Since the beginning of the play we have seen how Hamlet’s tendency to over think everything stops him from taking action. In act 3 scene 1, Hamlet wonders whether to commit suicide and he says in lines 83-8 that he thinks thinking stops us from acting yet he stops himself from committing suicide because of over thinking. When Hamlet first sees Claudius praying to repent for his sins, he is prepared to kill him. It would have been fairly easy to kill him then since he was in a vulnerable position, but once again Hamlet thinks better of it and decides not to do it.

I think that his decision to not kill Claudius will cost him. Claudius is already planning to get rid of Hamlet by sending him to England. He is already suspicious that Hamlet knows what he did to the king. I think the longer Hamlet draws this out the more probability of disaster happening there is. If Claudius was able to kill his own brother to get what he wanted who is to say that he is not capable of killing Hamlet as well. Hamlet is going to keep waiting for the right moment to get Claudius and that is going to make him very paranoid. He has already killed Polonius thinking it was Claudius and it can only get worse.

The reason Hamlet decides not to kill Claudius in that moment is because he is afraid that because he has just repented he will end up in heaven while his father is doomed to walk the earth. Although the afterlife and religion is upmost importance to these people I think Hamlet’s mission faces a danger that is more upfront. If he really wants to complete his mission and avenge his father he has to worry about what is happening on earth before he ponders what will happen in the afterlife.