Understanding Hamlet

“Hamlet”, first published in 1603, is one of the most problematic, and controversial texts in all of Shakespeare’s work. All the “ambiguities” in the play show his genius and that basically is what makes it Shakespearean. His audience cannot come up with a consensus on how we should understand the play, but it is a provoking brain exercise to try to grasp the real interpretation of his work. Hamlet’s father, the king of Denmark is killed by his brother, Claudius. Not long after his death, Claudius takes the right to succession, overtakes both Hamlet’s crown and his wife. The ghost of the dead king reveals about his murdering to his son Hamlet, putting him in an obligation to avenge the murderer. Hamlet’s struggle with his internal mind and the delay of the revenge keeps the audience and critics come back to the play nearly four centuries to try to solve the ambiguity in his disordered actions. A single judgment of the text is not applicable of the text, nor is it applicable to see ‘Hamlet’ through a single lens.

We can say that Hamlet is a play about revenge, and the problem starts with the ghost demanding “justice.” The ambiguity in this part is Hamlet is compelled to bring political and social justice in Denmark, though he was “forced” to commit something unjustifiable. Revenge and killing is morally condemned by Hamlet’s Christian beliefs and his audiences’. That way, the old king’s ghost is not a symbol of justice, but it would be a symbol of the devil, trying to corrupt Hamlet with his instruction to kill. At the end of Act II, Hamlet expresses his fear by saying, “the spirit I have seen may be a devil.” He is not sure if the ghost is a gobbling demon from hell, or an angel from heaven.

Herman Ulricci’s once famous “the conscience theory” states: “It cannot be an entirely innocent and heavenly spirit that would wander on earth to demand a son to avenge his death.” This is why Hamlet begins to struggle with himself, and delays so long to carry out the revenge. It is not vivid how long exactly he delayed, but if he had followed his father’s voice for revenge he would have had the opportunity to kill Claudius when he was praying, but he did not. This convinces the critics that Hamlet had mental disorders or at least some secret that led him to delay the action. It is inconceivable to say that the world’s greatest mind (Shakespeare) would prolong the action in what is considered the universal masterpiece just to make his play long enough to please the audience.

Some critics say that Hamlet was a coward, and “his delay is a manifestation of his fear of getting hurt.” However, throughout the play, we see Hamlet being courageous enough to take immediate actions. He acts quickly and decisively for arranging the death of Guildenstern and Rosencrantz, and he did not hesitate when taking Laertes on in a duel. A man who shows no indecisiveness when stabbing the listener behind the curtain, and crying a malicious mockery towards his enemies is obviously not a figure of weakness and cowardliness.

Even though he is capable of taking swift decisive actions, he has a psychological struggle with himself during most of the play. Some of the concepts show that Hamlet is not sure of the ghost and he carries on the monologue about agonizing over his inability to carry out the task, and he constantly asks himself why he is behaving the way he is. Hamlet asks "What should such fellows as I do, crawling between earth and heaven?” Hamlet makes no decision of taking revenge for his father’s death; instead he goes on with compulsive soliloquies mired in ponderings. That is why some critics, including T.S Eliot regard to Hamlet as a failure, pathetic character “dominated by an emotion which is inexpressible because it exceeds the events that occur”.

I think the other factor that kept Hamlet to do something unjustifiable is his youthfulness. He is a student who ponders about the meaning of love, politics, life, death and the nature of human beings. The sudden death of his father, the revelation that his uncle is the assassin, his mother’s hasty marriage with his uncle, even the betrayals of Gertrude, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Laertes show that the entire world is rotten. It was a big shock for a young romantic prince like Hamlet who grew up in a full, wealthy family without being exposed to the hardships, and cruelties of life. His deep disappointment towards the value of life and love could have caused disgust towards life. This reminds me of a quote by Aldous Huxley, “Maybe this world is another planet’s hell”. Throughout the play there have been many incidents of Hamlet having suicidal thoughts in mind, but by procrastinating to take his revenge on Claudius, he can prolong his suffering in this rotten life.

