Action trumps Thought

From his very first soliloquy, Hamlet's character can be depicted as that of a philosopher and a thinking man, pondering whether life itself is worth living and carefully plotting his revenge against Claudius. While the above statement is in no way incorrect, it is very optimistic and sheds Hamlet in a very positive light. Personally, I think he needs to get over himself and stop whining. He makes no attempt to tell anyone about the truth of his father's murder and puts the burden of revenge upon his own shoulders, which wouldn't be so bad if he didn't take his precious time in fulfilling said revenge. He could have confronted Claudius mere minutes after learning the truth, and while this certainly wouldn't make for very captivating play writing, Hamlet would have saved Polonius' life, as well as Ophelia's, Gertrude's, Leartes', Rosencrantz's, and Guildenstern's. Hamlet certainly didn't know in advance he would cause so much death, but he couldn't have thought that just waiting around while an unworthy monarch sat in the throne would bring good things. All this would not be half as bad if Hamlet didn't cry to himself about how hard his problems are and contemplate ending them by suicide-which would be extremely selfish of him, especially after he decided it would be best to make his father's revenge his own little personal quest when it affected the entire nation. Three of his four soliloquies are pity parties filled with "Why me" and "It's so hard". In the How All Occasions Do Inform Against Me soliloquy, he says that everyone is against him and blames his own inaction on others. All this argues towards the prevalent theme of Thought vs. Action, leaning heavily towards Action. Just look at Fortinbras, while Hamlet succeeds in taking revenge on one man, at the expense of his mother, friends, and the one he loved, Fortinbras manages to conquer the whole damn country. Fortinbras is a man of Action, and he succeeds by it, and while Hamlet does reach his end goal as well, he pays a much higher price.