What
separates Hamlet from other revenge plays (and maybe from every
play written before it) is that the action we expect to see, particularly from
Hamlet himself, is continually postponed while Hamlet tries to obtain more
certain knowledge about what he is doing. This play poses many questions that
other plays would simply take for granted. Can we have certain knowledge about
ghosts? Is the ghost what it appears to be, or is it really a misleading fiend?
Does the ghost have reliable knowledge about its own death, or is the ghost
itself deluded? Moving to more earthly matters: How can we know for certain the
facts about a crime that has no witnesses? Can Hamlet know the state of
Claudius’s soul by watching his behavior? If so, can he know the facts of what
Claudius did by observing the state of his soul? Can Claudius (or the audience)
know the state of Hamlet’s mind by observing his behavior and listening to his
speech? Can we know whether our actions will have the consequences we want them
to have? Can we know anything about the afterlife?Many
people have seen Hamlet as a play about
indecisiveness, and thus about Hamlet’s failure to act appropriately. It might
be more interesting to consider that the play shows us how many uncertainties
our lives are built upon, how many unknown quantities are taken for granted
when people act or when they evaluate one another’s actions.
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