Hamlet is a mysterious character. No matter the analysis done by critics, they will never come up with the absolute truth. Hamlet’s breathing is multiple dimensional like that of a real life character. The understanding that every individual holds about Hamlet is personal. For everyone seeking to know Hamlet, his challenge to Guildenstern rings true: “You would pluck out the heart of mystery” (Shakespeare 80). Hamlet is a different character every time someone looks at him. If one wants to understand Hamlet, it will depend on the perception that they bring into the investigation. He is a complete character whose relationship with the audience changes every time they meet him. He is full of surprises and the audience will always love him due to the intrigue that he brings into the play. One main fact that will keep drawing people to the character of Hamlet is his paradoxical nature. He is the consummate iconoclast who has placed himself in exile from the society of Elsinore while playing the role of a people’s hero at the same time. This is because he is the adulated Denmark champion. Most of his friends have left him, only Horatio loves him. Hamlet is a character full of anger, dejection, and depression. He is also manic, enthusiastic, energetic, and elated. He is a dark figure filled with suicidal thoughts. Hamlet is a man who hates himself and his destiny. Regardless of all that, he is an existential thinker who has accepted the fact that he must deal with the challenges life brings under its own terms. He has decided to meet with life head on. “We defy augury. There is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow” (Shakespeare 134).
Apart from participating in life, Hamlet is a character who astutely observes life as well. He is able to recognize that the Danish society is decaying through the actions of his Uncle Claudius. His understanding is clear and he knows that the ills of the society cannot be blamed on a single person. Hamlet is clearly aware of the human endeavor and the ironies that constitute it. He savors these ironies. Even after he has declared that, “ Man delights not me,” (Shakespeare 51) he is still intrigued by the contradictions that characterize all human beings. For instance, he says, “What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god!" (Shakespeare 51). His astute observation of his surrounding world is also reflected in his self-observation. Hamlet is a keen critique of himself. He uses his soliloquies to upbraid himself for failing to act and for his words propensity. Hamlet is good at twisting and manipulation of words as reflected in his confusion of Guildenstern and Rosencrantz. He uses words to confuse them and turn their observation around in such a way that they show more admiration for beggars than they do to their King. Furthermore, Hamlet leads the two friends on a merry chase as they search for Polonious’ body. He uses wordplay to openly mock Polonious since the old man cannot easily understand these words. His continued spar with Claudius makes Claudius to sense the danger posed by Hamlet’s wit, but he lacks the smartness that would aid his defense against it. Hamlet possesses a sharp brain and he uses words as his companion. He will use words to get himself out of any challenging situation and further use these words to confuse and control other people.
Work Cited
Shakespeare, William. The tragedy of Hamlet. University Press, 1904.
