Why the Delay?

Why does Hamlet delay the act of killing Claudius? This is such a great question asked by many. When Hamlet is visited by the apparent ghost of his late father (King Hamlet), he is informed that his father's death was in fact a murder. Hamlet's uncle Claudius and recently new step dad murdered his father by pouring poison in his ear. Hamlet is left with the decision to believe the ghost and seek revenge on Claudius and avenge his father or not believe it and carry on believing that his father's death was no murder.  Hamlet shows that he is not the type of person who will just go out and kill an innocent man and that he needs proof that what the ghost says is true. Hamlet wants a way that he can prove Claudius is guilty of his father's murder, "The spirit that I have seen may be the devil: and the devil hath power T' assume a pleasing shape... I’ll have grounds More relative than this. The play’s the thing Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king."(II.ii.597-604). Hamlet plans to put on a play that will confirm that if his uncle is innocent or guilty. This results in Hamlets being proven that his uncle is in fact guilty. So one reason he delays the act of killing Claudius is so he can prove that Claudius murdered his father so he had a valid reason to kill him.

Hamlet wants to kill Claudius when he is sinning. This is the reason Hamlet does not kill his uncle when he is in the church because he believes that his uncle is repenting his sins, so this would mean Claudius's soul would go to heaven and if Claudius went to heaven this would not avenge Hamlet's father's death because it would just be rewarding Claudius by sending him to heaven instead of hell. Not to Hamlet's knowledge, he could of actually killed Claudius then as he wasn't repenting his sin. He was just on his knees saying how he knows he cannot be forgive, "Oh, my offence is rank. It smells to heaven. It hath the primal eldest curse upon ’t, A brother’s murder. Pray can I not...That cannot be, since I am still possessed Of those effects for which I did the murder: My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen. May one be pardoned and retain th' offense?...".(III.iii.37-73)

Throughout the play, Hamlet thinks a lot about the decisions he makes, which is weird when he doesn't think twice when he accidentally kills Polonius thinking its his uncle. Near the beginning of the play Hamlet did not want to kill Claudius until he was one hundred percent sure that he actually did murder his father.It doesn't make sense that he was so quick to kill the person listening in on the conversation between him and his mother, even if he did think it was his uncle. He couldn't of been sure it was him. At this point in the play i think the delay of killing Claudius is becoming pointless. Even though Hamlet has all this anger towards his uncle (which was maybe the reasoning behind killing Polonius), i feel that Hamlet doesn't actually want to do the action of killing Claudius and he is trying to coward away from the idea by procrastinating and making excuses of why he can't kill him. Procrastinating relates to everyone in the world. We all do it, when we know we need to do something but don't really want to do it. Quite like what i did with this assignment. oops. I think Hamlet is trying to teach readers that it is better to think before you act.

I think that Hamlets reluctance come from really knowing whether the ghost is telling the truth and if he really has the courage to kill his uncle.The reluctance that Hamlet has for killing Claudius tells the readers a lot about his personality. Hamlet is very indecisive. Hamlet also shows indecisiveness in act 3 scene 1 in his 'To be or not too be' speech. This speech is when Hamlet debating if he should commit suicide or not.I find that this shows he is very indecisive when trying to make decisions. Making rash decisions can end up badly, just like Hamlet's rash decision of killing Polonius. When Hamlet actually takes time to think about his choices that he makes, things don't end badly and no one accidentally dies. I think this is good advice to think before you act, but it comes to a point where you can think too much and I think this is what Hamlet is starting to do.

This is just a silly little video about procrastination which i think relates to hamlet when he is procrastinating about killing Claudius.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P785j15Tzk