KING: Bow, stubborn knees, and heart with strings of steel, Be soft as sinews of the newborn babe! All may be well. (He kneels)HAMLET: Now might I do it pat, now ‘a is a-praying;And now I’ll do ‘t. And so ‘a goes to heaven, and so am I revenged.At this moment the main problem of “Hamlet” could be ended. Hamlet could kill his Uncle Claudius and avenge his father’s death, and the case would (excepting the case of some unknown tragedy) be closed. He would not accidentally kill Polonius, and perhaps he, Ophelia, Gertrude, and Laertes would not end up dead. The play might not have such an entirely tragic ending after all. However, Hamlet chooses not to.HAMLET: Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent.When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage,Or in th’ incestuous pleasure of his bed,At game a-swearing, or about some actThat has no relish of salvation in ‘t – Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven,And that his soul may be as damned and blackAs hell, whereto it goes.By most accounts, this passage would be taken to mean that he does not kill Claudius because at this time the King is praying, and when praying one’s soul will ascend to heaven if one should die. Hamlet wants Claudius to burn in hell; for him to go to heaven would make his revenge void. He will avenge his father’s death when Claudius is engaged in some other less holy act, in order to insure the King’s place in hell. Of course, by his delaying his revenge, the entire plot of the play goes in a different direction. Immediately after this scene Hamlet speaks with his mother, unknowing of the fact that Polonius is hiding behind a curtain in the room with them. When the Queen becomes frightened by Hamlet’s irate demeanor she cries out for help, as does Polonius. Hamlet mistakes Polonius for Claudius and stabs him to death. This, of course, causes a landslide of tragedy in the play. Claudius...
