Is Hamlet a Coward?

[IsHamletaCoward]

A simple questions with a complex answer. Is he a corward? Yes? No?

Would be great if you intelligent individuals could help me out with this by giving me some points why he might be, or not be a coward.

[whiteangel]

A simple questions with a complex answer. Is he a corward? Yes? No?

Would be great if you intelligent individuals could help me out with this by giving me some points why he might be, or not be a coward.


Hamlet is a coward when it suits him best, but when it does not he can be brave. He claims that "conscious does make cowards of us all" almost a excuse for his procrastination....but then when he sends his two "excellent friends" Rosencratnz and Guildenstern he claims that they are "no where near his conscious".....clearly when it suits our protaginist he is coward but when he needs to act brave for his own avengnece or reason- if you will- then he is brave.....

I suppose that in itself implies that Hamlet is a pathetic Coward.

I would also examine his attitude towards women

[Gladys]

If a coward, what intimidates him?

Hamlet is not afraid of a ghost, Claudius the murderer, Polonius the politician, Laertes the vengeful, Ophelia the fickle, Gertrude the shallow incestuous mother, or Osric the flatterer.

If "conscience does make cowards of us all" in respect to the afterlife, Hamlet is no more a coward than any of us.

[whiteangel]

If a coward, what intimidates him?

Hamlet is not afraid of a ghost, Claudius the murderer, Polonius the politician, Laertes the vengeful, Ophelia the fickle, Gertrude the shallow incestuous mother, or Osric the flatterer.

He fears his own inability....
which is evident through his growing melancholy, he himself illustrates this by calling himself claims that he is "pigeon livered and lack Gall" who for ever will remain "unpregnant of his cause". Coming from the horses mouth.


If "conscience does make cowards of us all" in respect to the afterlife, Hamlet is no more a coward than any of us.

But a coward Nonetheless.

[Gladys]

He fears his own inability... Hamlet gives voice to fears that all of us have (with the possible exception of psychopaths) but few of us express. He is human but no coward.

[whiteangel]

Hamlet gives voice to fears that all of us have (with the possible exception of psychopaths) but few of us express. He is human but no coward.


well that is very much up to interpretation- to asses if he voices us is a entire new question.

and being human doesn't make you a coward. Being Hamlet does.

[Don Quixote Jr]

Is Hamlet a Coward?

I suppose this all depends on how you define the word coward.
Hamlet is certainly not a coward when it comes to facing a ghost, fighting pirates or putting on the remarkable "play within a play" to determine the guilt of Claudius - I think a lot of us would prefer not to know things like that.
On the other hand, maybe I'm just thinking about courage and cowardice in a physical sense (ie fear of being hurt or killed); there is certainly plenty to discuss as far as Hamlet's ethical and moral courage and cowardice is concerned.

[Ray Eston Smith]

Why, what should be the fear?
I do not set my life in a pin's fee;
And for my soul, what can it do to that,
Being a thing immortal as itself?

The spirit that I have seen
May be the devil: and the devil hath power
To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps
Out of my weakness and my melancholy,
As he is very potent with such spirits,
Abuses me to damn me:

Hamlet does not fear death because his royal heritage has already cost him everything that he most valued in life - his career (Wittenberg scholar) and the love of his life (Ophelia).

He does fear doing wrong, which could damn his immortal soul, and he fears that his friends will be spokes on his wheel as he "rolls down the hill of heaven" to his doom. Thus "he shakes hands and parts" with his friends and he warns Ophelia against becoming a "breeder of sinners," meaning warlike kings and princes like his father ("the question of these wars"), Claudius (who killed a brother to gain a kingdom), and Fortinbras (who sends thousands to their graves for "a straw").

He fears what dreams may come ("which dreams indeed are ambition") that might make him yet another prince who values dirt over people (as in a graveyard).