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Thus Conscience does make Cowards of vs all,
And thus the Natiue hew of Resolution
Is sicklied o're, with the pale cast of Thought,
And enterprizes of great pith and moment,
With this regard their Currants turne away,
And loose the name of Action....

     The foregoing passage from Hamlet leads me to wonder
whether the play ought not to be understood, in part, and
indeed in large part, as a commentary on the psychology of
thought and action.  Throughout the play, from beginning to
end, whenever Hamlet acts, it is never according to plan,
forethought or deliberation, but always only by accident. cf.
his killing of Polonius, Laertes and Claudius. All else is
reflection, meditation and introspection.  As he himself
understands, in a reflection of a higher order, it is his
understanding, i.e. meditation, which interferes with and
blocks his action. It follows, conversely, that genuine
action is unconscious, spontaneous, divorced from thought; a
phenomenon which is masked by the dominance over action,
which, ever since Plato and Aristotle, - Nietzsche would say,
ever since Socrates, - conceptual deliberations have assumed.

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Copyright 2006, Ernst Jochen Meyer
