"Understanding kills action." With these three simple words, Nietzsche explains the idea behind Shakespeare's development of thought action as inaction, and also the reason why Hamlet hesitates for over 3000 lines of blank verse and prose to avenge the murder of his father. The motif of delay and inaction as thought can be seen several times throughout the play, the main one being that of Hamlet, although secondary performances are given by Laertes, Pyrrhus and Lucianus (in The Mousetrap ). These scenes serve as support and accent for the central part of the play. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay. Hamlet expresses his thoughts primarily through his monologues, Shakespeare's means of presenting inaction and delay; in essence, putting Hamlet's thoughts into practice. The theory is that if the character is shown "thinking out loud at the beginning [in the play], then again and again and again... [the audience] will realize that thinking with him is a continuous process" (De Grazia 1). Nietzsche offers an explanation for Hamlet’s tendency toward inner contemplation: “What we can find words for is something already dead in our heart; there is always a kind of contempt in the act of speaking. » This statement gives a reason for both Hamlet's constant inaction (in thought) and his biting wit. Hepepper his speech with contempt, because what he says is dead to him, but filled with meaning, which gives rise to many interesting conversations, especially with the adults, Claudius, Gertrude and Polonius. The 19th-century critic Coleridge refers to Hamlet as "a representative of modernity." tragedy because unlike Greek tragedies, Hamlet is not animated by an external agent or principle, but by his own inner impulse, his prophetic soul” (De Grazia 5). This “internalization of self” represents one of Shakespeare's greatest contributions and provides the basis for an understanding of the fundamental idea of ​​the play (Bloom 408-9). Several critics identify Hamlet's central action as effectively Hamlet's inaction. This is demonstrated by the opinion that if one only discovered the reason for Hamlet's delay, he "would have the answer to Hamlet's character which is also the key to the whole play (for the play is his character) » (De Grazia 4). The most favored explanation for Hamlet's hesitation is that Hamlet is too big a character for the revenge tragedy that is Hamlet. Indeed, without the prince (as Shakespeare presents him), it becomes “Hamlet's Revenge,” not The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (Bloom 415). Without Hamlet's hesitation, his constant and deliberate thinking, and his "antique disposition" (De Grazia 11), the plot would go straight from Hamlet's briefing by the Ghost to Claudius' murder, without question. Hamlet's questioning of the validity of the ghost, and therefore his questioning of everything else, writes the play (Bloom 187). Critic Harry Levin describes Hamlet as "a play obsessed with the word 'question'", and Bloom clarifies that "Hamlet's question must always be Hamlet himself" (Bloom 386-7), for everything in the play depends of Hamlet's opinion. answer to everything in the room, starting with the ghost of his father. Nietzsche, in his explanation of Hamlet's hesitation, differentiates between Hamlet's inaction due to knowledge and inaction due to reflection. Through the revelation of the Ghost, Hamlet gains knowledge, which destroys the desire and ability to act on that knowledge.Excerpt from his work The Birth of Tragedy (1873): “Knowledge kills action; action requires the veils of illusion: such is the doctrine of Hamlet, not that cheap wisdom [which]... thinks too much and, so to speak, an excess of possibilities does not lead to action . No thinking, no - true knowledge, a glimpse of the horrible truth trumps any motive for action.action...".This idea of ​​knowledge and thinking and their effect on action provides insight into Hamlet's dilemma: without "the veils of illusion", or absence of knowledge, he cannot take revenge Hamlet's knowledge of blindness and injustice The ugliness of the. truth in the Danish monarchy disgusts him so much that he cannot act "Denmark is a prison" (Hamlet II, ii, 262) - or so Hamlet claims But of all Shakespeare's characters,. Hamlet begins as the freest (Bloom 417-8) Hamlet's interiority and constant questioning deny him this freedom And this self-denial forms an ambiguity in Hamlet's reasoning, because, as Harold says. Bloom, “Hamlet implicitly defines personality as the freest personality,” a mode of freedom” (Bloom 427), but rather as something arising from freedom rather than as a product of freedom. So Hamlet, perhaps the most famous personality in Western culture, denies himself a means of creating that personality. serves to create delay. Hamlet deprives himself of choice and thus denies himself the ability to act. Because of Hamlet's intellect and Hamlet's dependence on Hamlet, much of Hamlet is in Hamlet's mind. In a simple and grotesque revenge tragedy, Hamlet's inner monologue and jokes drive much of the plot between induction and conclusion. Hamlet knows that the corruption of Denmark is also in him, which establishes a link between his “disposition to think” and his “indisposition to act” (De Grazia 2). Hamlet is aware that this burden is on him, which affects his own actions as well as his reactions to events (those beyond his control). His hesitation in his actions can therefore be attributed to this overwhelming burden. As TS Eliot said, "we find Shakespeare's Hamlet not in action... but rather in unmistakable tone." The essence of Hamlet lies not in the minimal action of the revenge play, but in the theories, the witticisms, and, overwhelmingly, Hamlet's internal deliberations (Eliot 3). Understanding the heart of the play does not rest solely on Hamlet, although he carries most of it. of it. Hamlet's hesitation and inaction prevail, but the same characteristics of the minor characters serve to emphasize the essence of the play. The most deliberate of these ancillary scenes is Pyrrhus' hesitation during Priam's assassination, in the player's recitation of Priam's massacre. There are thirteen full lines between the raising of his sword and the moment he strikes his mark: "...For behold, his sword, which fell on the milky head of the Reverend Priam, seemed to hold in the air. So, like a painted tyrant Pyrrhus stood and, like a neutral to his will and his matter, did nothing But as we often see against a storm, a silence in the skies, the support remains still, the winds bold without. voice, and the orb below, as silent as death, immediately The terrible thunder tears the region thus, after the arrest of Pyrrhus, the vengeance aroused sets him again to work, and never the hammers of the Cyclops are; fallen on the armor of Mars, forged for eternity, with less remorse than the bloody sword of Pyrrhus now falls on Priam” (II, ii, 502-17). ",, 1992.