The Seven Paradoxes In Shakespeare's “Hamlet”

Lecture delivered at the course, FREUD AND SHAKESPEARE, arranged by the Institute of Arts and Sciences, Colu mbia University, New York, Feb. 14, 1957

For more than three hundred and fifty years, HAMLET has been a staple item in the repertory of the theater in that part of the world influenced by Western thinking. Even a staple item, of course, passes through periods of neglect and revival, and HAMLET has been no exception to this rule. Nevertheless, it has been called — and with some justification — the most famous play in world literature. In a classic, or in other words a venerable and time-honored work, neither fame nor respect automatically ensure real interest. Some people consider an appreciation of the classics a cultural “must”; to admit their boredom would be to betray a cultural lack, and so they keep their lack of interest cautiously to themselves. Others misuse the classics by turning them into an exercise in self-aggrandizement. Happy in the recognition of phrases or even passages made familiar in their school days, they make no attempt to understand the work of art as a whole. The ability to quote phrases — often misapplied, to boot — serves as a satisfactory substitute.

Despite all these unavoidable and rather ludicrous concomitants, HAMLET has moved and impressed millions of spectators. This is not the full extent of its claim to a special niche; in addition it contains a series of paradoxes and — as I hope to show later — a series of brilliant psychological solutions.