Hamlet

What's Up with Hamlet?

Hamlet is a teenager... right?  After all, he sure acts like one.  He's a moody and smart-alecky young kid with suicidal tendencies, a penchant for wearing black mourning clothes, and a habit of delivering long, drawn-out speeches on the futility of life.  But in Act 5, Scene 1, the gravedigger pretty much tells us he's thirty. Thirty?! Well, not everyone agrees on this point.  If you want to do some further reading about Hamlet's age, there are plenty of people talking about it and even some people who give us a big, fat "who the heck cares?". Shmoop just can't seem to picture him as an adult, though.  He's just too darn dramatic.

In his first soliloquy, he tells us he wishes his "too, too solid flesh would melt / Thaw and resolve itself into dew" and that the world seems "weary, stale, flat," like an "unweeded garden (1.2.5). Pretty intense stuff. What's this kid's problem anyway? It turns out his father, Old King Hamlet, died less than two months ago so Hamlet's feeling the loss intensely. To make matters worse, his mother, Gertrude, has already remarried and is now the wife of Hamlet's uncle, Claudius, who's also helped himself to the Danish crown. (Did we mention that Hamlet's new stepdad also calls him a wimp for being sad about his father's death?)

To makes matters even worse, a ghost who claims to be Old King Hamlet's spirit shows up and tells Hamlet that he was murdered by Hamlet's uncle/stepfather. Gosh. That's a lot to take in, wouldn't you say? When Hamlet learns he must avenge his father's murder, he responds in an unexpected way – by promising to take "swift" action against Claudius and then taking his sweet time getting the job done. Seriously, this guy takes for-e-ver to kill the guy who's shaken up his world. What does Hamlet do instead of killing his father's murderer? Why, he pretends to be a madman, runs around delivering lengthy philosophical speeches, verbally abuses his girlfriend, stabs his girlfriend's father in the guts, and terrorizes his mother.

Identifying with Hamlet

Hmm. Sounds like the basis of an episode of Days of Our Lives, not the greatest play in the history of the world. Yet, that's what makes Shakespeare's character (and the entire play) so bizarre – and so brilliant. Hamlet's psychological response and baffling actions make him one of the most complex dramatic characters ever created. Watching Hamlet come to terms with life and death, his mother's sexuality, and the implications of avenging his father's murder is like taking a psychological roller coaster ride.

We come to know Hamlet through his beautifully wrought speeches (soliloquies) and though we may often think of him as a jerk, a sexist, and a madman, Hamlet is a deeply sympathetic figure (even if he does seem to be the quintessential moping teenager). Seriously, how would you feel if your mother married your uncle about a month after your father died? And what if you then found out that your uncle was responsible for your father's death? Most people never face these exact issues but everybody can identify with Hamlet's sense of being betrayed by those he loves and looks up to. And, most people can also identify with Hamlet's overwhelming grief over the loss of his father.

Hamlet and Sex

If you've read the play (and you should read the play), you've probably noticed that Hamlet is seriously angry with his mother. Not only that, Hamlet's seriously angry that his mother has a sex life. Here's what Hamlet says in his first soliloquy after he tells us he wants his "flesh" to "melt."

That it should come to this!
But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two:
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!
Must I remember? why, she would hang on him,
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on: and yet, within a month–
Let me not think on' – Frailty, thy name is woman!–(1.2.5)

OK, we get that Hamlet's ticked that mom's moved on so quickly – less than two months after his old man died. Fine. But here's the thing, Hamlet says he can hardly stand to "remember" the way his mother couldn't get enough of his father when he was alive – "she would hang on him" with a major sexual "appetite" that she seems to have simply transferred over to her new husband. So, what's the deal? Is he mad that Gertrude is into her new husband or, that Gertrude is into any man (including his dead dad)? We also notice that by the end of this passage, Hamlet's attitude toward his mom has spilled over to include all women, who, according to Hamlet, are "frail" or, morally weak because they're so lustful. This kind of thinking goes on throughout the entire play. Seriously, it seems that not a scene goes by without Hamlet directing his anger and disgust at women. This also has major consequences for Hamlet's relationship with his girlfriend, which you can read all about by checking out our "Character Analysis" of "Ophelia." You can also check out our discussion of "Sex" and "Gender" if you want to know more about Hamlet's attitude toward women and sexuality in general.

