Hamlet: the Character in search of Certainty in an Uncertain World

I have studied Hamlet for years... years... It was my A Level text. My MA text. I've seen countless productions (Peter Brook's still the standout, I have the poster, framed). I've worked with many students in the Drama studio and the classroom across the world... I thought I knew this play. But I was discussing it with one of my current students the other day, when it happened.  I got it. I got Hamlet.

My student argued that Hamlet’s inaction is born of cowardice.  I held firm to my belief that he simply doesn’t stand a chance in Elsinore.  The world he inhabits is too unstable, too deceptive (I love a bit of New Historicism). I pointed out his casual violence - how quickly he stabs Polonius, how he sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their deaths without a flicker of regret.  That’s not a man scared of killing.  So if it’s not the act of murder that holds him back, then what is it?

Is it dying?  No… not really.  In fact, he seems rather tempted by the idea (see: ‘To be or not to be’).   What unsettles him is what comes after death.  He does offer that as mitigating circumstances, but as he has the Ghost of his father come back and tell him all about what happens after death (and it does not sound like much fun) then it isn’t that either.  

But oddly, even that doesn’t provide him with certainty.

Because what he’s really after is certainty.  And that’s exactly what he can’t find.  Is the Ghost really his father?  Was Gertrude involved in the murder?  Did Claudius actually do it?  Can he trust his friends?  Is Ophelia truly in love with him, or is she a honeytrap?  Does The Mousetrap actually work as a test of guilt - or is it just a bad play with a catchy title?

He is constantly grasping for something solid in a world built on appearances, performance, and deceit.  And when you look at it that way, Hamlet’s delay isn’t cowardice.  It’s paralysis in the face of overwhelming ambiguity.

And yes, it turns out I’m not the first to think this.  There’s a whole tradition of critics - philosophical, psychoanalytic, existential, theological - who’ve read Hamlet as a character trapped in uncertainty, desperate for clarity in a world that refuses to offer it.

But I did think of it myself.

Hamlet is looking for certainty in an uncertain world.

And I’m sticking with it.

… For now.

(And no, of course I don't 'get' Hamlet!)