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This attitude establishes Hamlet's views on human nature and life, as stated in his famous soliloquies.
First, Hamlet, as a witness and an avenger of his father's murder and of the sinful relationship of his mother to the murderer, is driven to consider that man is nothing more but a "quintessence of dust," although he admits to the wonderful faculties that make man unique among the other creatures:
What a piece of work is man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, (...) in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god: the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals, and yet, to me what is this quintessence of dust?"(Ham. II.ii. 303-308)
Thus the contrast of between appearance and reality is seen in the nature of man: although Hamlet praises man's spirit and intellect, he sees very well that his being is no more than flesh or dust- that is, a material body that is given to sin and base desire, and which is moreover perishable.
The same attitude is observable in the way Hamlet thinks about life itself. His most famous dilemma, expressed in the question:" To be, or not to be" (Ham. III.i, 56), is a meditation on the same contrast between appearance and reality,...
Life is perishable itself, and the only thing that detains Hamlet from the suicidal act is the thought of the unknown that lies beyond life.
Therefore, in Hamlet, one of the most important themes is the Shakespearian representation of the world as a stage and the men as actors. The fact that the conflict in the play is not resolved through the mere revenge of the son for his father's murder, but it is done with the aid of another play suggests the contrast between appearance and reality, between the show and the real nature of things. Hamlet, as a tragic hero cannot accept things in their simple form, as they present themselves at first sight: his father's death is not a mere death but a "foul murder" and, also, the murder is not the only reality. Hamlet cannot cope with injustice and lack of morality, but most of all, he cannot cope with life as it is and its illusory character, and he cannot see death as a commonplace.
Works Cited
MacCary, Thomas W. Hamlet: A Guide to the Play, Westport: Greenwood Press, 1998
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. London: Methuen, 1982
Works Cited
MacCary, Thomas W. Hamlet: A Guide to the Play, Westport: Greenwood Press, 1998
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. London: Methuen, 1982
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