Hamlet

The most analyzed character in Western literature. A philosophy student from Wittenberg who is handed a revenge task and spends most of the play intellectually dismantling the conditions under which any action is possible. He is not incapable of action — he kills Polonius without hesitation, sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their deaths without remorse, kills Laertes in the duel, and ultimately kills Claudius. He is incapable of killing Claudius specifically, and only under conditions of perfect clarity (dying from the same poison) does he finally act. His tragedy is not paralysis — it is that he is too intelligent for the moral simplicity revenge requires.