Hamlet is not a coward The first seven lines of Hamlet's soliloquy in the third scene of Act III have been a cause of debate for centuries about what they reveal about Hamlet's character. Some say he backed out, seizing the best opportunity to exact the revenge his father's ghost commissioned him to do. They accuse Hamlet of being a pacifist who does not have the courage to put his thoughts into practice, of simply convincing himself not to do so. My interruption of these lines, however, shows that exactly the opposite is true. The Prince of Denmark is indeed determined to avenge his father's death and, instead of backing down from the task at hand, is moving forward with the aim of bringing dishonor to Claudius and maintaining his honor at the same time. Now he could I pat him, now he's praying; and now I won't. And so it goes to heaven; and so I am avenged. would be scanned: A villain kills my father; and for this, I, an only child, send this same villain to heaven. Because, this is paycheck and paycheck, not revenge. -- Hamlet III.iii.73-79 Hamlet is truly committed to avenging his father's murder after the mousetrap scene in Act II in which Claudius' guilt is made clear. His little comedy had a twofold effect that pushes Hamlet forward. First of all, by imitating the exact way Claudius killed his brother and married his sister-in-law, Claudius knew that Hamlet had found out about him. The second effect may or may not have been intended by Hamlet, but the murderer in his play was the king's nephew, which may have been stopped by Claudius as Hamlet's future intentions. Both... half of the paper... rational thought, because if he had stopped to think for a moment, he would have realized that it couldn't have been the King: he had just left Claudius praying. Revenge is a dangerous game as Hamlet well discovered. His father's death is ultimately avenged, but the kingdom is lost to Norway - a tragedy greater than the deaths of all the main characters. Works cited and consulted: Bloom, Harold. Modern critical interpretations of Hamlet. New York, NY: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. Charney, Maurice. All Shakespeare. New York, New York. Columbia University Press. 1993.Evans, Gareth Lloyd. The Crow Upstart-An Introduction. to the works of Shakespeare. London, England: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd, 1982. Magill, Frank N. Masterplots. Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1995.Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Garden City, New York: Garden City Books, 1936