Shakespeare’s Hamlet revolves around the title character’s undeniable obligation to immediately avenge his father’s murder. Yet much time elapses before Hamlet slays his evil uncle, leading to a fundamental question: what causes the hero to delay before eventually managing to salvage retribution? The answer lies within Hamlet’s fatal flaw. His reoccurring state of impractical contemplation renders him incapable of any decisive action that could have brought about a mercurial revenge. In Hamlet, the question of how to act is affected not only by rational considerations, such as the need for certainty, but also by emotional, ethical, and psychological factors.

A student whose studies are interrupted by his father's death, Hamlet is extremely philosophical and contemplative. He is particularly drawn to difficult questions or questions that cannot be answered with any certainty. Faced with evidence that his uncle murdered his father, evidence that any other character in a play would believe, Hamlet becomes obsessed with proving his uncle's guilt before trying to act. The standard of "beyond a reasonable doubt" is simply unacceptable to him. This obsession will prove

the thorn of Hamlet’s master plan.

In the end, Hamlet extirpates Claudius, but this revenge is bittersweet, for it comes too late. “The native hue of [Hamlet’s] resolution [was] sicklied o’er with the pale cast of [his] thought”(III. I. 92) Hamlet’s tendency to ponder over impractical matters rather than act thwarted his attempt to ease the pain of his tormented father and proved to be fatal. The prince’s numerous soliloquies, though immortalized and treasured in literary history, render him incapable of any decisive action, prolonging his bid for quick revenge and resulting in tragedy as two complete families parish all as a result of his hesitance.

Hamlet initially meets his challenge with zeal, promising the Ghost he will produce quick results, “Yea, from the table of my memory I’ll wipe away all trivial, fond records...And thy commandment all alone shall live Within the book and volume of my brain, Unmixed with baser matter. Yes, by heaven” (II. I. 111). Yet despite this stirring vow of swift justice, Hamlet’s fatal flaw will lead to a stasis. Hamlet’s scholarly mind, continually searching for new intellectual morsels, has a tendency to wander into the realm

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