slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles/ And by opposing, end them." (Act 3, Sc. 1, ln. 64-67)(127) Hamlet seems to reach a point of self-pity so low he debates the point of existence at all. Later, he compares himself to Fortinbras to make his spinelessness even more apparent. "How stand I then,/ That have a father killed, a mother stained./ Excitements of my reason and my blood,/ And let all sleep, while to my shame I see/ the imminent death of twenty thousand men/ That for a fantasy and trick of fame/ Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot/ Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,/ Which is not tomb enough and continent/ To hide the slain?" (Act 4, Sc. 5, ln. 59-68)(205) Hamlet knows himself to be a coward and shows how low he is when he compares himself to Fortinbras in a way that makes him look lower than he is. "A thought which to be quartered, hath but one part wisdom/ And ever three parts coward. I do not know/ Why yet live to say, 'this thing's to do,'/ Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means/ To do't." (Act 4, Sc. 4, ln. 44-49)(203) When Hamlet can call himself a coward it must be true. "Am I a coward?/ ...'Swounds, I should take it! For it cannot be/ but I am pigeon-livered and lack gall." (Act 2, Sc. 2, ln 598-600)(117) Again Hamlet questions his cowardliness, and claims himself to have no gall and as he puts it, 'pigeon-livered.' This lack of self confidence is a major reason in Hamlet's delay and hesitation to exact revenge. Hamlet is a cowardly individual, of that there is no doubt. He blames outside circumstances, such as his fear that Claudius would go to heaven unless killed sinning. He makes excuses, like disbelieving the existence of the ghost even though his heart believes. He hesitates because he is afraid of failure: failure to his father, mother, and to himself. And furthermore, the tragedy of Hamlet would not have been much of a...
