Act III: Thinking Before Acting Or Acting Before Thinking

There are people that just don't think before they act, making their decisions with little thinking time and letting themselves be guided by emotions rather than reason. If there would be enough time to be able to think thoroughly the outcomes of each decision, many wrong decisions could be avoided. The more thinking and analyzing the better because in that way the amount of regret that a person will have after seeing the consequences will decrease, because he already knew that was going to happen an chose that to happen. Claudius is a clear example of a person that doesn't think before acting, killing his brother to get the kingdom and his wife. According to Claudius: "Of those effects for which I did the murder: my crown, mine own ambition, and my queen. May one be pardoned and retain th' offense" (Act III sc iii ln58). The kingdom, his ambition, and his brother's wife were clearly what motivated Claudius into killing Hamlet's dad. Once he did this he obtained all his desired goals, but after a while he is repenting this action. The second part of the maxim is asking God whether a person who has committed that crime can be forgiven and accepted into heaven, finding a negative response. Claudius is clearly regretting what he has done and wants to return to the state he was at before doing that, before killing his brother, which means that he didn't analyze thoroughly the outcomes before committing the crime, therefore acting before thinking.

Hamlet, in the other hand, could be described as a person who thinks before he acts. He doesn't like what destiny set up for him, but he will not regret his actions because the revenge that his father has asked him to do, is his father's will. Hamlet thinks a lot more in comparison to his uncle when faced with killing someone, shown by the amount of thinking done by him of all the outcomes that could happen. In fact most of the play is Hamlet doubting whether to kill his uncle or not to kill him, to be or not to be. It can be most clearly seen when Hamlet says: "And so am I revenged. That would be scanned: A villain kills my father, and for that, I , his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven" (Act III sc iii ln 80). Hamlet's objective is to kill his uncle in revenge, which would be accomplished if he kills him now. He then realizes that if he were to kill him now, his revenge will be satisfied, but his uncle, a killer, would be sent to heaven because he was killed while praying. After having analyzed these outcomes he didn't kill him and decided to wait for an opportunity where he would be sent to hell instead of heaven. The analysis that went through Hamlet's mind before deciding to kill him or not shows that he thinks a lot about his actions before acting, deciding on a critical issue which is killing. Hamlet, using the analysis of the outcomes, will not regret his decision and see that if he had acted, Claudius would be in heaven. Claudius in the other hand would have acted immediately and killed him sending him to heaven. This shows the difference in ways of thinking between Claudius and Hamlet, making Hamlet regret less because he thinks better before acting.