Are there any literary characters or historical people known for having difficulty making a decision because they loved all the options offered? Alternatively, are there any characters/people known for pondering their decision and then coming to a momentous decision?
Moving to Cafe Society from GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Well, there was once this play about this guy whose uncle had killed his dad and married his mom. He then spent a lot of time and at least one really famous speech trying to figure out what, if anything, he should do next.
Robert Johnson?
And then he spends 40 days fasting in the desert?
I seem to remember a woman named Sophie having to make a decision of some kind.
Only in the director’s cut.
I tried not to nitpick this. I failed: he spends a lot of the play trying to decide what, if anything, to do. In the speech you’re talking about, he’s trying to decide if he should kill himself. It’s “to be or not to be,” not “to do or not to do.”
To me, deciding whether to commit suicide is a decision as to what to do next. And it’s one that he rather famously ponders.
Hamlet definitely did not love all the options offered. I’m pretty sure it was approximately the opposite. The OP was not asking for someone who was choosing between the lesser of two evils.
This could apply to Harry Stone in the last episode of Night Court.
from the OP:
Whoops. :o Well that’s what I get for not thoroughly reading an OP.
Jane Eyre, perhaps?
Medea? She does have a moment of misgivings before making her decision.
Rick makes a pretty momentous decision in Casablanca but you don’t really see him pondering it.