Hamlet Study Essay Research Paper The study

Hamlet Study Essay, Research Paper

The study of Shakespeare.s Hamlet has been one that is very extensive as well

as enormous. Books upon books have been written about this great play. About an

equal amount of books, however, have been written about one character; Hamlet. A

critic of Hamlet once said, .a man set out to read all the books about Hamlet

would have time to read nothing else, not even Hamlet.. What is the great

fascination with Hamlet and the characters contained within. The great intrigue

comes from the ambiguity of the play and it.s characters. .Hamlet is the

tragedy of reflection. The cause of the hero.s delay is irresolution; and the

cause of this is excess of the reflexive and speculative habit of the mind.. (Halliday.

217) The reason that there are so many critics is that there are just as many

theories and speculations. Even in the twentieth century on could create or

.discover. a new theory or criticism based on the play or it.s characters.

The character Hamlet, alone, has over two dozen critics from Quinn to Coleridge.

Some critics come up with sane interpretations of Hamlet while others use wild

and crazy themes. Some conclude that the problem with Hamlet, and a classic

thesis used by many students, is insanity versus sanity. The theories progress

from there. The theories range from manic-depressant to homosexual. Some are

even very creative; such as the thesis that Hamlet is actually a female raised

as a male. But no matter how many theories, speculations, or thesis there are,

many hold some ground. This thesis paper will not stress on any of the

statements I have listed above. However, I will take a stand with Coleridge and

speak about Hamlet.s genius and cognitive activity. Hamlet.s true dilemma is

not one of sanity -Vs- insanity; but one pressing his intellectual capacity.

Being a scholar, Hamlet is prone to thought rather than actions. .Cause of

Hamlet.s destiny. . . in intellectual terms . . . is a tragedy . . . of

excessive thought.. (Mack. 43) Hamlet.s role was to make a transcendental

move from scholarly prince to man of action. Hopefully this report will help

open another, or even stress a classic, view as to Hamlet.s character and his

prolonged delay. When a student goes to write about Hamlet.s character they

often begin by hitting a wall. Not the usual writers block in which the mind

goes blank, but one of information loaded upon information. Where does a pupil

begin. In this vast mound of information, where do we start. The Beginning would

be a proper place. The background of Hamlet may help to bring some insight onto

his character analysis. .Hamlet is . . . a man who, at thirty, still lives

among students.. As the play opens, Hamlet has just returned from Wittenberg

Germany, most likely attending Martin-Luther-Universitat Halle-Wittenberg.

Hamlet was in-fact so found of this Wittenberg university, that he had requested

for his immediate return there. Hamlet probably felt a little out of place in a

political environment. For the hasty marriage of his uncle and his mother may

have been one only of convince. To add fuel to this enraged fire, Claudius so

boldly denies Hamlet.s return to his asylum. This could not have angered

Hamlet anymore. For where Hamlet saw that .the time is out of joint,. Hamlet

himself was .out of joint.. How. Hamlet saw Elsinore as a prison rather than

a sanction. Denmark.s a prison. . . world. . . in which there are many

confines, wards, and dungeons . . . Denmark.s oath. worst . . . I could be

bounded in a nutshell and cut myself a kind of infinite space [thought].

(II.II.243-255) A man who is a mere .prince of philosophical speculators,.

as F.E. Halliday puts it, would not feel at home in an incestuous tomb of

politics. Hamlet is so out of place and suffering from his newly lost and

homesickness of Wittenberg, that he must spend all of his days in deep

contemplation. As a university student, Hamlet is used to nothing but thought

and contemplation. Hamlet is not accommodated with the environment of politics.

Hamlet suffers from a .superfluous activity of the mind.. (Coleridge. 35) He

knows of nothing else but thought and reason. Unbeknown to Hamlet, his next task

would soon bring him to be caught between being a man of though and a man of

action. As the play progresses hamlet.s thought and reason takes on a great

form. Most of Hamlet.s thoughts, like that of many scholars, are about that of

the world and those things contained within them. .Characteristic of

Shakespeare.s conception of Hamlet.s universalizing mind that he should make

Hamlet think first . . . entirely.. (Mack. 39) Hamlet has come to terms with

the fact that the world, even including his mother, is nothing but an un-weeded

garden filled with evil. Hamlet.s one true problem is with himself. He sees

his character as something most desirable; and the charact

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