William Shakespeare‘s Hamlet continues to ask questions rather than presenting a story; the audience are continually reminded of their own views through time. The most obvious part of the play contains all of the typical noble deaths at the hands of nobles; however, the true substance of the play is a chilling look into the ideas of truth and falsehood and how an individual’s moral code can lead to tragic consequences. Reading or watching Hamler is not an easy thing to do; it requires that you have empathy for this intelligent man who cannot make up his mind and for all the damage that we as humans have already done, and finally, it requires that you concentrate on language that is sharp and seems classified or evidence-based.
Shakespeare takes a northern myth and transforms it into something never seen before in the world of revenge plays. The mere skeleton of a slain king, a brother who usurped the throne, and a son avenging his father are typical; Shakespeare transforms the appalling political situation and uses it to explore the psychological roots of the action. Hamlet becomes an example of the early modern mind in motion: cynical, theatrical, performative, and questioning its very scepticism. As a result, Hamlet, while being one of the few plays of its time to predict and foreshadow modern psychology, is first and foremost a ‘play’, and Hamlet’s widely known soliloquies serve both as devices for stepping outside of oneself and as rhetorical devices that demonstrate how to think.
Hamlet carries two significant pieces of cultural importance. One is that Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s longest plays and one of the most quoted Shakespearean plays; for example, the famous lines “To be, or not to be” and Marcellus’s line “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” have entered into everyday conversation as representing existentialism and political corruption, respectively. The other is that the Hamlet text that we read today will have had a very complicated history of texts (from early Quartos to the First Folio) before reaching audiences today; hence, why different editions of Hamlet can read like different plays. This “textual slipperiness” connects directly to the heart of Hamlet — the idea that truth is not stable.
Moreover, in the play all characters are portrayed as having ambivalent moral standing: Hamlet is a hero who pauses too long to think; Claudius is a villain with guilt that is anything but a simple caricature; Gertrude’s allegiance alternates between being the mother and the support of a king; and Ophelia’s pathos illustrates how women’s fates may be broken in a man’s quest for philosophic conquest. Shakespeare creates moral ambiguity: revenge is a disease, and the violent conclusion of the play feels less than morally justified when only Horatio’s battered voice is present to share the tale.
Theatrical elements can be both weapons and themes. The “play within a play” — The Mousetrap — is a brilliant piece of meta-theatre that has the court watching itself, thus making theatre a tool for finding the truth. However, this exposure will not yield an answer, as they are being exposed to the same tool that is hiding the truth. In a single moment, acting and disguises create both knowledge and the opposite of knowledge, as Shakespeare asks us to look at how performance shapes a person’s identity and how accountable that individual is to their actions.
Hamlet continues to be a very inviting play to the many different types of performers and directors because of the multiple ways to view it: courtroom drama, ghost story, philosophical treatise, and family tragedy. The reason many actors/directors return to this play is because it provides musical language, psychological thinkers through the play’s movements, and scenes provide possibilities for staging. In this play, one can see the difference in the time of thought versus action and the distance between the two and how humans can often find themselves lost in the middle.
Should you arrive at Hamlet wanting answers, substitute that for an arrival with a range of inquiries— clearly stated, fixed and persistently present. If you enter expecting to listen, Shakespeare will offer you a language that continues to resonate long after the stage has been vacated.
