Reading the BBC article on procrastination made me realize what a phenomenon it is and how it might affect people more severely than I thought. I was not really personally concerned with what the author said, simply because I have never been a procrastinator; I avoid all the last-minute stress and excuses that go with it and so failing to comply with my work has never really been an issue.
What is interesting about the article, however, is how the author implies that Hamlet is a procrastinator. I happen to disagree with this. Yes, it is evident that the prince fails to comply with the Ghost's suggestion of killing Claudius as soon as possible, but murder is not something you just "decide" to do from one day to another. I believe that, rather than Hamlet procrastinating, his delay was simply because he had not really made up his mind about getting the job done in the first place.
Additionally, as the author emphasizes in her article, the concept of procrastination deals with failing to get a task done long before a deadline, or at least safe before it. The concept of procrastination itself exists because there are deadlines; if not, we would just call those people lazy or inactive. Hamlet did not have a deadline for killing his uncle. It was not even a task he had to get done. Murdering Claudius was basically an emotional craving for avenging his father's death. How could Hamlet procrastinate killing Claudius when it was not mandatory for him to do it and when he did not even have a deadline for it? The Ghost was not like, "You have 'till Tuesday afternoon to get the job done, son." No. He was more like, "Hey, he killed me, so why don't you go ahead and kill him?" If someone encouraged me to kill someone else, I wouldn't be like, "Ah, I'll just do it later...". No way, I'd be like, "WHAT THE HELL, should I do this or not?!". To Hamlet, it does not matter when he kills Claudius. What matters is if he does kill him. Procrastinating would mean that Hamlet had made up his mind about murdering his uncle from the very beginning but had just not taken the time to do it. Besides, when people procrastinate its because they would rather be doing something else. In Hamlet's case, what would he prefer doing instead? Sharing some quality time with his men-loving mother or listening to his assassin-uncle preach about managing his new kingdom? Neither, I believe.
Hamlet was not a procrastinator. We are, for not studying for that calculus test or for failing to complete our research papers on time. Hamlet was pondering whether to do or not that paper on the first place.
