hy union here? Follow my mother(The king dies.)"(5.2 327-329). Hamlet does not only value his own morality, but also the morality of others. Besides worrying about his own morality, his mother's morality has much significance to him. As Robert Luyster states, "Hamlet would have Gertrude, like himself, become purified, but this can only be done through the acceding to consciousness' claim to be hard"(Luyster 77). Hamlet contemplates his every action. This problem eventually overwhelms him while also causing his madness. The depth of his thought concerning the murder of Claudius following Hamlet's play reveals his madness. "Reason and action are not opposed in Hamlet, but for most of the play, they fail to coalesce as either we or the characters would like them to" (Kastan 48). Throughout the play, Hamlet questions his every action. Elliot writes, "Claudius, to be sure, according to the Ghost's story, has obtained the throne by killing a king. But that is a main motive for Hamlet's not doing likewise; the ways of his uncle are precisely those that the prince is most reluctant to follow"( Elliot 27). Hamlet does not want to obtain the throne the same way in which Claudius has, through murder. Hamlet even thinks about Claudius's life after death. An example of his thought is in Act III, Scene III, line 73. Hamlet says, "Now might I do it pat, now ‘a is praying; And now I'll do ‘t. (He draws his sword.) And so ‘a goes to heaven. And so I am revenged. That would be scanned: A villain kills my father, and for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send To heaven(III, III, 73-78)." He says here that he has his chance to kill his father's murderer but he is praying. By killing him while he is praying, his soul goes to heaven. If he murdered him at that time, it would not be revenge. Any other person would have murdered him at that point. However, Hamlet's obsession with thinking it through stopped him. Hamlet possesses l...
