Forced to Act

“No! I am not Prince Hamlet, now was meant to be,” is a famous line from T.S Elliot’s poem, The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock. He is referring to William Shakespeare’s famous character, Prince Hamlet, and even though he is not Prince Hamlet, they have very similar characteristics in their personality.

Both of the characters described in the poem and the play, are very doubtful and have trouble making up their mind, but in the end, Prince Hamlet is the only one that takes action.  In his poem, TS Elliot is describing a man that has an obsession for a woman but can never decided for the right time to act. He starts by wanting to ask the women to go with him: but then starts making up excuses to delay that question by arguing that there will be "time yet for a hundred indecisions…”  At the ends he never makes up his mind and ends up growing old alone. On the other hand, Prince Hamlet has trouble deciding when to act, because what he plans on doing takes a lot of courage. Taking revenge and killing one's uncle is not an easy task to do.  All through the play he questions himself and always finds obstacles to avenge his father’s death, just like J Alfred Prufrock, cannot decide to ask the women.  Both of them have trouble making up their minds and acting because they lack the necessary self-confidence; they feel insecure and are afraid that things don’t go out as planned. Most of the time, this is what makes people doubt. The fear of failing is what keeps us from taking importance decisions. But life is about making mistakes and learning from them. Just like J Alfred, and Hamlet, many people delay their actions, and have trouble making up their mind, but the only road to success is actually trying. Even though J Alfred was all alone and Hamlet died, the later was the one that succeeded because he actually acted. 

Both approached different situations in similar ways. They delayed their actions because of self doubt, never the less, Prufrock failed more than Hamlet because he never tried. Even though, Hamlet was forced to act, he ended up doing it and accomplish his goal. And this is what has to be done in life. People have to take away their fears and act, because as the old [modified] saying goes it is better to have tried and failed, than never have tried at all.