What Are The Similarities Between Holden Caulfield And Hamlet

Two confused, isolated teenagers in a world of lies and hypocrites. Holden Caulfield from J.D. Salinger’s infamous novel could have been inspired by the most preeminent writer of the English language – Shakespeare, and his tragic play about the troubles that face the Prince of Denmark, Hamlet. Many comparisons between the Holden and the Danish prince could be drawn, their social abilities, the procrastinating nature of the two mind-sets and their loneliness and isolation from the rest of the world. It is an unexpected comparison, perhaps because of the language used, the age and society in which they live and the literary form that they were written in (Shakespeare wrote a play whereas Salinger wrote a novel). But when you look at the core

characteristics that The Catcher in the Rye and Hamlet contain some similarities appear between the two main characters.
One of the characteristics of Holden that is very similar to Hamlet is his indecisiveness. For example, once he had gotten off his train to New York the first thing he does is go into a phone booth and tries to think of someone to call. D.B. is in Hollywood, he ‘doesn’t feel like’ calling Jane Gallagher’s mother, his sister Phoebe is sleeping, sally’s mother knows his mother and might pick up and he doesn’t like Carl Luce much. Holden steps out of the phone booth after twenty minutes, having not called anyone. He knows he wants to call someone but he continues to find excuses for all of his friends until there is no one left. This is a prime example of how Holden doesn’t have the strong decisive personality needed to get things done. The whole novel comes off as him just wasting his time and his life because of his lack of a definitive objective. This idea of Holden having an indecisive, objectiveless and procrastinating mind-set is enhanced by the way in which the novel was written. Throughout the novel there is no strong sense of continuity, there is no sense of events following each other in a natural sequence of cause and effect. It seems that Holden simply has one action after another and has no ultimate objective.
Hamlet on the other hand seems to have a sense of direction but he doesn’t follow through with it. He was decisive enough to form an objective near the beginning of the play when he vows to avenge his father’s death, but he doesn’t manage to go through with his vowed action. In fact, the whole plot and the tragic ending to the play is all a result of his procrastination of killing Claudius. Even Hamlet himself admits this in a soliloquy in Act 4 Scene 4 where he criticises his delay in avenging his father’s death. He says ‘I do not know why yet I live to say this thing’s to do, Sith I have cause and will, and strength and means to do’t’. He is questioning why he is procrastinating and how it’s lasted this long despite having reasons and means to do it. His indecisiveness even goes so far that it takes all five main acts of Hamlet to die before he manages to fulfil his goal of killing his uncle.
So it is clear that both these characters are indecisive in their own ways, Holden with his indecisive aimless personality where he just goes around New York with no intentions or objectives, and Hamlet with his procrastination of fulfilling his goal. Holden’s indecisive character is in some ways a reflection of his creator, J.D. Salinger. Salinger too seemed to have had the indecisive characteristic that Holden bore with him throughout the novel. Before Salinger found creative writing, he went to a number of colleges, but didn’t graduate any of them. This shows that he too must have had some indecisive nature in his life.
Another obvious similarity between Holden and Hamlet is their isolation and alienation from the rest of the world.

Holden experiences isolation by his relationships with others, his distance from reality and his own identity but one of the main ways Holden is isolated is from others and society. He is always separating himself from others, in order to protect himself from their ‘phoney ways’. A prime example of this is in the beginning of the novel when Holden distances himself from the others by sitting on his own on a hill instead of with the rest of the school during the football game. He tries to make up excuses for why he has isolated himself such as he ‘just got back from New York’ or he ‘was on [his] way to say goodbye to old Spenser’. He isolates himself from people because he thinks that they are all ‘phonies’ and they say things that they do not really mean. Holden seems to have an innate sense of superiority which separates him from the other students. This is demonstrated in his final confrontations with his fellow Pencey students before he leaves. He believes himself to be more honourable and “deep” than Stradlater and more refined than the piggish

Ackley.

By thinking that way about people it gives him an excuse to not deal with them nor have to interact with them.

This is where Hamlet and Holden are similar. Hamlet also thinks that the rest of the world (the world in which the play concerns) is all ‘phoney’, especially those closest to him. His uncle has lied and killed to become a king and his mother has betrayed her late husband by becoming Hamlet’s uncle’s partner. Hamlet’s knowledge of all this makes him isolate himself from his family and friends because he, like Holden, does not want to interact with people whom he feels are morally worse than him. But the reason behind Hamlet’s isolation might not be that he doesn’t want to interact with his close friends and family, but it’s that he can’t. The biggest thing that is on Hamlet’s mind is his plot to murder Claudius, but he cannot speak of the murder to anyone. Even his friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are sent to spy on him, he has no one to talk to. He even feels he has been isolated so much that in Act 2 Scene “he says ‘Denmark’s a prison’. He feels so out of contact with his family and friends that he may as well be

in

Hamlet said in his first soliloquy “O, that this too too-solid flesh would melt, thaw, and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d his canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! God! O God!” Hamlet wishes to be dead, he thinks it’s the easy way out but it is his responsibility to not kill himself because it is a sin. Hamlet decides to not kill himself but he still wishes he was dead and away from it all. This attitude of wanting to be dead also keeps Hamlet isolated from everyone else, because he does not want to be around anything.
This is where Hamlet and Holden differ in their isolation. Holden keeps trying to make friends whereas Hamlet does not seem comparably motivated. Holden is lonely but Hamlet seems to like being alone and not having to deal with people like Claudius. You can see Holden’s desperation for finding friends when he is with the taxi driver after having arrived in New York City. At the end of the cab drive he asks Horwitz the driver if he would like to have a drink with him in the bar. Seeing as he had earlier described him as ‘just about the touchiest guy I’ve ever met’ it’s an unexpected request, but the fact that despite them having such a heated discussion about the ducks he still wants to have his company demonstrates to the reader just how desperate Holden is to have a friend to talk to. However maybe because it was Hamlet’s destiny to be isolated (Being the King of a country is just about the most isolated job there is) or maybe because his madness has driven hhim this way, but whatever the reason Hamlet seems to prefer being on his own.