Hamlet's delayed revenge is the entire premise of the play
itself. If he had enacted revenge upon his uncle immediately, then the play wouldn't
exist. However, because he says he wants to confirm that his uncle is actually the
killer first, he delays. Then, when he knows that his uncle did it, and has the chance
to kill him while praying, he doesn't, saying he wants to wait until his uncle is doing
something evil, to gurantee his soul goes to hell once dead. Interesting reasoning,
which could be passed off as cowardice, but, nonetheless, Hamlet does
delay.
- His delay sets off a huge chain reaction
that leads mostly to the death of everyone that he knows and
loves.
- His delay allowed Claudius to
scheme with Laertes about killing Hamlet; that scheming led to Laertes, the queen,
Claudius AND Hamlet all dying. If Hamlet had killed his uncle before this point, the
entire poison scheme wouldn't have arisen, and they would have
lived.
- His delay made Claudius
suspicious; hence, he and Polonius use Ophelia as a spy to figure out what he is up to.
This manipulation leads to the further alienation of his relationship with Ophelia,
plunging her further into depression.
These
reactions are all the major events of the play, all caused by his delay to enact
revenge. I hope that helped; good luck!
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