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Hamlet Ambiguity

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William Shakespeare is credited by some scholars with an astonishing understanding of human nature, allowing him to write plays and sonnets that explore the thoughts and desires of humans. When reading any of Shakespeare's plays or sonnets, Shakespeare presents the attributes and fears which reflect a realistic, almost hyperrealistic, human character. Especially through his character Hamlet, Shakespeare outlines the commonalities present in human nature. Yet, with all his insight into the secrets of human nature, there is also a lot of ambiguity. John Russell Brown explores these ambiguities and various interpretations of the last scene of Hamlet in his paper, "Multiplicity of Meaning in the Last Moments of Hamlet". Brown focuses on how Shakespeare …show more content…

(1V.i1.22-27) The wordplay in this passage clarifies the character's intentions. It provides an allusion the audience can understand and apply to the protagonist. However, Shakespeare is not so straightforward at times he makes the audience work to understand his meaning. Especially in Act IV of Hamlet, when Hamlet uses wordplay to disguise the truth of where he has hidden the body of Polonius: "The body is with the King, but the King is not with the body. The King is a thing... of nothing" (IV.ii.26-29). Hamlet’s wordplay is simply confusing and the audience cannot follow Hamlet's thought processes. Hamlet’s innermost thoughts are actually hidden from the audience, we catch glimpses of his thoughts in his monologues and soliloquies, however they are often smothered by five layers of ambiguity. It plays into the plot's complexity, and it keeps the audience from being able to categorize the play and Hamlet himself. Any attempt to give any meaning or interpretation to him ultimately fails to satisfy all critical lenses. Hamlet's madness cannot be definitely defined. "Who does it then? His madness, Ift be so, Hamlet is of the faction that is wrong'd;" (V.ii.11233-35). Behind Hamlet's madness is some secret of human nature he has learned, which the audience hopes to have revealed, because among the biggest ambiguity in the play is whether Hamlet is genuinely insane or really good at manipulating the other characters; "[We] come to expect some resolution at the end of the tragedy, some unambiguous 'giving out' which will report Hamlet and his cause aright to the unsatisfied among the audience" (Brown

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