Hamlet and The Really Big Question

We know what you're thinking. You want some answers to the really big question: Why does Hamlet delay so long in carrying out his revenge? As most big questions tend to do, this sucker spawned hundreds of years of scholars writing hundreds of theories as to why. Here are some of the big schools of thought:

Theory #1: Don't talk to strange ghosts

Keep in mind that the Protestant Reformation happened twenty or so years before Hamlet was written. Basically, these new Protestants had different views of Christianity than the current ruling team, the Catholics. From what the ghost says, it sounds like he's coming from Purgatory, a sort of waiting room where souls chilled out before they could get to Heaven. If this is true, then we trust the ghost; nothing wrong with a resident of Purgatory.

On the other hand, Protestants denied the existence of Purgatory. This means the ghost may be a demon from hell, which is why Hamlet wonders if the spirit is a "goblin damned" (1.4.5). So what is Hamlet – Protestant or Catholic? Protestant. Hamlet's chilling in Denmark, which is definitely Protestant nation, and he goes to the University of Wittenberg, which was Martin Luther's university and also home to the church door he so famously nailed his theses to. This means the ghost could possibly be a devil that has come to tempt him and is, therefore, not telling the truth about Old Hamlet's murder. Hamlet takes his time with this one. The Prince obviously doesn't trust the ghost; he has to confirm before he acts. We talk about this more in "Quotes" for "Religion."

Theory #2: Hamlet has some scruples

Think about the famous Christian sentiment from Romans, xii, 19: "Avenge not yourselves […] vengeance is mine, I will replay, saith the Lord." Translation: It's not man's place to take vengeance on anyone, period. That's God's job. Plus, everyone knows that murder is a sin. Shakespeare's inclusion of Christian morality in this play is really fascinating because it doesn't necessarily square with the basic tenets of revenge tragedy, which calls for bloody vengeance. (See "Genre" for more on this.) At work in Hamlet is also the notion of the old, Pagan revenge code, that says when someone kills your father, you have to get your revenge on which, of course, means that person's kid will eventually kill you, and so on and so on ad infinitum until everybody dies and entire families are wiped out. So Shakespeare does a nifty thing in Hamlet: he injects a Pagan revenge code into a Christian setting. Hamlet is a Christian hero with a Pagan duty. That would be why Hamlet delays in killing Claudius.

Theory #3: Hamlet stinks. Shakespeare stinks.

We're not kidding. Some people say that you can't answer the question of why Hamlet delays seeking revenge because there is no answer. Stop trying to preserve the play's integrity and/or psychological accuracy, because there isn't any to be preserved. Who thought this? Let's start with the famous author Voltaire. If that's not enough, there's also the poet T.S. Eliot.

According to this school of thought, Hamlet is only "mysterious" to us because he's a poorly drawn dramatic figure. Shakespeare didn't give him enough of a motive to make any sense of his behavior. But remember from your lesson in Historical Context that there's a Renaissance crisis going on at the time; nothing is supposed to make sense. Everyone's confused about religion, geography, and the state of the universe around 1600. If a play doesn't make sense… maybe it's not supposed to. After all, how can we know anything for sure? Hamlet is certainly full of contradictions, inconsistencies, and uncertainties – just like the rest of the world at the time.

Theory #4: Hamlet suffers from an Oedipus Complex

Yes, indeed, some people believe Hamlet is, in some ways, a re-telling of Oedipus the King by Sophocles. In case you're not familiar, Oedipus was a king who, pretty much by accident, or by fate, killed his father and married his mother. Fast-forward to the late 19th or early 20th century, and you've got Sigmund Freud going around talking about the "Oedipus Complex," which basically says every man wants to do what Oedipus did. You're right to point out that Freud came much later than Hamlet, but since Oedipus the King was written in the 400s B.C., the notion is an old one.

So, work with us on this for a minute. Let's say Hamlet does suffer from an Oedipus Complex. If this is true, then Claudius has done what Hamlet wants to do: kill King Hamlet (senior), and sleep with Gertrude. Hamlet can't kill Claudius, because secretly, he wants to be Claudius. If you want to add some weight to this theory, check out all those scenes where Hamlet displays a gnawing obsession with his mother's sexuality, down to the tiny details in his imaginings of her and Claudius getting it on. Also, think about it this way: if Claudius is in a way like Hamlet, then killing Claudius would be like killing himself. Revenge would be like suicide, which is why the two get so mixed-up, and why Hamlet has the same feelings about both.

Regardless of what school of thought you subscribe to, there is no question that Hamlet is one of the most complex, compelling, and fascinating characters in literary history. With Hamlet, Shakespeare broke the mold by creating a hero whose inner thoughts and quandaries dominate the audience's experience of him, and literature has never been the same since.