Prufrock- Hamlet

Hamlet's most famous question-"to be, or not to be". to murder or not to murder. To love or not to love. Are Hamlet and Prufrock really different in terms of problems? During war people don't usually question whether or not to kill the enemy, they simply do it. Hamlet's quest for revenge is a simple wage for war, revenge has been an excuse for war for centuries (especially in that time period). Therefore Hamlet should simply take action on this war and do what need be done to fulfill his revenge, foolish or not. If Claudius killed Prince Hamlets father, then Hamlet should kill Claudius as a natural reaction.

Prufrock has a love problem- it is whether or not to ask his "love" to be his love. Prufrock continuously writes with sorrow for himself. He claims that he is just growing old, and his ability to ask his love to is growing old as well. It seems Hamlet and Prufrock aren't too different in the number of problems they have- now the magnitude, that is a different question.

Prufrock's poem is staged in the year 1920, life is more "civilized" and people don't kill people for vengeance. Prufrock is surrounded by many problems surrounding the subject of his love, the quantity of these problems are much more ample than that of Hamlets. The magnitude of Prufrock's problem is simply characterized by the quantity. The troubles that presume for prufrock begin with another man in the way, he explains that the women they leave "talking of Michelangelo", which seems to be competition for Prufrock. then he continues as he explains he is getting old, "with a bald spot in the middle of my hair" is in fact what he says. This is a common mistake of procrastination, he doesn't know what to do, and as we can see, he writes poems to keep him distracted from his main goal. He has many other issues, but if they were all to be stated then there may very well be five pages containing problem after problem which just explains that Prufrock's issues are shown through the quantity which explain his overall magnitude.

Hamlet on the other hand has few problems, but these problems create big decisions. He is faced with a daily choice of whether or not to kill his Uncle, and if so how to do it. The magnitude of Hamlets problem is his decision making. Hamlet first creates a situation in which he must make sure that his Uncle killed the king. He continues to ask himself if it were "to be or not to be" and questions everything as he creates a tedious plan. People ask what's the big deal? you live in the mid-evil times, just kill him. Although killing, is a rather huge deal. Hamlets continuous indecision get's him killed in the end, and this is what shows the magnitude of Hamlets problem.

So Hamlet or Prufrock, which is the most dire problem, in terms of magnitude. Prufrock has trouble with women, he has many things stopping him and if he makes the wrong move then everything may be ruined and he will not win his love at all. Hamlet has to kill a man, to fight for honor, and redeem vengeance for his father, but decisions keep him from doing so. In retrospect it seems that Prufrock has the easier decision, than Hamelt. But according to the time period, the status quot, etc. they both have arguably equal magnitudes according to problems.