Character Analysis [of Hamlet]

 

"Hamlet is an enigma. No matter how many ways critics examine him, no absolute truth emerges. Hamlet breathes with the multiple dimensions of a living human being, and everyone understands him in a personal way. Hamlet's challenge to Guildenstern rings true for everyone who seeks to know him: "You would pluck out the heart of my mystery." None of us ever really does."

 

 

 

Modern Perspective [on Hamlet] by Michael Neill

 

"Hamlet is one of the few plays that have traversed many generations. It has managed to capture and hold the audiences’ attention whenever it is performed. The story has many seemingly dark themes such as murder and revenge. In his essay, Michael Neill observes that spying is one of the central themes in the play. He observes that everyone in Claudius’ Denmark is watched. There is no room for secrecy or privacy in such a society. Friends spy on one another, and fathers spy on their children. The leaders are worried and concerned, and they spy on one another for they do not seem to trust anyone. People in this society feel that they have to spy on each other, to avoid missing the events that are happening."

[Neill, Michael. "Hamlet: A Modern Perspective." The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. New York: Washington Square, 2002. 319-38. Print.]

Men, Loss and Spiritual Emergency: Shakespeare, the Death of Hamnet and the Making of Hamlet

 

"How does a father manage the death of his son or his father? What might a playwright do? This article proposes that confronted with the multiple loss of his son Hamnet and subsequently his father John, William Shakespeare experienced a transformational consciousness event or “spiritual problem” (DSM IV), defined by Grof and Grof as a “spiritual emergency” (SE), which he explores through the making of his masterpiece Hamlet. The play’s central male character is a fine example of an instrumental masculine response to coping with loss. It is argued that the depiction of Hamlet’s struggle towards self knowledge can be explained in terms of Stan Grof’s model of transformation.​"

 

Bray, Peter. Men, Loss and Spiritual Emergency: Shakespeare, the Death of Hamnet and the Making of Hamlet [online]. Journal of Men, Masculinities and Spirituality, Vol. 2, No. 2, June 2008: 95-115.