The Indecisiveness and Hesitation of Hamlet  http://writing-a-college-application-essay740.mystrikingly.com/     In the Shakespearean drama Hamlet considerable literary critical comment swirls about the subject of the hero’s hesitation or indecision in the prayer scene. Is it weakness? Is it representative of a mental condition? Are there other incidences of hesitation? Let us explore the subject in this essay and interpret the key scene in light of other scenes, with input from literary critics.  David Bevington, in the Introduction to Twentieth Century Interpretations of Hamlet, eliminates some possible reasons for Hamlet’s hesitation in killing Claudius during the prayer scene:  Several limits can be placed upon the search for an explanation of Hamlet’s apparent hesitation to avenge. He is not ineffectual under ordinary circumstances. Elizabethan theories of melancholy did not suppose the sufferer to be made necessarily inactive. Hamlet has a deserved reputation in Denmark for manliness and princely demeanor. He keeps up his fencing practice and will “win at the odds� against Laertes.
