Hamlet's state of mindElizabethan play The tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is one of the most popular works of William Shakespeare. One possible reason for the popularity of this play is the way Shakespeare uses the character Hamlet to exemplify the complex workings of the human mind. The approach Shakespeare takes in Hamlet has generated countless different interpretations of the meaning, but it is through Hamlet's struggle to deal with his internal dilemma, deciding when to avenge his father's death, that the reader becomes aware of one of the interpretations most common in Hamlet; the idea that Shakespeare is attempting to comment on the influence one's state of mind can have on the decisions they make in life. As the play unfolds, Shakespeare uses the encounters Hamlet faces to demonstrate the effect one's perspective can have on the way the mind works. In his book Some Shakespeare Themes & An Approach to Hamlet, LC Knight notes Shakespeare's use of these encounters to journey into the workings of the human mind when he writes: What we have in Hamlet is the exploration and implicit criticism of a particular state of mind or consciousness. In Hamlet, Shakespeare uses a series of encounters to reveal the complex state of the human mind, made up of reason, emotion and attitude towards oneself, to allow the reader to make a judgment or form an opinion on the fundamental aspects of human life. (192) Shakespeare sets the stage for Hamlet's internal dilemma in Act 1, Scene 5 of Hamlet, when the ghost of Hamlet's father appears and calls on Hamlet to "avenge his foul and unnatural murder" (1.5.24). It is from this moment on that Hamlet must wrestle with the dilemma of whether or not to kill Claudius, his uncle, and if so when to actually do so. As the play progresses, Hamlet does not seek his revenge when the opportunity presents itself, and it is the reasoning that Hamlet uses to justify his delay that becomes crucial to the reader's understanding of the effect that mental perspective of Hamlet has on his situation. To fully understand how Hamlet's perspective plays an important role in this play, the reader must attempt to answer the fundamental question: why does Hamlet procrastinate in taking revenge on Claudius??