Impossibility Of Certainty In The Tragedy Of Hamlet By William Shakespeare

In London during the early seventeenth century William Shakespeare wrote a play called The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Eventually, the play was published for the public to read in 1603; since then many other editions became published. Shakespeare created this play to be a tragedy with a dark and contemplative tone. For years, including my present time this play has created two types of audiences: 1.) people who will debate if he is completely insane and 2.) People who believes he is in fact sane. Being a psychology major, Hamlet’s mind and what he endures, intrigues me the most. To me the most profound theme of this play is the impossibility of certainty, which creates controversy among its audience. The theme of impossibility of …show more content…
The idea of death and suicide is vividly expressed throughout this tragedy. An example would be his famous fourth soliloquy’s opening lines, “To be, or not to be,” which proves that Hamlet is thinking about suicide. Many people will boldly express that “normal” people do not think about killing him or her selves, but I disagree. Every living person faces ups, downs, tragedies, and successes. When unfortunate situations occur, it is not unusual for someone to ponder upon death, which sometimes seems the most plausible way out of that situation. He states in Act 1, Scene 2, “cannon ‘gainst self-slaughter”. In this statement, I think Hamlet was curious if his father committed suicide even though he believed in a law against it. Once again, impossibility of certainty hinders Hamlet’s mind from being at ease. The unanswered questions of what truly happened concerning his father’s death plagues his mind and also affects his ability to make decisions that he perceives as right. Hamlet comes back to reality realizing how delicate and precious life is during the graveyard scene. As he sees the skulls, he reminisces about the court jester, Yorick, a man he looked up to. He expresses in Act V, Scene 1, that it does not matter who the grave belongs to [because] we all end up in the same place. I concur with Hamlet’s idea throughout this scene. Everyone is bound to die, no matter how good or bad you are or even what your …show more content…
Moreover, Hamlet struggles with the idea of whether or not killing his uncle to avenge his father’s death is the right course of action for him to take. In the beginning of the play he acts “crazy” in front of people. One explanation of his actions is to make everyone believe that he is completely harmless while investigates possible links between his father’s death and Claudius’s involvement in it. Even Polonius notes the possibility of the transparency of Hamlet’s investigational motives when he says in Act 2, Scene 2, “though this be madness, yet there is a method in’t.” Polonius’ statement is extremely ironic due to him being correct and wrong at the same time. He was correct by thinking Hamlet had a plan, yet he was wrong about why. It is discernable that his opinion is that Hamlet is not truly crazy, but merely acting out to fool his mother and uncle. It is possible to interpret Hamlet’s erratic behaviors as a response to not being able to cope with the immense emotional weight of the series of tragic events he experiences. Hamlet’s internalized tumultuous struggle with grasping a clear understating of what the significance of encountering the apparition of his father could have meant. Trying to rationalize any one true meaning of that event alone varies so greatly. Within his mind, Hamlet not only juggles trying to process his