w. ( Ii ii 380-385)The Fine Line Between Genius and InsanityA procrastinator? "Who does me this, ha?" (II ii 585) Hamlet is the farthest thing from a procrastinator. Waiting is not procrastinating. Hamlet is by contrast a worthy schemer, one who is circumspect and prudent. Hamlet does not want to rush into something whose consequences for being wrong and rash could be more than he could abide. His contemplation of the immortal soul and Hell are evidence enough that the Prince of Denmark does not wish to abide in eternal hell for answering his father's call for retribution. This becomes evident when he chooses not to kill Claudius when he is at prayer, when he speaks of God's aversion to suicide, or when he considers his mother's feelings for Claudius. His conscience is of great importance to him, though he does accuse his conscience of making him a coward. Hamlet is not afraid of exacting revenge, just of the consequences of being personally responsible for their deaths. His regard for collected, rational revenge is important to him. Claudius himself summarizes Hamlet's attitude;My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:Words without thoughts never to heaven go. (III iii 96-7)Hamlet is a man of observation. He studies people, "tents them to the quick" (II ii 608), and bases his decisions and his actions on the things he learns. Concern for conscience and a taste for precaution suggests clarity and utmost rationality, not a mind consumed with disease.Critics have argued that Hamlet is a man of inaction, which is not entirely the case. How better to ruin your enemies than to devise schemes of self-destruction? Revenge would taste sweeter if Hamlet didn't have to lay a single finger against those whom he is to dispatch. His conscience then would ultimately be clean in a religious sense- his soul would be free to go to Heaven. Hamlet knows all too well that the supposd ghost of his murdered father could only be a devil tempting him as he no...
