlet says, “To take him in the purging of his soul,/when he is fit and seasoned for his passage?/No./Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent./When he is drunk, asleep, or in his rage/Or in th’ incestuous rage of his bed”(III.4.85-90). Hamlet has the perfect chance to get the job done but decides to wait, so that when the king dies, he will be partaking in sin. Hamlet later tries to kill the king, but instead accidentally murders the eavesdropping Polonius. Even every other death that occurs in the play traces back to Hamlet. Ophelia becomes depressed and later drowns because Hamlet has killed her father; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern die due to misinformation caused by Hamlet, and Laertes, Queen Gertrude, King Claudius, and Hamlet himself all die during the duel at the end, which is brought about because of Hamlet’s actions. All of the events unfold in this play due to one man’s
Towards the beginning of the play, the ghost of Hamlet’s father visits Hamlet and asks him to avenge his death. He eagerly agrees to do so saying, “Haste me to know’t, that I, with wings as swift/as meditation or the thoughts of love,/ may sweep to revenge”(1.5.29-31). Here Hamlet is ready to take action, and that he will do it as fast as one falls in love. He is already showing free will only a few scenes into the play. Another example of Hamlet making a clear decision based on his plans for revenge is when he has the perfect opportunity to kill the king. After stumbling upon king Claudius while he is praying Hamlet says, “To take him in the purging of his soul,/when he is fit and seasoned for his passage?/No./Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent./When he is drunk, asleep, or in his rage/Or in th’ incestuous rage of his bed”(III.4.85-90). Hamlet has the perfect chance to get the job done but decides to wait, so that when the king dies, he will be partaking in sin. Hamlet later tries to kill the king, but instead accidentally murders the eavesdropping Polonius. Even every other death that occurs in the play traces back to Hamlet. Ophelia becomes depressed and later drowns because Hamlet has killed her father; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern die due to misinformation caused by Hamlet, and Laertes, Queen Gertrude, King Claudius, and Hamlet himself all die during the duel at the end, which is brought about because of Hamlet’s actions. All of the events unfold in this play due to one man’s