appears that only one thing keeps him from suicide: the laws of the church prohibiting it.
But Hamlet seems also to be seeking some peace of mind. His sense he has that the new marriage "is not nor it cannot come to good" (I.ii.158) implies that he would like to somehow resolve the disquiet that he feels about it and perhaps restore the affection between himself and his mother. Implicit in his statement that he must hold his tongue on these matters is that he takes seriously the public duty that his position confers on him. It is equally clear that the marriage, following as it did hard upon the funeral, has so distressed Hamlet that he is willing to talk about it to those outside the family, notably his school chum Horatio. When he tries to make a joke of it, noting that "the funeral baked meats / Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables" (I.ii.180-1), he cannot sustain the levity. His attitude quickly degenerates, piteously exclaiming to his dear friend, "My father!--methinks I see my father" (184). Horatio's answer, that he has seen the elder H
...