Life's a Bitch!. Review on Hamlet - William Shakespeare

Shakespeare's most memorable and universal character grew up to become King of Denmark. Even when his father dies and his uncle seizes the throne, he is still named as heir to the nation. However, he meets the ghost of his father and is told that his uncle has murdered his father then married his widowed mother. The ghost demands that he exact vengeance for these crimes. This is what makes Hamlet so like ourselves; life throws many rocks into our paths as we go through life. Hamlet is an intellectual, a university student to whom words are (or have been) very important to him. Now he is charged with a task he is not equipped for.

Hamlet has been described as 'Shakespeare's wimp' due to his inaction. This is unfair to the character, even though he envies other men of action.

What, then should we learn from this novel? What does Shakespeare want us to learn apart from enjoying a magnificent tragedy? There are, of course, some timelessly glorious lines: 'To be or not to be'. 'The lady doth protest too much, methinks'. 'This above all else/ To thine own self be true. And many others. In Hamlet, Shakespeare shows us a hero who is not perfect, who does not know what to do all the time.

Above all this, WS could be reminding us that nations and empires are not defeated from without but are destroyed from the inside. It is worth noting that the Roman Empire is said to have fallen to the 'barbarians' because the institution of the family was destroyed by fear and greed in ancient Rome.

Hamlet is probably top of the list of reading in the Western canon.