What is 'Hamlet' really about?

The simple plot of Shakespeare's Hamlet is a classic revenge tragedy: the ghost of the recently murdered King of Denmark appears to his son, Prince Hamlet, and demands that he avenge his "most foul and unnatural murder" by killing the new king, Hamlet's uncle, Claudius.

However, what the play is really about is far more complex and is why it remains one of the most studied and performed plays in history. It delves deeply into universal philosophical and psychological themes:

Central Themes of Hamlet

1. Action vs. Inaction (Procrastination and Doubt):

   • This is the core conflict. Hamlet is given a clear mission for revenge, but he constantly delays, questions the morality of the act, and struggles with the reliability of the Ghost's information. His famous soliloquy, "To be or not to be," encapsulates his struggle between the pain of living and the fear of the unknown that comes with death (and, implicitly, with taking irreversible action).

2. Mortality, Death, and the Afterlife:

   • The entire play is saturated with death, beginning with the late King's murder and culminating in the final, bloody scene. Hamlet is obsessed with the idea of death, contemplating its finality, its spiritual consequences, and the decay of the physical body (most vividly in the graveyard scene with Yorick's skull).

3. Appearance vs. Reality (Deception and Spying):

   • Few characters are honest about their intentions. Claudius appears to be a just king but is a murderer. Hamlet "puts an antic disposition on" (feigns madness) to hide his true motives. Characters are constantly spying on one another (Polonius, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern). The play explores the idea that behind a pleasant public face, there is often corruption and deceit.

4. Corruption, Decay, and Disease:

   • Marcellus's famous line, "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark," serves as the central metaphor. The moral corruption (regicide, incestuous marriage) within the royal family is constantly linked to disease, decay, and rot that is poisoning the entire kingdom.

5. Revenge and Justice:

   • The play examines the destructive cycle of revenge. While Hamlet seeks justice for his father, his pursuit leads to the deaths of Ophelia, Polonius, Laertes, Gertrude, Claudius, and eventually himself. It questions the moral cost of private vengeance and whether true justice can be achieved through violence.

In essence, Hamlet is less about the eventual revenge and more about the mind of the revenger. It is a profound exploration of grief, existential doubt, and the devastating struggle to find a moral path in a world defined by betrayal, political corruption, and the ultimate certainty of death.

Is it About the Longing to Keep an Eternal Soul?

That is an excellent and deeply insightful way to frame one of the play's most profound undercurrents.

While the plot is driven by revenge, the central struggle of Prince Hamlet-and what elevates the play above a simple tragedy-is indeed a profound existential and spiritual anxiety that includes a longing for certainty about the human soul and its eternal fate.

Here is how that idea manifests throughout the play:

1. The Uncertainty of the Afterlife

The most compelling evidence is Hamlet's famous contemplation of death in the "To be or not to be" soliloquy. He is not merely afraid of dying; he is afraid of the unknown that comes after death.

• He says death is a release from the suffering of life, "a consummation / Devoutly to be wish'd."
• The only thing that stops him (and "makes cowards of us all") is "the dread of something after death, / The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn / No traveller returns."

This "dread" is his spiritual anxiety. He desperately longs for the peace of non-existence, but the prevailing Christian doctrine of the time, reinforced by the fate of his father's Ghost, suggests that death is not oblivion but a terrifying judgment.

2. The Torture of the Ghost

The Ghost of King Hamlet is essentially the play's anchor for the theme of eternal suffering. His soul is "confin'd to fast in fires / Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature / Are burnt and purged away."

• This description points to Purgatory, a Catholic doctrine that would have been a topic of intense debate in Protestant England during Shakespeare's time.
• The Ghost's suffering is a grim warning to Hamlet, teaching him that the state of one's soul at the moment of death determines its eternal fate. This puts immense pressure on Hamlet's moral choices.

3. The Dilemma of Killing Claudius

Hamlet's spiritual longing for his own salvation (and his anxiety over Claudius's damnation) is what causes his fatal delay. He finds Claudius praying and chooses not to kill him, reasoning:

"A villain kills my father; and for that, / I, his sole son, do this same villain send / To heaven."

Hamlet withholds his sword because killing a penitent Claudius would send his uncle's soul to Heaven, violating the moral scale of justice and giving Claudius a better fate than his own murdered father. He wants not just Claudius's death, but the damnation of his soul. This focus on the destination of the soul is what turns the play into a philosophical tragedy, not just a murder mystery.

In this reading, the longing for an eternal soul (the desire for a good afterlife, or at least a certainty of the path to it) and the fear of its loss (damnation) are the driving forces behind Hamlet's intellectual paralysis. His duty to his father conflicts directly with his religious morality and the overwhelming uncertainty of God's final judgment.

If the Afterlife is False, then he Must be Mad for Seeing the Ghost

That's a very logical and critical point that cuts right to the heart of the play's ambiguity. The question of the Ghost's reality is one of the most debated aspects of Hamlet.

