He dwells on this, and
makes this irresolution the chief feature of Hamlet's character, and yet
because he is writing about himself he manages to suggest so many other
qualities, and such amiable and noble ones, that we are all in love with
Hamlet, in spite of his irresolution, erotic mania and bloody thoughts.
In later dramas Shakespeare went on to deal with the deeper and more
elemental things in his nature, with jealousy in "Othello," and
passionate desire in "Antony and Cleopatra"; but he never, perhaps, did
much better work than in this drama where he chooses to magnify a
secondary and ancillary weakness into the chief defect of his whole
being. The pathos of the drama is to be found in the fact that
Shakespeare realizes he is unable to take personal vengeance on Herbert.
"Hamlet" is a drama of pathetic weakness, strengthened by a drama of
revenge and jealousy. In these last respects it is a preparatory study
for "Othello."
In "Hamlet" Shakespeare let out some of the foul matter which Herbert's
mean betrayal had bred in him.
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