Inconsistency in Hamlet's CharacterThe perfection of Hamlet's character has been questioned, perhaps by those who do not understand it. The character of Hamlet is his own. It is not a character marked by willpower or even by passion, but by the refinement of thought and feeling. Hamlet is not as much of a hero as a man can be. He is a young and princely novice, full of great enthusiasm and quick sensitivity - the play of circumstances, questioning with fortune and sharpening his own feelings, and forced from his natural disposition by the strangeness of his situation. Hamlet seems incapable of deliberate action, and is only driven to extremes under the spur of the occasion, when he has no time to reflect, as in the scene where he kills Polonius, and again, where he alters the letters that Rosencraus and Guildenstern are writing. taking with him to England, declaring his death. Other times, when he is most forced to act, he remains perplexed, indecisive and skeptical, until he misses the opportunity, and finds some excuse to fall back into indolence and thoughtfulness again. Therefore he refuses to kill the King while he is praying, and with a refinement of malice, which is really only an excuse for his want of resolution, he postpones his revenge to a more fatal occasion, when he will be engaged in some deed." which contains no taste of salvation." "Now I could do it just now that he is praying; And now I will do it; - and so he will go to heaven; And so I will take revenge" d? - which would be scanned:A villain kills my father; and for this I, his only son, send this same villain to heaven.O, this is wages and salaries, not revenge...Up the sword and know more horrible hent,Whe...... middle of paper. ..... explaining the cause of his alienation, which he hardly trusted himself to think about. It would take years to arrive at a direct explanation on the In the tormented state of mind, he could not have done anything other than what he did. His conduct does not contradict what he says when he sees her funeral: "I loved Ophelia: forty thousand brothers could not with all their quantity. loveMake my sum" - [Act v., sc. 1.] In conclusion, Shakespeare has been accused of inconsistency with Hamlet only because he maintained the distinction that exists in nature, between the intelligences and moral habits of men, between the absurdity of their ideas and the absurdity of their motivations. Hamlet is not a fool, but he makes himself one. His madness, both in his actions and speech, falls into the category of improper intentions.