Shakespeare's "Hamlet"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, in the last forty years, criticism of "Hamlet" has moved from seeing the play as being focused on the central figure of Hamlet to seeing the play as a tragedy of the human condition. The author points out that the figure of Hamlet is used as a means to debate a diverse range of views from Freudian theories of the repressed subconscious to existential anxiety in society. The paper relates that the existential interpretations of the play tend to observe the character of Hamlet in a broader light as a symbol of the search for meaning.

From the Paper:

"Modernism was essentially a questioning of established views of human nature and society. The contemporary correspondences of Hamlet's questioning of the authority structure of his world were not lost on many artists and theorists. Hamlet's crisis of faith and interrogation of self is also a prominent aspect that is explored in many critical works. The philosophy of existentialism, which emerged in the early twentieth century, was a philosophy that saw the individual as isolated and in search of meaning. Hamlet is the archetypal figure, having been "displaced", is searching for a sense of his own purposes and value in a world that has become meaningless."

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