Most likely, Hamlet is suffering from murdering his
beloved Ophelia's father, Polonius. Also, sparing Claudius is having a detrimental
effect on Hamlet. Allowing Claudius to live is creating emotional havoc in Hamlet's
life.
Hamlet cannot continue to live with the turmoil he is
experiencing over his Uncle Claudius' murdering of his father. He is an emotional wreck.
He asks himself questions in his melancholy mood. In his most memorable soliloquy, he
questions whether his suffering is to be or not to
be:
To be, or
not to be, that is the question.
Is it nobler in the mind to
suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to fight
against a sea of troubles,
And end them by
fighting?
From this
soliloquy, if Hamlet does not slay Claudius, he will continue to suffer in his mind.
Whether or not it is more noble to suffer of the mind than to slay Claudius is
questionable, but Hamlet cannot go on in the condition of his suffering. He will never
rest until justice has occurred. In Hamlet's words, even death is preferred at this
moment in the play:
To die, to sleep,
Nothing more, and by
sleeping, to be able to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural
shocks
That the body gets as part of life is an ending
To be wished
for very earnestly.
Clearly,
sparing Claudius is causing Hamlet's present suffering. He is ripped apart in his heart
and mind. He cannot go on if he spares Claudius. He has admitted that he would rather be
dead than to live and spare Claudius.
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