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Throughout the history, the study of Hamlet is an invariable subject for scholars and researchers. Scholars and readers, if they take a critical eye on Hamlet, tend to attribute the delay for his revenge and the subsequent tragedy to Hamlet’s hesitation and his character flaws. It is a challenging task for readers to make an impartial judgment about Hamlet. In fairness, we should pay our attention to the age in which Hamlet lived and the situation he found himself in, if we endeavor to have a better understanding of Hamlet.
This paper intends to suggest that Hamlet’s delay for revenge is not caused by his hesitation or his weakness in character. In truth, Hamlet, influenced by Humanism emerging in his time, is a man of ration rather than someone seized by an urge to avenge the murder of his father. When he first learns about the death of his father, he sets out to verify it and ascertain that his uncle is indeed the murderer. He takes his time to plan his vengeance because he believes that he has to take in account of the consequences of his revenge, for example, his responsibility as the heir apparent of the kingdom of Denmark.
2 Literature Review
William Shakespeare is the best known writer of Humanism in the period of Renaissance of Europe. His works represent the greatest of the achievements of his time. Most of his works are set in the era of renaissance, therefore, we can deeply appreciate his determined Humanism. Although Shakespeare created the character Hamlet more than 400 years ago, the study of Hamlet remains constantly a hot topic for scholars and researchers from all of the world.
Oedipus complex, femininity and psychology prove to be three favorite perspectives used in the study of Hamlet. Chen (2006) thinks that Hamlet’s lack of maternal love proved to be his strong hatred for his mother and uncle, which further confirmed his resolution to avenge his father. De-yan Guo (2009) presents that Hamlet’s struggle with his femininity contributed to his tragedy. He said: “It was Hamlet’s weakness, passiveness and dependence those feminine traits that prevented his masculine action to avenge his father. Yinghui Hu (2015) mentions that Hamlet’s change of mind is the cause of his delay for revenge while he was consumed by his conscious exploration of his melancholy sentiment.