Integrity Preserved: Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Abstract

Volumes have been written on the meaning of this fascinating work. So many lines of dramatic action and deep thought criss-cross in it that there is no definitive way of interpreting and understanding the play. The interpretation that follows does not presume to compete with the many perceptive and illuminating studies of what Shakespeare has managed to put into his work. Rather, it seeks to call attention to some things which lie at the very surface of the play. Their importance may be overlooked if one seeks immediately to uncover deeper meanings. That such profundities are there cannot be denied. But they arise from features that are simple, direct and inescapable — the most common and familiar factors of human experience. To understand the deeper consequences to which these familiar factors may lead, we must begin with what lies unconcealedly on the surface.