Hamlet: A Philosophical Treatment

'Dipo J. Akintoye

21 September 2013

Hamlet: A Treatise on the Philosophy of Purpose and Meaning.

There abound in William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, an array of philosophical doctrines and questions that pique the conscious to enquire of the essence of man’s very existence. What the Bard of Avon has done with “Hamlet” is offer the world an elaborately scripted dramatic portrayal of interconnected idiosyncrasies including moral necessity and existentialism, and the characterization of Prince Hamlet himself being an allegory for,  perhaps, the greatest question that has ever plagued mankind. 

[Hamlet as an existentialist enquiry] Shakespeare may have established his genius as a master playwright and his pungent knack for exploring philosophical themes through the usage of soliloquy as a literary device in the play. It can be positively argued that the chief proponents of the existentialist school of philosophy including Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger and Jean-Paul Sartre may have been directly or indirectly inspired to draw inferences into the purpose of life from Hamlet’s statement in his fourth soliloquy, “To be or not to be, that is the question…” (921; 3.1.56). 

In the book “The Cambridge Companion to Existentialism”, which is a collection of critical analyses on the philosophy, Kierkegaard is said, by writer, David Cooper, to have described individuals as “infinitely interested in existing” and “constantly in the process of becoming” [and]…these remarks were to become central to the existential understanding of human being” . Heidegger would tackle the question by opining that “a creature with our kind of existence…is “distinguished by the fact that, in its very Being, that Being is an issue for it”. Another notable philosopher, Sartre, would later propound the theory that “existence precedes essence” (qtd.in 34-35). To paraphrase, what that essence might be is left to the individual to find as a matter of subjectivity, since there is no absolute answer. This is the very same question that Shakespeare asks in “Hamlet”.

[A matter of moral necessity] The Prince’s existential angst is treated as the most significant theme of “Hamlet” in the wake of his father’s murder by his uncle, Claudius, who also becomes his step-father through his sudden marriage to Gertrude, the Queen and Hamlet’s mother. The immediacy of said marriage right after the burial of the elder Hamlet, the former King of Denmark, is regarded as a most vile and despicable act of treachery and infidelity by the Prince, prompting questions of moral responsibility in his first lamentable monologue:

“She married, O, most wicked speed to post

With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!

It is not, nor it cannot come to good.” (887; 1.2.156-158)

Having encountered the ghost of his dead father, and been charged in earnest to “revenge his foul and most unnatural murder” (897; 1.5.26) by killing Claudius as a matter of retribution, Hamlet will find himself vacillating between a burning fervency for revenge and melancholy procrastination whenever the opportunity arises. He contends within himself the existential issue of the morality of revenge and whether it serves any real purpose to kill Claudius. Ruth Nevo writing in “William Shakespeare’s Hamlet: Acts III and IV: Problems of Text and Staging” describes this problem that besets Hamlet, as “the problem of being what he is not, or not being what he is…” (58).

[Quest for freedom] In grappling with the issue of revenge and morality, the Prince realizes through his personal situation, that life is indeed a conundrum; there simply is no solution in sight for the human condition. Here is a man who seeks to set himself free from the moral responsibility of justice. According to Joshua Scodel’s essay, “Finding Freedom in Hamlet”, the protagonist “dramatizes the lived, felt connections between external constraints on freedom of action… and internal states that inhibit or foster such freedom… (164).

“Hamlet” is a well written and expertly dramatized play that evokes very strong existential elements. It exudes a preponderance of themes that convene upon the singular character of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, to ask the grave question of the essence of man’s existence. Whether encountered as a book or staged drama, the reader and/or audience are induced into a state of personal reflection upon the subject of purpose and meaning. It may well be prescribed as a commanding text on existentialism as a philosophy.

 Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. “Hamlet”. Literature for Composition. Ed. Sylvan Barnet, William Burto, and William E. Cain. 10^th ed. New York: Pearson, 2013. 867-992. Print.

Cooper, David. "Existentialism as a philosophical movement." The Cambridge Companion to EXISTENTIALISM. Ed. Steven Crowell. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. 34-35. Print.

Nevo, Ruth. "Acts III and IV: Problems of Text and Staging." Modern Critical Interpretations: William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. 58. Print.

Scodel, Joshua. “Finding Freedom in Hamlet”. Modern Language Quarterly. 72.2. 2011. 163-200. doi:10.1215/00267929-1161301