On Hamlet

What can one say about Hamlet that hasn’t been said. I’d like to point to his ever hesitating manners: he is afraid. It is a teenager postponing heavy decisions. If Hamlet had an astrological sign for himself, its core verb would be ‘I doubt.’ I don’t mean this as a reprimand; He has all the beauty of a miserable soul, he is a plant that has lived in the shadows of a house and that trembles with the breeze, while stuck near an old paiting on the wall. Among most (if not all) Shakesperian characters I have read, he is the one that embodies madness, subjectivity and the scientific approach to problems. The ghost is not enough, his guts are not enough. He plans an experiment to investigate Claudio’s reactions. Differently from other Shakespearian characters, such as the duke of Glocester in King Lear or Lawrence in Richard III, if someone sent Hamlet a letter consisting on a conspiracy against him, he would right away investigate its legimity.

In Hamlet, distrust is madness. In Chinese philosophy, doubt sickens one. You know what happened, you know what you have to do.