Hamlet's Existential Dilemma
•Existentialism is a philosophical movement that explores the question of existence and how it is defined, particularly in a world in which meaning appears to have disappeared. Disillusionment and a waning of religious faith (which started with the Enlightenment) often typify existential debate.
•The crux of the matter is the Elizabethan value of the throne. Shakespeare in all his plays has supported the absolutism of the divine right to rule. There is a simple equation: kill a king = to be damned for all eternity. Revenge = Suicide = Damnation.
•It should be noted whilst he is definitely having an existential dilemma here there is never a question of whether God is part of this equation.
•Hamlet’s concern is that there is no escaping judgment. His father had faced it and wants Gertrude to face it unsanctified by remorse.
•Hamlet likewise must face it and this gives him pause to think on several occasions and therefore creates the excuse for what the ghost believes is his ‘almost blunted purpose.’ •For Hamlet it is all about the problem of ‘the life to come.’ and that he cannot escape ‘…the dread of something after death.’ it. There is no escaping judgment.
•The crux of the matter is the Elizabethan value of the throne. Shakespeare in all his plays has supported the absolutism of the divine right to rule. There is a simple equation: kill a king = to be damned for all eternity. Revenge = Suicide = Damnation.
•It should be noted whilst he is definitely having an existential dilemma here there is never a question of whether God is part of this equation.
•Hamlet’s concern is that there is no escaping judgment. His father had faced it and wants Gertrude to face it unsanctified by remorse.
•Hamlet likewise must face it and this gives him pause to think on several occasions and therefore creates the excuse for what the ghost believes is his ‘almost blunted purpose.’ •For Hamlet it is all about the problem of ‘the life to come.’ and that he cannot escape ‘…the dread of something after death.’ it. There is no escaping judgment.
The Human Condition
•The value of the text is therefore related to the identification of the audience with Hamlet as a metaphor for the human condition. That feeling that we are all victims of fate and trapped in realities we have not necessarily chosen.