O that this too solid flesh would melt
Thaw, and resolve itself into dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d
His canon ’gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world! This is an important soliloquy that he considers suicide, talking about desiring his flesh to melt since the whole world is unprofitable and rotten.

It is hard to tell if the prince is just acting mad, or is he really suffering from mental illnesses provoked from a sudden shock. The audience is conscious of the fact that his talks are sometimes irrational and absolutely incoherent. Claudius says: “There’s something in his soul Over which his melancholy sits on brood/ and I do doubt the hatch and the disclose Will be some danger” (Act 3, Scene 1) suspecting that he might have lost his mind. The ambiguity in it is that his madness is hidden by word transmissions through simile, metaphor and most importantly word play.
Ernest Jones, a disciple of Sigmund Freud takes the “madness” case to the extreme level and explains Hamlet as an oedipal figure in his book “Hamlet and Oedipus”. The conclusion of the book states that, Hamlet is ashamed and disgusted of his sexual feelings towards his mom, and killing Claudius would make him admit his feeling. The feeling he produced about the fantasies of childhood makes himself feel guilty and constantly reminds himself that he is no more than Claudius, the man who he is suppose to punish. That is why he is hesitating to kill the man that his mother is having an affair with. I do not see Hamlet as an oedipal figure that has developed a sexual feeling for Gertrude. If he had such devoted feeling towards his mom, he would have felt jealousy towards his father rather than another man. There is no evidence of Hamlet that he wanted his father out of the way, and secretly wished for his mother’s affection. Neither do we have an evidence of how was Hamlet’s relationship with his father before his death. However, In Act1, scene 2 Hamlet compares his father with Claudius and refers to his father as the real man who deserves the throne and his mom.

So excellent a king; that was, to this,
Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother,
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth! This soliloquy is the only important evidence that Hamlet was respectful and loving to thy father.

In his defense of oedipal complex theory, Freud argues that such thoughts of Hamlet that had been present in his childhood, but those thoughts were oppressed by educative and profound influence of filial piety. As his father dies, he felt the monopoly to take over Gertrude’s affection on an absence of his father and somehow felt satisfaction of finally getting through with him. Freud explained: “the personal crisis undergone by Hamlet awakens his repressed incestuous and parricidal desires” meaning the once oppressed feeling now glimpses and his “unconscious” part of brain starts to wake up. It might have led Hamlet to get stunted by Oedipus complex and turned him into a lustful and somewhat mad adolescent.

The man, who is stunted by Oedipus complex, according to Freud’s theory, is most likely to seek for a woman in any ways similar to his mother, who can take the presence of traits in her characters and elements. Ophelia, on the other hand has nothing to resemble the presence of Gertrude. Her naivety, obedience, and simplicity is everything that is opposite of the characteristics of Gertrude, and there is no answer why Hamlet chose a woman that least reminds him of his mom. The reason might be Hamlet’s impetuous anger derived from the unconscious thought of “Why did you not choose me, after my father’s death?” Thus he might have chosen Ophelia to use as an instrument to set against his mom. Furthermore, she might have been an instrument chosen by Hamlet to hide his Oedipus complex. I do not think Hamlet ever loved Ophelia; he saw her as a mere object and treated her like garbage.

Most part of the play is concentrated on Hamlet himself, and there is no focus on Ophelia and Gertrude’s past. The little role she has in the play makes her look like a sympathetic, weak figure. However, feminist critics concentrate on her character and conclude that Ophelia’s characterization is a look of typical Elizabethan women. Feminists also say that Shakespearean plays are in a patriarchal society dominated by men, and women are merely seen as objects or means of exchange in power relationship. We don’t know about Shakespeare’s moral view, but even a genius like him is influenced by social norms and values. Take for example, Shylock from “The Merchant of Venice”. He is a character developed from the standard stereotypes of stingy Jew and the play depicts anti-Semitism. In “Othello”, Othello strikes Desdemona in public and brutally orders her in bed. His killing of Desdemona is seen as a necessary punishment for woman being unfaithful. In “Hamlet”, Gertrude is somehow seen as exchange of power shifting, and Hamlet cries “ Frailty, thy name is woman!” blaming the gender for her mother’s indecisive actions.

