The Arden Shakespeare edition of Hamlet introduces Hamlet as a tragic hero
             bent on a paradoxical quest that makes action difficult. "The act he is
             impelled to involves him in evil of the kind which he would punish. As the
             ruthless revenger he exemplifies in his own person the evil which is
             inseparable from the good in human nature; as the reluctant revenger he can
             symbolize the good's abhorrence of it."
             Following the death of his father, Hamlet is besieged with inner
             turmoil, grief, and anger. Although in some ways he reacts as any human
             being would to the news of his father's murder, Hamlet soon becomes
             obsessed with death and with exacting revenge, an obsession which turns
             Hamlet into a complex and paradoxical figure. He feels compelled to avenge
             the death of his father after meeting the ghost, but never seems posed to
             take any concrete action. Because of his incessant moral questioning,
             Hamlet indicates that he is at heart a good man. He seems to realize that
             bloody revenge will only lead to disaster, which may be one of the reasons
             he stalls. However, his feelings of impotency and powerlessness, of fear
             and self-hatred begin to take over his consciousness. At the same time that
             he wants to avenge his father's death by killing Claudius, Hamlet also
             longs for peace and for moral rectitude. His constant thoughts about
             suicide indicate that Hamlet would almost prefer to die himself than to be
             morally stained with a murder he committed. Because of his intense inner
             conflicts, Hamlet acts out in indirect ways rather than directly confront
             Claudius about the King's death. For example, Hamlet takes out his anger on
             Ophelia and Gertrude and in a moment of thoughtless passion, stabs an
             unseen figure behind a curtain. His killing of Polonius contradicts his
             desire for genuine justice and shows that Hamlet's anger makes him capable
             of genuine evil. After all his deliberating over killin...