William Shakespeare's Hamlet is a difficult play for several reasons. It is difficult for the actor playing Hamlet because it is the longest part in Shakespeare. The characters are distinct and complex, and the play requires excellent actors to convey the deeper meanings of the piece. However, certain people can be selected who could be cast in the parts not because they are actors but because some aspect of their public persona fits with the characters involved.
Hamlet himself is the biggest problem both in casting and for the play itself. Hamlet's character is noted for his apparent indecision. He is asked by the Ghost of his father early in the play to revenge the father's death. The hesitation of Hamlet, much commented on by critics, may derive from the fact that while he knows Claudio to be a regicide, to kill Claudio would make him a regicide as well. The usurpation of the throne leads to a more dangerous and uncertain environment in the land, and nature concurs by expressing through storms and other travails visited upon the people that a great political wrong is also a great moral and religious wrong. The effects of a regicide are seen in storms and the like because such actions offend the gods, or God. This indecision may be a ploy to make Claudius less suspicious (though Hamlet also acts mad and so creates suspicion on the part of Claudius).
The appearance of the Ghost at the beginning of the play shows the degree to which the natural order has been sundered. Hamlet is told what to do by the ghost of his father, whom he meets on the ramparts at night, a portent to all of things to come:
If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not;
A couch for luxury and damned incest.
But howsoever thou pursuest this act,
Taint not they mind, nor let thy soul contrive
Against they mother aught: leave her to heaven. . .
Hamlet is called upon to kill Claudius and so to revenge his father's death. and this act w...