Identity In Hamlet

W. H Auden was a famous poet who created both his own works of art and touched upon others. In a much spoken about lecture in 1947, Auden spoke of Hamlet in this sense “Hamlet lacks faith in God and himself. Consequently he must define his existence in terms of others, e.g. I am the man whose mother married his uncle who murdered his father. He would like to become what the Greek tragic hero is, a creature of situation. Hence his inability to act, for he can only “act,” i.e., play at possibilities”. To look deeper into the play much like Auden did it is easy to agree with his statement and see the many examples of Hamlet’s dependance on the self he creates off how others perceive him. To create an identity that is solely based on the perception of those around you does not lead to the most stable of beings. This idea and agreement with Auden is seen with Hamlet’s connection with his late father, Claudius, his uncle and Horatio, the only one to not betray him.
To understand Hamlet as a character there needs to be knowledge of the connection between Hamlet and his dead father and how both the presence and lose of this figure changes him. Both with him before death and the “ghost” of his father met later. During the plays long run we are never faced with the late King of Denmark Hamlet in flesh and blood, but we do hear some descriptions of who he was as a person. Though it would be foolish to say that he does not have a resounding effect on how Prince Hamlet sees himself. Not only with sharing the same name it is easy to see how the son of such a …show more content…
Though with no fault of his own, Hamlet is quick to both have a distaste for his uncle and a later death wish for him. It is easy to see how Claudius has been able to inject his own views onto Hamlet and how that could have affect how he acts. Near the beginning of the play it is immediately brought up how Claudius feels about Hamlet’s