usion” (Ornstein 2). He is always contemplating his options. He is a scholar; always thinking and trying to make rational decisions. “To be or not to be: that is the question:” (3.1.56). Not only is it the question, it is, perhaps the answer; the solution to his dilemma. That question is his rationale behind every decision he makes. It’s answer weighs the consequences of his actions. As a result of all of this rationalizing, his actions never take place because he is too busy thinking about what will happen if he does take action. Depression could be another factor in his unwillingness to avenge; as he says to Rosencratz and Guildenstern, “I have of late...lost all my mirth” (2.2.303-304). When Hamlet’s father was “But three months dead,” Gertrude, his mother, married her brother-in-law. As this act would still be a somewhat taboo in this era, in Elizabethan times, it was considered incestuous. This act showed little sensitivity toward Hamlet as well as an implication that this marriage could possibly be a continuation of a past, secret love, thus committing adultery. Although not confirmed, Hamlet nonetheless feels let down. He asks his sinful mother, “Have you eyes?/You cannot call it love, for at your age/the heyday in the blood is tame, it’s humble,/And waits upon the judgment.../.../O shame, where is thy blush?...” (3.4.68-71). Similarly, “Hamlet’s problem...[is that] the ghost’s injunction to act becomes so inextricably bound up for Hamlet with the character of the world in which the action must be taken--its mysteriousness, its baffling appearances, its deep consciousness of infection, frailty, and loss--that he cannot comes to terms with either without coming to terms with both” (Mack 17).Perhaps, Hamlet is struggling with the morality of revenge. As Belsey says, “Renge exists in the margin between justice and cr...
