Hamlet: Thinking v. Acting Riddled with doubt, haunted by sorrow, and sluggish in dealings of fate, Hamlet chooses slow demise in the Shakespearean play rightly titled, Hamlet. His delay of revenge upon Claudius prompted William Hazlitt to write of Hamlet in 1817: "His ruling passion is to think, not act." Indeed, it is not for lack of instruction or opportunity that Hamlet fails in his mission. The further he strays from his purpose, the more muddied …showed first 75 words of 1675 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1675 total…Hamlet Nearly Absurd: The Dramaturgy of Delay." Rev. of Hamlet by William Shakespeare. The Tulane Drama Review Vol. 9, No. 4, Summer 1965: 132-45. Reed, Robert R. "Hamlet, the Pseu-do-Procrastinator." Rev. of Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare Quarterly Vol. IX, No. 2, Spring 1958: 177-86. Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Ed. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York: Washington Square Press, 1992. Works Consulted Johnson, Edgar. The Dilemma of Hamlet. Boston: Cooper Square Publishing, 1964. Jones, Ernst. The Psycho-Analytical Solution. New York: Doubleday, 1954.