William Shakespeare's Hamlet: An Existential Study

Abstract

This paper explores the proposition that Hamlet, the protagonist of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, conforms to the modern philosophical ideas of Existentialism. When Hamlet comes to know about the murder of his father by his uncle Claudius, he is immediately gripped by doubts and procrastination. As a result, he fails to avenge his father’s murder. He desperately tries to examine, in his constant procrastination, his position on the complex world he suddenly finds himself trapped in and delays his action. I have examined the complex mindset of Hamlet through analyzing his soliloquies and argued that the confused persona of Hamlet undergoes significant changes as it develops and finally leads him to a firm inner resolution that finds a meaning of his existence only in his death. In the light of Hamlet’s changes, I have argued that Hamlet bears out Sartre’s view that "existence precedes essence." Shakespeare’s Hamlet can be called an Existentialist.