h he lives. Equal to other malcontent characters of the age, Hamlet [...] is a bitter critic of the society in the midst of which he is placed.9 As other malcontents do, he [...] finds expression in the form of bitter self-abuse, both in soliloquies, like Oh what a rogue and peasant slave am I. (II. ii.557) and How all occasions do inform against me. (IV. iv. 34)10 This type of self-condemnation is also shared among literary malcontents. Sometimes he [the malcontent] may move from a specific condemnation of his societys faults to a hatred of life itself and the human condition.11 Hamlet begins speaking of what happens when a man has an extravagant development of a character trait, such as melancholy. Hamlet understands his, and other malcontents, states from an intellectual level but cannot yet grasp it at an emotional level. Because of his lack of emotional connection with what he is going through Hamlet objectifies his position. Hamlet feels that even if these men are perfect in every other way that this flaw will be their path to evil or perhaps [...] the stamp of one defect [...] The dram of all {evil} Doth all the noble substances of a doubt To his own scandal(I. iv. 34, 39-41). Hamlet, as ever, is torn between conflicting codes of conduct [...] Hamlet is no one to forgive and forget or to trust to Heavens justice. He thinks of himself as appointed, or cursed, to set things right himself.12 Hamlet has a sense of what should and should not be done by himself as well as by those surrounding him, yet he clearly struggles vainly to overcome the predicament in which he finds himself in [...].13 Hamlet knows that he will suffer consequences whatever course he chooses to take, however Hamlet cannot decide a plan that can save him from his melancholic flaw, and at the same time, dismiss himself from his responsibility to avenge his fathers death. An explanation as to why Hamlets two options are extreme is that the play Hamlet is set in a t...
