Hamlet Act IV

I’m studying for my English class and don’t understand how to answer this. Can you help me study?

Literary Assignment 2

Why doesn’t Hamlet kill Claudius when he has opportunities to do so? This is the major question that runs through the play.

Five delay theories have been analyzed:

• He is too intellectual; thinks too much about what to do
• He is too melancholy: death has made him too sad to act
• He is a coward: he is weak-willed
• Oedipus Complex: he is in love with his mother and doesn’t want to hurt her
• “Rank and Grossness”: Denmark is so poisoned that it has turned him mad and unable to act

Based on your reading to Act IV, which delay theory best explains Hamlet’s inability to act?

I. State one Delay theory from above:

II. State two reasons you can provide evidence to support theory:

A

B.

III. Locate two scenes from the play to support reasons in question II –cite directly Act, scene, lines—then explain.

A.

B.

IV. Why is this theory a better one than the other four noted? Analyze well.