William Shakespeare s Hamlet - 1367 Words

Hamlet displays his understanding of existentialism in the soliloquy â€Å"To be, or not to be, that is the question† (3.1.63) and yet his other words and actions lead us to believe he is still unaware of his own truth. Hamlet says Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and outstretched heroes the beggars shadows (2.2.263-264) and says that we are all beggars, all lowly men, and we only have any greatness because others think we do. This is in direct conflict with his hubris, showing that he can come up with insights that are emotionally valid and yet he does not entirely accept them as he also has the opposite characteristic. He still cares about the hierarchy and wishes to be above people and is, but only because he and others†¦show more content†¦He is unable to cope with his femininity and he has paradoxical view of societal roles on one hand, he thinks they are obsolete and at the same time he has very conventional views. Even the person he would most wis h to be with, Horatio, cannot be with him because he links loving men to femininity which he so hates. Hamlet repeatedly makes stabs at women, just as he does with individuals throughout the play. Hamlet sees the act of women putting on makeup as delivery and indicative of their true nature to be two-faced and shameful, saying â€Å"God has given you one face, and you make yourselves another. You jig and amble, and you lisp†¦ † (3.1.154-162) They paint on a face more beautiful than their own, they dance and talk in ways that are not true to themselves. Hamlet hates this because he hates his own parallels to it, instead of beauty he strives for masculinity and hides his true ‘face’ of passion and feeling for a more masculine ‘face’. He separates his attributes into masculine and feminine and buries the feminine under hubris, dark humor, and hatred. When he refers to the women dancing and talking, he imagines them doing so in a way to appear more beautiful. He has his own ‘dance,’ where he pretends to be tough and manly that would appear just as shameful. He hates women because of societal views of characteristics of women as lesser, which he sees in himself and is afraid of. The king says it is sweet that Hamlet continues to