Essay about Dramatic Irony in Hamlet

Although Hamlet shows himself as indecisive and insecure, towards the end of the story he does show some act of courage; enough to finally go and kill King Claudius. At first, he finds himself procrastinating at the matter, because he comes up behind King Claudius while he’s praying. He originally planned on killing him right then and there, but wait! Hamlet stops and lets his inner coward win over yet again. After a series of deep thoughts, he does decide to kill his uncle, and realizes that he must go through with his plan quickly, before Hamlet himself is killed.

Hamlet kills Polonius and Gertrude becomes scared as to what is going to happen with Hamlet. Claudius betrays her trust by taking advantage of it and takes matter into his own hands. Claudius solution to the problem is to have Hamlet sent to England, where he is going to be safe from the law and will not have to deal with any consequences for his actions. " O Gertrude, come away! The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch. But we will ship him hence, and this vile deed. We must, with all out majesty and skill, Both countenance and excuse" (4.1.28-32). Claudius makes Gertrude believe he is setting this up because he wants to protect Hamlet. But even though the audience knows the real reason as to why he is doing this. He is sending Hamlet to England to be killed. " By letters congruing to that effect, The present death of Hamlet" (4.3.66-67).

Hamlet had the chance to kill Claudius and seek his revenge but he stopped and thought rationally about what would happen if he did.

          After Claudius commits the deed of killing King Hamlet, he almost immediately marries Hamlet's wife, Queen Gertrude.  Claudius also

William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a tragic story about two lovers who are from two disputing families, and their eventual suicides. Shakespeare uses dramatic irony throughout the play to create tension for the audience and foreshadow the ending. Dramatic irony is when the words or actions of characters in a story have a different meaning to the reader than to the characters. This is because the reader knows something that the characters do not. Romeo and Juliet’s death could have been prevented if the characters in the story weren’t so ignorant of their situations, and often times the reader recognizes this.

Hamlet had the opportunity to kill Claudius at the chapel but restrained himself, he believed it was too good of a death for Claudius and that if he were killed his sins would be forgiven. This shows his lack of action and proves he is a procrastinator. In his soliloquies he constantly criticizes himself for the obvious avoidance of responsibility saying, "Am I a coward? Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across? Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face? Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i' the throat, as deep as to the lungs? who does me this?" (Act 2 Sc. 2, 571-575)

He is seen again delaying his revenge due to over thinking when refusing to kill Claudius in a moment of weakness. The prince’s reluctance to murder the praying king and thus sending him directly to heaven is ironic due to the fact that Claudius is unable to confess his sins and ask for God’s forgiveness. The readers once again observe Hamlet’s failure to execute his responsibility due to his overwhelming desire to perform the perfect revenge.

Cleverly, Hamlet decides to feign madness before the King and the court as a way for others to ignore him, so he may construct his plan of revenge for his father’s death. What is interesting is that he initially does not set out to kill Claudius the current king, which suggests that he is troubled on whether or not the apparition he spoke with is truly his father telling the truth. He deceptively uses Ophelia as a messenger to the King to describe his initial count of being mad. This causes the King, Polonius, and Ophelia to spy on Hamlet. When putting on a production to see whether Claudius is truly guilty of being the murder Lord Hamlet states, “that he must be idle” which suggest that his madness is feigned. With Claudius being deemed guilty, Hamlet knows what he must do. Interestingly, Hamlet is unable to kill Claudius the first time when he gets a chance since he did not want to send Claudius to heaven. The level of distress of Hamlet is apparent when he sees his mother after passing Claudius praying to God. Getrude calls for help and a noise is heard behind a curtain. Without thinking Hamlet slays Polonius; the person behind the curtain. This is a very controversial moment for this

Hamlet realizes that he is dying and that he now has the excuse to kill Claudius

This, in turn, exploits Hamlet’s similar flaw of ego and furthers the conflict, but what’s more, it illustrates Claudius’ sheer audacity and lack of repentance. He continues to try to cover up the sin and appease Hamlet into complacency rather than confess and ask for forgiveness. In a mark of pure arrogance, Claudius tells Hamlet to “throw to earth / This unprevailing woe and think of us / As of a father”, conceitedly requesting that Hamlet merely forget the murder and replace his father with the murderer himself (I, ii, 110-112). Similarly, instead of directly confronting Hamlet about his mental condition, the king more or less hires Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on the prince, again cementing his smug mindset. The king does not believe he can be caught or, rather, that Hamlet is competent enough to figure out his plan and foil him. Claudius, too, thinks only of himself after Hamlet’s inadvertent killing of Polonius, pondering “how shall this bloody deed be answered? / It will be laid to us” instead of considering the ramifications of the murder with respect to Hamlet (4.1.17-18). The other two paper-thin traps the king hatches only reinforce his failure to see beyond the apparent; his attempt to deport Hamlet to England and have him killed reeks of treachery and, luckily, Hamlet realizes the king’s subterfuge, crushing the plot and flipping it back on him. Claudius remains steadfast in his efforts to remove Hamlet, going so far as to set up a

Hamlet had every reason in the world to kill his uncle turned stepfather, Claudius. Once he would have been able to explain the truth about his uncle’s dirty deeds, nobody would have been upset with his actions. So the question remains, why did Hamlet take so long to take action? For the majority of the play, Hamlet thinks up and talks about all the ways he could get revenge, but it isn’t really until act three that Hamlet takes the first step in exposing Claudius’ treacherous ways. “If the prince had gone naturally to work in the first act, the play would have ended right there,” said Thomas Hammer (Nardo 61). Hammer couldn’t have been more accurate. Without Hamlet’s

Therefore, Hamlet really did miss a perfect opportunity to kill Claudius, because Claudius would not have gone to heaven after all. This scene shows Hamlet’s indecisiveness, because after the players’ scene, he vows to take action in murdering Claudius. However, when the opportunity rises, Hamlet doesn’t take it. One might think that Hamlet is just making up excuses to avoid murdering Claudius. In forgoing this opportunity to kill Claudius, Hamlet allows Claudius time to act against him. Claudius attempts to rid himself of Hamlet and the possibility of his crime becoming discovered.

Even when he discovers Claudius' guilt, Hamlet finds himself bound by conscience. He comes across Claudius in the King's chamber, but as Claudius is in prayer (or so Hamlet perceives him to be), he cannot bring himself to kill the King, lest Claudius meet with a better end than his own father:

Here, Hamlet shows despite his need to revenge for his father, he is held back from his constant thought of his actions as well as his moral considerations. It’s been clearly stated that Hamlet has a strong sense of heaven and hell; that he won’t kill his uncle while praying, because he thinks he might go to heaven. Hamlet himself doesn’t want to kill his uncle without being assured that he is guilty. This is why, by the end of the play, Claudius' death is something we applaud, regretting only that he was not killed sooner. The reason of this delay is because of Hamlets’ moral triumph. His morality often keeps him from acting; it makes him mull around in his uncertainty and anxiety, instead of just acting and bringing his struggle to an end.

Hamlet could kill Claudius but instead decides to wait because he does nto want to send him to heaven.