Internal And External Conflict In William Shakespeare's Hamlet

In Hamlet, Shakespeare demonstrates that all actions have an equal and opposite reaction that can snowball out of control especially between what appears to be both internal and external conflicts between the old generation and the new generation. Hamlet’s initial conflict starts with Claudius killing King Hamlet which prompts young Hamlet to seek revenge on the advice of the ghost of his father. Young Hamlet spends most of the play lingering between action and inaction which adds to the tension and building conflict between the old generation and the young generation. Claudius, in turn, indirectly fights back by reassigning the original conflict to the young generation by which he expects to remain blameless and safe on the throne of Denmark. It is interesting to note that though the majority of Hamlet’s conflict takes place within a single family’s domestic problems, it begins to affect their closest confidants and an entire country. On one side, Hamlet is battling his own inner conflicts as he decides whether to take revenge for his father’s death and weather to do nothing, and on the other, Claudius struggles to keep his treachery a secret, and each of the play’s cast of characters are involved in their own ill-fated plots that ultimately end in their demise. Hamlet spends the majority of the play lingering between ‘doing’ and ‘not doing’ concerning avenging his father’s death. His action or lack thereof is what causes tension between himself and Claudius and everyone