>That (view of Hamlet) was invented by Coleridge, who used the play
>as a mirror. I think it's a distortion of the play, confirmed by
>slow-moving production of drama the last few centuries. Acted out as
>rapidly as was probably the case in 1600, with formulaic
>presentation of emotion, no one would ever see it that way.
When Fred Thompson was DA on Law and Order he once described Hamlet as "the fella who couldn't make up his mind." That seems to be a common reading but it ain't necessarily so.
You can read that Hamlet was indecisive when he didn't stab Claudius when he had the chance. Others answer this argument saying he didn't do it because Claudius was praying and if he died during prayer he'd go to heaven. This seems clear from what Hamlet himself says:
'When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed; At gaming, swearing; or about some act That has no relish of salvation in 't - Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven, And that his soul may be as damn'd and black As hell, whereto it goes.'