FREE ESSAY ON HAMLET'S PROCRASTINATION LED TO HIS DEPRESSION

HAMLET'S PROCRASTINATION LED TO HIS DEPRESSION

Hamlet's procrastination led to his depression
Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark, who is seeking revenge for his father's death. The ghost
of the King, Hamlet's father, tells Hamlet to " . . . revenge his foul and most unnatural
murder" . Since his father asked him, he finds it his duty to do as he says. In this
essay, I am going to prove that Hamlet puts off what he has to do until a future time,
which leads him to his depression. He builds things up inside of him until the point that
he is not able to handle anything, or lacks courage, skill, and will to do something. 
In his first soliloquy, "Oh that this too too solid flesh would melt . . ." , Hamlet
talks about the first thing that has made him melancholy, or sad. He says that his mother
barely mourned her husband's death and a month later she remarried. To try and make
himself feel better, Hamlet makes a joke about it when he tells Horatio, "The funeral
baked meats did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables". Everyone else knows how much
the remarriage of his mother has bothered him. The soliloquy in act one scene two shows
how upset he is at his mother and himself. He believes he is better off dead because no
one seems to understand what he is feeling. He shows that he is upset at his mother
because she got married in such a hurry. It makes him think that maybe his uncle and his
mother had an affair before King Hamlet died. He says that his father used to treat her
like she was everything and she degraded herself by marrying someone whom treats her as
if she was nothing. For example, King Claudius, Hamlet's stepfather always asks Gertrude,
Hamlet's mother to do things for him. Claudius tells her to talk to Hamlet so he can
listen in on their conversation, without even asking Gertrude if she is willing to do
that. When the play begins, the King is already dead so we do not know how he treated
Gertrude. What we do know is that when the ghost of the king came back to talk to Hamlet
and tell him about the situation, he tells Hamlet that he should leave Gertrude alone and
to try as best as he can no to get her involved. Not only in this soliloquy, but also in
other ones in this play, Hamlet talks about dying. In his soliloquy in the third act,
Hamlet talks about dying so he will not have to face the human suffering that everyone
had to go through in life. Hamlet, at this point, believes that everything he is living
for is gone. The one person that he looked up to is now dead and he does not have a male
figure he can look up to and set an example for himself of how he wants to be. His mother
is blind and does not see the way Claudius has been treating and she is also blind
because she does not realize that Claudius is the one that killed her husband. The last
reason that he is upset, and the one thing that does occur during the play was when
Ophelia started to neglect Hamlet. Hamlet loves Ophelia and after everything started
going downhill for him, he began losing the one person he cared so much about. Hamlet
gave hints during the play that he wanted to die and that he is depressed, even to people
that he did not trust, like Polonius. Polonius asks him to come out of the air and
Hamlet's response was to go into his grave. When Rosencrantz and Guilderstern first visit
Denmark, Hamlet refers to it as a "prison", because he does not like being there anymore.
He is having problems with everyone around him and he would rather be alone but at the
same time have someone he can talk to and trust. Two other people that Hamlet did not
trust were Rosencrantz and Guilderstern. He tells them that he has lost all his "mirth .
. . and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition that this godly frame the earth
seems to me as sterile promontory" . Hamlet realizes that they were sent for to take care
of Hamlet in his time of need, and he tells them that he has lost any sort of energy he
had within him. Not only does Hamlet have these problems but he has others to worry
about. Everything came all at once and he is having a difficult time dealing with
everything. The one thing that ends up confusing him a lot is Ophelia because one minute
they are talking and being all nice to each other and then the next she is ignoring him.
He does not seem to understand why.
" . . . From this time forth have you so slander any moment leisure as to give words or
talk with Lord Hamlet" . Polonius says this to his daughter Ophelia who is in love with
Hamlet. This is another problem that has saddened Hamlet because the one person that he
loves the most in the world is told never to talk to him again.
When Hamlet does speak to Ophelia, he says that he never loved her, which is a lie
because before he used to kiss the ground she walked on and for this reason Polonius is
convinced that Hamlet's depression is caused by Ophelia's unrequited love. He thinks this
because when Ophelia gave Hamlet back the letters he " . . . fell into a sadness, then
into fast, thence to a watch, thence into a weakness . . ." . At this point, everyone is
starting to recognize that there is truly something wrong with Hamlet. 
After Hamlet finds out that Claudius killed his father, Hamlet is told by his father's
ghost to seek revenge. Every time he tries to kill Claudius, he stops himself. "A villain
kills my father . . .I, his sole son, do the same villain send to heaven" . When Hamlet
tries to kill Claudius, he uses the excuse that Claudius is praying, and that he can not
kill him when he is connecting with God. A. C. Bradley believes that "melancholy, as the
Elizabethans thought of it best explains Hamlet's inactions" . Hamlet is too occupied
with his sadness to deal with anything else. "Hamlet's nature- his morality, optimism,
idealism, and intelligence incline him to melancholy . . ." For example, he could have
believed what the ghost told him, but he does not want to make any wrong decisions, until
he realizes for himself that Claudius is guilty of the crime. If the ghost were wrong, he
would have killed Claudius and would have made the worst decision in his life because he
would have to face all the scorn of the people around him for killing Claudius and not
having proof that Claudius killed his father. 
