It just occurred to me that out of the five people who die at Hamlet’s hands in Hamlet, four of them are due to accidents or misunderstandings. Like:
Polonius: Hamlet is stabbing blindly and has no idea that it’s Polonius behind the curtain – he thinks it’s Claudius, and has no specific reason to want Polonius dead.
Rosencrantz and Guidenstern: Hamlet is under the mistaken impression that they were aware of the contents of Claudius’ letter when he orders their deaths.
Laertes: As far as Hamlet knows, it isn’t meant to be a duel to the death, and he isn’t even aware the blade is poisoned at the time that he strikes the fatal blow, having exchanged blades with his opponent by accident.
Claudius: This is literally the only time in the entire play that Hamlet deliberately sets out to kill someone on the basis of good information and stabs the correct guy.
Dude is literally running an 80% fuckup rate.
Literary critics: “Hamlet is the Great Bard’s most thoughtful character. Indeed, his great flaw is his intellectual approach to the matter set before him.”
