Hamlet: the Hesitant Prince

The story of "Hamlet" is set in Denmark during the Elizabethan age. One of the perplexing questions in Shakespeare's Hamlet is why does Hamlet hesitate in the killing of his uncle Claudius. To answer this question one must look deep into the Price of Denmark's "hamartia" or "fatal flaw" is not only the inability to kill his uncle but his treatment of Ophelia, his madness, real or feigned and a mountain of other questions that …

…rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now, your gambols, your songs of merriment..."(act V scene I). Here he realizes the power of life and how miserable death is. So in act V scene I Hamlet pauses and contemplates life in general and an old friend's life. It is these philosophical breaks Hamlet takes that keep him from killing Claudius sooner.