This gives man incredible latitude, say Blits, and a man can be good or he can be a beast. He can use his "godlike reason" (IV.iv.40) and rise above his natural instincts when he needs to or he can fail in using his reason. In failing, he sinks to the level of a beast. This struggle presents a double for Hamlet, an "equivocal nature" (Blits), according to Blits. This duality gives man a purpose and "thinking and life have a single cause" (Blits), thus man is a "whole because his nature, though composite, is one" (Blits). Hamlet fails to keep the "soul's two functions together. He thinks without acting…and acts without thinking…even while he thus sets motion and thinking apart, Hamlet tends to collapse the former into the latter" (Blits). The failure breaks the man.
Harold Bloom agrees with this notion, adding that on his way to England an "abscess or cyst" (Bloom 68) breaks "inwardly" (68) in Hamlet's consciousness. The irony is visible in this scene, according to Bloom, but it is also worth noting Hamlet is taking a different stance than in most of his other soliloquies. In fact, this is the "most complex" (68) of the soliloquies in the play with his thoughts being "anything but bloody" (70). This is the moment, Bloom contends, that Hamlet's theatricalism and inwardness break from each other. Bloom writes, "Hamlet cannot believe that the proper use of his capability and godlike reason is to perform a revenge killing" (70). Bloom also believes that Hamlet has no desire to kill Claudius. Bloom also believes that something changes in Hamlet through the progression of the play. Hamlet is "confident of his soul's immortality" (Bloom 71) before the last act in the play but after he returns from the sea he "courts annihilation" (71) because, during that trip, he "dies, and perhaps...
For in Hamlet consciousness and the soul have become one" (71). Here we see how the soul, the divine, is still inked with the man even though the actions have separated the man from himself.
Hamlet represents his age because he is struggling with internal and external forces pressing on him. There is no escape for Hamlet, for his mind is perhaps the worst place he can experience. His age has taught him that man is different from the beasts of the earth because it has a soul. Thinking and acting complete the man and harmonic break between the two upsets the delicate balance that keeps man sane. Hamlet has a sense of what he should do but religious beliefs keep from acting hastily. Reflection and worry prevent him from acting at all. When he ponders the place of man in this universe, when he realizes man is not like the animals and when he cannot grasp the godlike reason, he fails himself in the worst way possible. He knows certain things and yet he cannot find the strength to do what he thinks he should. Religion, Reformation, and Renaissance fail Hamlet as he loses his place in a barren world.
Works Cited
Blits, Jan H. "Introduction." Deadly Thought: 'Hamlet' and the Human Soul. Lanham: Lexington
Books, 2001. 3-21. Rpt. In Shakespearean Criticism. Ed. Lynn M. Zott. 2003. Gale
Literature Resource Center. Web. 16 Apr. 2010. http://go.galegroup.com Web.
Bloom, Harold. Hamlet: Poem Unlimited. New York: Riverhead Books. 2003.
Mowatt, Barbara. Hamlet: Introduction. Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine, eds. New York:
Washington Square Press. 1992.
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine, eds. New York: Washington
Square Press. 1992.
