Hamlet's Progression: How, When, and Why
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In the beginning acts of Shakespeare's play, Hamlet is paralyzed by his grief over the death of his father, but as the play progresses he is able to overcome this initial inability to take action, because of a fundamental change in the way he perceives things.
From the start, Hamlet is clearly and understandably suffering as a result of his father's death, and struggling to come to terms with it, but he keeps it to himself. His very first line in the play is an aside, which is very suitable for his character at this stage, because he in incapable of communicating what he really feels, even among family and friends. He recognizes this himself, as he says at the end of a soliloquy, "But break my heart, for I must hold my tongue. (I,ii,159)" Hamlet is very hurt and upset at what he perceives as his mother's unfaithfulness to his father, but cannot or will not tell the queen, whom he refers to behind her back as his "aunt-mother."
Hamlet is also a character racked with anger, an emotion that is often misdirected. Upon discovering that his father's death was in fact a murder, and furthermore calculated by his uncle, Hamlet is furious, and immediately wants revenge. But as he thinks about it more and more, he becomes overwhelmed by the situation and turns his anger inward, dwelling on his own weaknesses. He exclaims, "The time is out of joint. O cursd spite/ That ever I was born to set it right!..