Premium Content Thought as Inaction in William Shakespeare's Hamlet
By Megan DiGregorio - December 08, 2002
"Understanding kills action." With these three simple words, Nietzsche explains the idea behind Shakespeare's development of the acting of thought as inaction, and also the reason that Hamlet hesitates for over 3000 lines of blank verse and prose to avenge the murder of his father. The motif of delay and inaction as thought can be seen in several…
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