Bradley also believes that "Hamlet's melancholy accounts . . . for apathy . . . and
Hamlet's inability to understand why he delays" . We see this when he asks "Why do I
linger . . . can the cause be cowardice . . . can it be thinking to precisely of the
event . . ." Hamlet does not want to lack courage, skill, will, or opportunity, but
everything that happens makes him think excessively. Hamlet is upset that he does not
show any emotion for what has happened throughout the past couple of months. He believes
that he is insensitive, and we see this when he watches the play, and sees "the imminent
death of twenty thousand men . . . fight for a plot whereon the numbers cannot try the 
cause . . ." . Hamlet has not shown his emotions for his father's death, his mother's
remarriage and Ophelia's unrequited love, while the people in the play are sobbing for
something that has not yet even occurred in their lives. He does not understand why he is
so unemotional about something that is so important. The actors in the play are sobbing
and Hamlet can not get one tear out after all the things that have happened to him.
Bradley believes that Hamlet had "an unbounded delight and faith in everything good and
beautiful" . Whoever did not cause him harm, Hamlet was being nice to. For example,
Horatio became Hamlet's confidant because he was there to help him without being sent for
by anyone, unlike Rosencrantz and Guilderstern who only show up when the king and the
queen need him to help Hamlet. Bradley thought that if he would take actions, it would
"further weaken him and enslave him to his melancholy" . Whenever Ophelia did not
acknowledge him, he would sink deeper into depression. Bradley believed that Hamlet might
have been depressed because he "lost a loved one", but also because he "lost the crown" .
Hamlet would have had the chance to rule Denmark, but instead his mother remarried, and
his uncle took the position. Him losing the crown might not have been the major reason is
depressed but it is linked to the main reason he is- his father's death.
According to Samuel Coleridge, Hamlet lost the "equilibrium between real and imaginary
worlds . . . Hamlet's balanced is disturbed" . He was too occupied with himself that he
forgot everything that he had to do outside himself. " Hamlet is brave and careless of
death . . . but he procrastinates from thought and loses the power of 
action . . ." . We see this when Hamlet tries to kill Claudius when he is praying. He
backs down at the last minute. We also realize that Hamlet does not take action when he
"procrastinated from thought" when he kills Polonius. Hamlet was startled, and without
thinking he killed Polonius, when he was behind the wall tapestry. Coleridge contrasts
Hamlet to Macbeth, another Shakespearean character. Hamlet proceeds with the "utmost
slowness", while Macbeth with a "crowded and breathless rapidity" . Hamlet not only
contrasts to Shakespearean characters outside the play but he also contrasts to a
character from the same play- Laertes. Laertes finds out something and without thinking
or realizing the consequences, goes out and does whatever he has to do. When he found out
that his father was dead, Laertes tried to go after Hamlet, without thinking. 
Samuel Johnson says "of feigned madness of Hamlet, there appears no adequate cause for he
does nothing which he might not have done with the reputation of sanity . . .[Hamlet is]
afraid of something in unknown futurity" . He wants to make sure that there are no
consequences to uphold when he is done with his actions. Hamlet "makes no attempt to
punish [Claudius]" , and at the end Claudius dies with no attempt from Hamlet. Hamlet
"makes no attempt to punish him, and in his death is at last affected by an incident in
which Hamlet has no part in producing" . 
Most depressive people contemplate suicide, like Hamlet does in his soliloquies. "To be
or not to be, that is the question . . ." . In this soliloquy, Hamlet is on the verge of
suicide. He can not find a reason to live. The people that he loves are either gone or
neglecting him. He believes that he is all alone and that there is no one to turn to for
help. 
Hamlet becomes depressed because he keeps things to himself, which makes him think about
the melancholy things that are revolving around him. In the beginning of the play, Hamlet
is just melancholy about everything that has happened to him, but by the middle of the
play he is depressed, because more upsetting things build up inside of him. He became
melancholy because he thought too much about everything that has happened to him. By
thinking of all of this, he procrastinates which leads to his depression. It goes around
in a circle. When he thinks too much he loses the courage to act, and he has to spend
more time trying to gain the courage again. His procrastination leads him to build up
things inside of him to the point that he can not deal with it anymore. Since he
overanalyzed every situation, he thinks of all the bad things that happened and that
possibly might happen if he takes action, and therefore makes himself be depressed.
Hamlet's procrastination not only led to his death, but to the death of many people
around him. His depression not only affected himself but also affected the people around
him. If Hamlet did not procrastinate, he would have, probably saved the lives of the
people he loved.
Bibliography
Bibliography
Bradley, A. C. Shakespearean Tragedy 1st Edition New York: Macmillian, 1904
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor Hamlet volume two ed. Henry Nelson Coleridge London: William
Pickering, 1836
Johnson, Samuel The Plays of William Shakespeare volume eight London J&R Tunson, 1765
Shakespeare, William Hamlet ed. Alan Durband U.S. edition: Barrons Educational Series,
Inc. 1986