The Existential Hero: Hamlet

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To be without value or meaning permits the violation of norm behavioral standards. Existentialism is championed in the responsibility and free will of man. The world is utterly “worthless, meaningless, empty, and hopeless, … to use a favorite Existentialism, absurd”(Ross 1). A man must become unconventional by supplying an authentic meaning to life. Shakespeare’s character Hamlet in the play Hamlet, explores these existential principles as he seeks truth and understanding after his father’s murder. He attempts to establish order in a chaotic world full of betrayal, spying, and death. This leads to Hamlet’s inevitable downfall and the death of those close to him. Hamlet rises as the existential hero in Shakespeare’s Hamlet through his confrontation with moral responsibilities and the purpose of life. The existential ideal gives structure and meaning to the action of Hamlet. Hamlet is a conflicted character. He is maddened by his father’s, the King of Denmark, murder and his mother’s, Queen Gertrude, untimely marriage to his uncle, King Claudius, who is also his father’s murderer. It is a tangled web of lies, death, and duplicity that Hamlet lives in. “Denmark [certainly] is a prison” for him (II.2.262). Hamlet becomes withdrawn in the play, no longer having an enthusiastic and playful demeanor. His relationship with his mother is destroyed, he denounces Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Ophelia, and he becomes estranged with society as he feigns insanity. He is the quintessential character for Jean Paul Sartre’s existential principle that “Hell is other people.” Ultimately, Hamlet’s nature completely changes. He states to Guildenstern that as “of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises, an... ... middle of paper ... ...in England 23 (2010): 34+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 24 Nov. 2013. Meron, Theodor. “Crimes and Accountability in Shakespeare.” The American Journal of International Law. 92.1 (Jan.,1998): 1-40. JSTOR. Web. 24 Nov. 2013. . Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Ed. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2012. Print. Snider, D. J. "HAMLET." The Journal of Speculative Philosophy. 7.1 (Jan.,1873): 71- 87. JSTOR. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. . Williamson, Claude C. H. “Hamlet.” International Journal of Ethics. 33.1 (Oct., 1922): 85-100. JSTOR. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. . Ross, Kelly L. "Existentialism." The Proceedings of the Friesian School, Fourth Series. Kelly L. Ross, Ph.D., 2013. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.

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