Hamlet

4 Pages 1036 Words

The Elizabethan play The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark
is one of William Shakespeare's most popular works. One of the
possible reasons for this play's popularity is the way Shakespeare
uses the character Hamlet to exemplify the complex workings of the
human mind. The approach taken by Shakespeare in Hamlet has generated
countless different interpretations of meaning, but it is through
Hamlet's struggle to confront his internal dilemma, deciding when to
revenge his fathers death, that the reader becomes aware of one of the
more common interpretations in Hamlet; the idea that Shakespeare is
attempting to comment on the influence that one's state of mind can
have on the decisions they make in life.
As the play unfolds, Shakespeare uses the encounters that
Hamlet must face to demonstrate the effect that one's perspective can
have on the way the mind works. In his book Some Shakespeare Themes &
An Approach to Hamlet, L.C. Knight takes notice of Shakespeare's use
of these encounters to journey into the workings of the human mind
when he writes:

What we have in Hamlet.is the exploration and implicit
criticism of a particular state of mind or consciousness.In
Hamlet, Shakespeare uses a series of encounters to reveal the
complex state of the human mind, made up of reason, emotion,
and attitude towards the self, to allow the reader to make a
judgment or form an opinion about fundamental aspects of human
life. (192)

Shakespeare sets the stage for Hamlet's internal dilemma in
Act 1, Scene 5 of Hamlet when the ghost of Hamlet's father appears and
calls upon Hamlet to "revenge his foul and most unnatural murder"
(1.5.24). It is from this point forward that Hamlet must struggle
with the dilemma of whether or not to kill Claudius, his uncle, and if
so when to actually do it. As the play progresses...