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KMID : 0615219940190010003
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Journal of Kwangju Health
1994 Volume.19 No. 1 p.3 ~ p.23
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A study of Hamlet´s character
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조권수/Cho KS
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Abstract
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No Dane of flesh and blood has been written about so extensively as Hamlet. Shakespeare´s prince is certainly the best known representative of his nation. Innumerable glossaries and commentaries have grown round Hamlet, and he is one of the few literary heroes who live apart from the text, apart from the theatre. His name means something even to those who never seen or read Shakespeare´s play.
There are many subjects in Hamlet. There is politics, force opposed to morality; there is discussion of the divergence between theory and practice, of the ultimate purpose of life, there is tragedy of love, as well as family drama; political, eschatological and metaphysical problems are considered. There is everything you want, including deep psychological analysis, a bloody story , a duel, and general slaughter.
In Hamlet, there are a few characters, too, as in common people. He is alone because his father died and mother remarried his uncle. He is too young to experience deep moral doubts, but he is not a simpleton. He wants to know if his father has really been murdered. He cannot fully trust the Ghost, or and ghosts for that matter. He looks for more convincing evidence, and that is why he arranges a psychological test by staging the crime that has been committed. He loathes the world, and that is why he sacrifices Ophelia. But he does not flinch from a coup d´etat. He knows, however, that a coup is a difficult affair. He considers all pros and cons. He is a born conspirator. "To be" means for him to revenge his father and to assasssinate the King; while "not to be" means -to give up the fight. He is more than the heir to the throne who tries to revenge himself for the murder of his father. The situation does not define Hamlet or at any rate does not define him beyond doubt. The situation has been imposed on him. Hamlet accepts it, but at the same time revolts against it. He accepts the part, but is beyond and above it.
In the process we can see his characters: He was in lone situation, and was a perfectionist. He was a real religious man, but he was the obsessed for the Ghost. He was an existentialist and so brave.
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