Hamlet

January 27, 2004

I finished re-reading Hamlet. I believe this is the fourth time I’ve read the play. I am amused that Hamlet is often satirized as the brooding moody young prince who has kind of lost it. Yes, it’s an oversimplification, but I feel like this oversimplification has become the substance of most people’s vision of the story. Why? Not many people read Hamlet anymore, nevermind see it.

I like Hamlet, since he’s angsty yet crafty. He does get carried away with himself at times, but he’s more or less a devoted son turned detective, and he uses the means most readily available to him.

Reading this also brings to mind Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Tom Stoppard is a funny man, and it’s true that the two men seem ill-fated and indistinguishable from the start. I wonder what Shakespeare would think of the play. I would hope that he’d be duly amused and rolling in the isles.

Whereas it may seem a little overly dramatic, the story is very good and has a fantastic ensemble of folks. There’s not much writing these days that spans the kind of wit and depth as Shakespeare’s plays.

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