Rapidly unfolding events prevent Hamlet from developing his ideas

So I was reading Samuel Johnson's notes on Hamlet last night and saw something that never occurred to me. (Of course it doesn't have to be right, but it got me thinking.) He says that Hamlet might have been about to actually apply the ideas he developed in his "To be or not to be" soliloquy to his own situation when . . . he was interrupted in his thoughts by the appearance of Ophelia.

I'm taking another look at the scene immediately after the play-within-a-play, where Hamlet is jumping for joy and declaring giddily that the ghost is honest. One second more and he might have asked himself, "So now that I know the ghost is honest, what exactly do I do?" But R&G come dashing in at that point and he immediately sets to cutting them up with his wit, wasting his anger on them, and then along comes Polonius who does the same thing.

What a shock it must be to him, and what a change of mood in the play, that when he's all full of himself and speaking daggers to Gertrude, the ghost appears to reprimand him for losing sight of his mission, and even throws in some disapproval of Hamlet's behavior at that very moment. "For heaven's sake, quit your quaking and look at your mother there! Speak to her."

What about Act 3, scene 3? Your analysis appears to jump over the scene where Hamlet is poised to kill Claudius but stalls his hand because the latter is at prayer. It is the vents that follow occur in Act IV and V that Dr. Johnson seem to be referring to when he mentions that the action moves too quickly for Hamlet to keep up with. However, his analysis applies more to us as an audience than to Hamlet as a character. There is a distinct shift in the pace of the play before and after Polonius' death - the actions of act IV and V happen in quicker succession (and there are more of them) than in previous acts. It's not so much that Hamlet cannot keep up with what is happening, but we cannot keep up with Hamlet. We lose his inner voice in the last two acts (which helps build the latter Hamlet as nihilistic). We know every step of Hamlet's plan until Polonius' death. After that we begin to lose faith in how much we understand the Prince. Johnson has conflated this with Hamlet losing sense of himself.

You also have to wonder about the Ghost of Act III, scene iv; the fact that Gertrude cannot see him as opposed to Ghost of Act I - who can be seen by everyone - really throws a wrench into the matter. Is Hamlet imagining the ghost of Act III, scene iv. The ghost reveals no new information, so he might just be a figment of Hamlet's mad mind...or maybe not. It's Shakespeare's screw you to anyone who thought they might have this play figured out.

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Originally Posted by Charles Darnay

What about Act 3, scene 3? Your analysis appears to jump over the scene where Hamlet is poised to kill Claudius but stalls his hand because the latter is at prayer.

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Aye, there's the rub.