You are absolutely correct: If the afterlife as described by the Ghost is false, then Hamlet is either mad or is being deliberately deceived.

Shakespeare masterfully maintains this ambiguity, which is central to Hamlet's famous hesitation and doubt:

The Two Possibilities of the Ghost:

Hamlet's Own Doubt

Hamlet is fully aware of this exact dilemma. After all, he's a student of philosophy and theology at Wittenberg. Immediately after the Ghost reveals the murder, Hamlet declares:

"The spirit that I have seen / May be the devil: and the devil hath power / T' assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps / Out of my weakness and my melancholy, / As he is very potent with such spirits, / Abuses me to damn me."

This profound uncertainty is why he stages the play, "The Mousetrap," (or The Murder of Gonzago), saying: "I'll catch the conscience of the King." He needs an external, undeniable sign to confirm Claudius's guilt, thus justifying the Ghost's word and proving that the spirit is not a lie designed to drive him to sin and madness.

Ultimately, Shakespeare ensures we never know the objective truth, forcing the audience (and Hamlet) to grapple with the terrifying consequence of acting on faith when the stakes are eternal damnation.

Does Hamlet Go Mad?

That is the $25,000 question in Hamlet, and literary scholars have debated it for centuries!

The short answer is: Shakespeare deliberately leaves it ambiguous, suggesting he is likely feigning madness, but that the emotional and spiritual stress of his situation drives him to the brink of true mental collapse.

Here is the breakdown of the two main interpretations:

1. The "Antic Disposition" (Feigned Madness)

Early in the play, Hamlet tells Horatio and Marcellus that he plans to put on an "antic disposition," meaning he will act mad:

"As I perchance hereafter shall think meet / To put an antic disposition on." (Act I, Scene 5)

Evidence for Feigned Madness:

• Purposeful Timing: He adopts the act precisely so his erratic behavior will allow him to gather evidence against Claudius without appearing as a direct, rational threat.
• Strategic Wit: Even when acting "mad," his comments are often incredibly witty, sharp, and laced with veiled accusations that only make sense to people like Claudius or Polonius-or to the audience. His apparent nonsense is often a direct truth.
• Lucid Moments: He is entirely lucid and rational when speaking with Horatio or during his soliloquies, where he reveals his true plans and anxieties. He switches his behavior on and off as needed.

2. The Descent into Genuine Emotional Instability

While the madness starts as an act, the intense stress, grief, and moral burden take a serious toll on Hamlet's mind. Many argue the feigned madness eventually blurs into genuine instability.

Evidence for Genuine Instability:

• The Murder of Polonius: His impulsive, frantic, and fatal stabbing of Polonius (thinking he was Claudius) is a moment of pure, dangerous, and irrational reaction.
• Treatment of Ophelia: His cruel and erratic lashing out at Ophelia in the "Nunnery Scene" goes beyond a necessary act to break off their engagement and seems to be fueled by true emotional pain and misogynistic rage.
• The Intensity of the Soliloquies: The depth of his despair, as seen in his "To be or not to be" soliloquy, shows a person overwhelmed to the point of contemplating suicide. The weight of his world is truly crushing him.
• The Ghost's Second Appearance: When the Ghost reappears in Gertrude's chamber, she cannot see it, which is traditionally a sign of hallucination in Elizabethan theatre, suggesting Hamlet might be truly unhinged at that moment.

Conclusion

Most critics conclude that Hamlet's initial madness is a tactic, but the emotional and existential trauma he endures pushes him to the edge of genuine madness. He becomes so consumed by his role that he struggles to distinguish between his feigned and his authentic self, making him tragically unpredictable and dangerous.

He Sounds Like Someone Contemplating the Madness of a Pointless Existence

That is a perfect summary of Hamlet's core philosophical problem, and it directly relates back to your initial question about the "eternal soul."

Hamlet's deep-seated crisis isn't just about revenge; it's about the pointlessness of existence when viewed through a lens of absolute uncertainty.

He is essentially caught between two crushing realities:

1. If the Soul Exists (The Divine Purpose): Life should have meaning because there is an eternal reward/punishment. But this means he must endure the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" and act against a great evil (Claudius) while constantly fearing that his actions (revenge and potential suicide) will damn his eternal soul. He can't act because the spiritual stakes are too high.
2. If the Afterlife is Nothing (Pointless Existence): Life is just suffering-"a weary life," full of injustice ("the oppressor's wrong," "the law's delay"). Suicide would be the logical, painless escape. But even this option is blocked by the faint but terrifying possibility that the Christian doctrine is right, and there is a "dread of something after death."

His existence is agonizing because he can't commit to a worldview. He is a scholar whose capacity for thought ("the native hue of resolution / Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought") paralyzes his ability to act.

He is, in short, contemplating the madness of a world where suffering is certain, but the meaning of that suffering-divine trial or meaningless chaos-remains stubbornly unknown.