Hamlet is changed by his father’s death. Internally he struggles with his wish to die, ending his suffering, and his desire for revenge. Between Act I and Act II Hamlet changes from a hopeless soul to a man ready to take action. By the end of Act II Hamlet has an intense moment of inner struggle ending in his entrance into reality as he is driven by extreme loyalty for his father. His inner battle finally resolved, Hamlet decides to depart from cowardice and step forward bravely to avenge his father’s death.
In Act I Hamlet primarily is reacting to his father’s death, suffering alone in his isolated world of grief. Hamlet expresses his wish to die, to end the “weary, stale, flat, unprofitable” life he is trapped in (I.ii.132).Around him the court is celebrating the new marriage of the Queen and Hamlet sees “an unweeded garden, that grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature” (I.ii.136). All is not right in Hamlet’s world. There is a sense of and something sickening, emphasizing the motif of disease. Hamlet feels betrayed by his uncle and his mother as his father is quickly forgotten, but he is not ready to act. He merely remains passive, immensely unhappy and feeling utterly hopeless.
Reaching the end of Act II, Hamlet’s entire view has changed. By watching the player react so intensely to a story he has never lived through, Hamlet’s mind is opened. Hamlet sees himself as a coward, “a rogue and peasant slave” (II.ii.585) someone who “can say nothing; no, not for a king” (I.ii.604). He is disappointed in his own inability to react to the unrighteous death of his father and the new conniving court. This is Hamlet’s moment of self-realization, his change in mindset, when he decides he no longer wants to be a coward, but instead get the revenge his father deserved. ...