Bibliography Bevington, David. Twentieth Century Interpretations of Hamlet. Prentice-Hall, Inc. Englewood Cliffs. N.J.1973 Boyce, Charles. Shakespeare A to Z. Roundable Press, Inc. New York. N.Y. 1990 Coleridge, Samuel T. Shakespearean Criticism. Vol I. J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd. London, England. 1960 Halliday, F. E. Shakespeare & Criticism. Berald Duckworth & Co, Ltd. London, W.C. Holland, Norman N. Psychoanalysis & Shakespeare. Octagon Books. New York. N.Y. 1976 Jenkins, Harold. Hamlet. Methuen & Co. Ltd. UK. 1982 Quinn, Edward. The Major Shakespearean Tragedies. The Free Press. New York. N.Y

us sanity. The theories progress from there. The theories range from manic-depressant to homosexual. Some are even very creative; such as the thesis that Hamlet is actually a female raised as a male. But no matter how many theories, speculations, or thesis there are, many hold some ground. This thesis paper will not stress on any of the statements I have listed above. However, I will take a stand with Coleridge and speak about Hamlet’s genius and cognitive activity. Hamlet’s true dilemma is not one of sanity -Vs- insanity; but one pressing his intellectual capacity. Being a scholar, Hamlet is prone to thought rather than actions. “Cause of Hamlet’s destiny. . . in intellectual terms . . . is a tragedy . . . of excessive thought.” (Mack. 43) Hamlet’s role was to make a transcendental move from scholarly prince to man of action. Hopefully this report will help open another, or even stress a classic, view as to Hamlet’s character and his prolonged delay. When a student goes to write about Hamlet’s character they often begin by hitting a wall. Not the usual writers block in which the mind goes blank, but one of information loaded upon information. Where does a pupil begin? In this vast mound of information, where do we start? The Beginning would be a proper place. The background of Hamlet may help to bring some insight onto his character analysis. “Hamlet is . . . a man who, at thirty, still lives among students.” As the play opens, Hamlet has just returned from Wittenberg Germany, most likely attending Martin-Luther-Universitat Halle-Wittenberg. Hamlet was in-fact so found of this Wittenberg university, that he had requested for his immediate return there. Hamlet probably felt a little out of place in a political environment. For the hasty marriage of his uncle and his mother may have been one only of convince. To add fuel to this enraged fire, Claudius so boldly denies Hamlet’s return to his asylum. This could not have angered Hamlet anymore. For where Hamlet saw that “the time is out of joint,” Hamlet himself was “out of joint.” How? Hamlet saw Elsinore as a prison rather than a sanction. Denmark’s a prison. . . world. . . in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons . . . Denmark’s oath’ worst . . . I could be bounded in a nutshell and cut myself a kind of infinite space [thought]. (II.II.243-255) A man who is a mere “prince of philosophical speculators,” as F.E. Halliday puts it, would not feel at home in an incestuous tomb of politics. Hamlet is so out of place and suffering from his newly lost and homesickness of Wittenberg, that he must spend all of his days in deep contemplation. As a university student, Hamlet is used to nothing but thought and contemplation. Hamlet is not accommodated with the environment of politics. Hamlet suffers from a “superfluous activity of the mind.” (Coleridge. 35) He knows of nothing else but thought and reason. Unbeknown to Hamlet, his next task would soon bring him to be caught between being a man of though and a man of action. As the play progresses hamlet’s thought and reason takes on a great form. Most of Hamlet’s thoughts, like that of many scholars, are about that of the world and those things contained within them. “Characteristic of Shakespeare’s conception of Hamlet’s universalizing mind that he should make Hamlet think first . . .

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