We can see that Hamlet was rather disappointed by his mom. As it almost seems like that he was more shocked and disappointed for his mother’s hasty marriage than his uncle’s betrayal and murdering of his father. During his soliloquies he expresses that he is horrified at his mother’s sinning than his uncle’s, and he uses the word “wicked” to refer to her action. The main message we can get from the feminist critics is that the reason for delay is because of Gertrude. Hamlet thinks his mom is the one who sinned; therefore the revenge should be taken from her. There remains a horrible idea of destroying his mom, but the ghost’s reappearances urge him to spare his mom and confine his attentions to his take avenge from his uncle. He bitterly cries: “what should I do?” and indeed he is struggling with himself to kill or not to kill his mother.

Having now talked about Hamlet’s problems and its ambiguities, what if Hamlet was a character developed based on a real person to greater or lesser extend to express Shakespeare himself and his inner thoughts. One cannot solve the mystery of Hamlet without contextualization and without bothering to enter to the philosophy of the author. There must be in some point a correspondence between the author and the character. As the main masterpiece of Shakespeare’s works, Hamlet probably expresses the core philosophy of Shakespeare’s philosophy. Shakespeare even might have put his own heart into the creation of Hamlet. One of the most influential historicist critics Hippolyte Taine’s opinion on Hamlet was that: “Hamlet is Shakespeare…which has all some features of his own; Shakespeare has painted himself in the most striking of them all.” If Hamlet was Shakespeare himself, we have quite a few evidences of Shakespeare being a homosexual or at least bisexual. His plays have heterosexual context, transgender issues. Some of his sonnets depict his deep feeling for a young man, and it seems like he was inspired to write by the beauty of men. Take for example, sonnet 20, which caused a much debate, because Shakespeare has devoted a powerful affection to a male friend, and shows deep sensual love.
A woman's face with Nature's own hand painted
Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion;
A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted
With shifting change, as is false women's fashion;
An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,
Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;
A man in hue, all 'hues' in his controlling,
Much steals men's eyes and women's souls amazeth.
And for a woman wert thou first created;
Till Nature, as she wrought thee, fell a-doting,
And by addition me of thee defeated,
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.
But since she prick'd thee out for women's pleasure,
Mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure. The figure has the beauty of a woman, but he is not fickle as woman, he is more sincere than a woman. Therefore, he catches the attention of all men and also amazes women. This sonnet is addressed to a young man, who Shakespeare was much affectionate about. His sonnets 40-52 still remains controversial among critics. If Hamlet is Shakespeare, and Shakespeare is gay, Hamlet must have been gay too. Oedipus complex theory would explain that Hamlet’s deep affection to his mother and facing rejection, betrayal from that love reverses Hamlet’s feeling and produces hatred. His hatred toward his mother could have gone deeper and he started despising all females including Ophelia. Thus his betrayal and rejection might have led him to his homosexuality.

According to Dover Wilson, “After 1600 a strain of sex nausea runs through almost everything Shakespeare wrote.” Certain turning point in Shakespeare’s personality could have caused emotional experience, but so little do we know about him, we cannot come up with a consensus to explain Hamlet through Shakespeare himself. Throughout the play, there is no given evidence of Hamlet being Shakespeare despite his deep relationship with Horatio, and he refers to him as “My, sweet Horatio!” However, that does not prove anything; it might have been just a form of male friendship of the Elizabethan era.

Having been discussed about Hamlet’s problems including delay of revenge, youthfulness, mental suffering, and sexual relationship we still cannot solve the mystery of Hamlet. By creating the character of Hamlet, Shakespeare might have even tackled himself with a story that he does not even understand. Dover Wilson said on Hamlet’s character: “It puzzles Hamlet, it puzzles us, and it was meant to puzzle us”. If it was meant to puzzle us, then we are meant to be puzzled, and it is almost beyond our imagination to reach to the heart of the enigma. That is the beauty of, and that is the delusion of Shakespeare’s work.

P.S~ Works cited is not included in here.