The End

Well, I officially finished Hamlet. I never really thought this day would come… the play seemed abysmal. I really liked it though. This is the first time I have had an appreciation for Shakespeare and I must say, the man is a genius. Everything about the play baffled me because it has so much depth and can therefore be read in so many different ways. The whole “madness” theme was very interesting to me. It seems that the more a person was “ising”, the more mad they were to society. Hamlet struggled throughout the play on whether to be himself, or to act a certain way. That being said, he was one step closer to actually being than any other person in the play. He was the closest thing to truth and was also considered mad. Once Ophelia became mad, she became entirely herself. She allowed the deeper truths in the world to be in the open unlike most members of society. Her nonsensical words held profound reasoning within them. On a madness scale, Ophelia was at a ten. On a “being” scale, Ophelia was also at a ten. There is an evident correspondence between actually being and madness. Hamlet was not completely mad in my opinion, so he never achieved complete self-being. People act a certain way to achieve an image dictated by others in society. Acting is for others while being is for one’s self. Madness strips a person from reality and leaves a person in solitude with him or herself. It makes sense that a person alone with himself would actual be and not act. Additionally, the whole “no one can ever achieve certainty” idea is pretty cool. And it is true. It is hard to ever really know anything for certain and that’s why ceasing opportunities is so important. That also has to be why there are so many questions in the play. Nobody knows anything! Is the ghost real? Is Hamlet insane? Did Claudius confess? Did Ophelia commit suicide? Etc, etc. The point is, nobody in the play is certain about anything. Hamlet’s indecisiveness to kill Claudius in the chapel led to the killing of Polonius, Claudius, Gertrude, Hamlet, Laertes, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern. Everything is a mess. Had Hamlet killed Claudius, those deaths probably would not have taken place. But again, who knows. In the end, it seems like Hamlet begins to understand the idea that life is full of uncertainties and you just have to go with it. Rather than stopping the duel as he thought he should, he allowed life to take its course. He realizes that things happen for a reason, and for once, Hamlet let go of being the director to his play called Life.  Although the end is tragic, things end up for the better. Hamlet learns a little more about death, Claudius is caught in his own trap, and Laertes ends up with the rest of his family. Everybody gets what is coming for them.