Shakespeare has written many books and plays. Hamlet is probably
one of his most famous writings. Hamlet is the most famous play in the
English language. It was written in 1601 or 1602. The playwright achieved
artistic maturity in this work through his brilliant depiction of the
hero’s struggle with two opposing forces: moral integrity and the need
to avenge his father’s murder. Shakespeare’s focus on this conflict
was a revolutionary departure from contemporary revenge tragedies,
which tended to graphically dramatize violent acts on stage, in that it
emphasized the hero’s dilemma rather than the depiction of bloody deeds.
Scholars believe that the “original Hamlet� is a lost play that was
written mere decades before Shakespeare’s Hamlet, providing much of
the dramatic context for the later tragedy. Hamlet is a supremely rich
and complex literary work that continues to delight both readers and
audiences with its myriad meanings and interpretations. In the words of
Ernest Johnson, “the dilemma of Hamlet the Prince and Man� is “to
disentangle himself from the temptation to wreak justice for the wrong
reasons and in evil passion, and to do what he must do at last for the
pure sake of justice. From that dilemma of wrong feelings and right
actions, he ultimately emerges, solving the problem by attaining a proper
state of mind.� Hamlet endures as the object of universal
identification because his central moral dilemma transcends and Elizabethan period,
making him a man for all ages. In his difficult struggle to act within
a corrupt world and maintain his moral integrity, Hamlet ultimately
reflects the fate of all human beings.