What Is the Most Important Scene in Hamlet?

What is the most important scene in Hamlet?

There are many important scenes in Hamlet, but the one I think plays a vital part in understanding Hamlet’s character is Act 3, Scene 1. It gives us in depths look at Hamlet’s true character, that Hamlet is extremely melancholy and discontented with the state of affairs in Denmark and his own family- indeed, in the world at large. How he thinks to the point of obsession, he also acts rashly and impulsively, this is shown by how he behaves towards Ophelia, when she rejects him. It also shows how he is plagued by the “big questions of life” like the wisdom of suicide and what happens after death. Also in this scene it shows Hamlet lose all his respect for women, as he repudiates Ophelia, a women he once claimed to love, in the harshest terms.
In this scene we see that Hamlet is a very deep thinker, even philosophical in his approach to life. This makes him stop before he does anything, as we see him in this scene; he ponders suicide but the big question of “what happens after death” stops him acting:
“But that dread of something after death..... And makes us rather bear those ills we have. Than to fly to others we know not of? Thus conscience makes cowards of us all”
This shows that Hamlet thinks things through too much; the more he thinks the more he doesn’t want to act upon his first thought of action. Shakespeare shows us that the tragic hero’s flaw is procrastination. This soliloquy gives us a deep insight into Hamlet’s true character, showing us that even though he desires to Claudius, his thinking about the consequences after stop him from acting upon it. His thoughts of consequences after stop him from acting in the now. Hamlet is the definition of a procrastinator and we see that in this scene. It shows a very broad section of Hamlet’s character, how he thinks the present is all he can definitely be sure of and how he acts on his belief of this. He is a true existentialist.
When Ophelia rejects Hamlet’s love,...