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Why Hamlet Still Hits Hard—400 Years Later
Athenaeum
May 17, 2025
Most people think of Hamlet as a play about a prince who couldn’t make up his mind. That’s not wrong. But it’s not what makes the play great. What makes Hamlet great is that it tells the truth about how hard it is to be alive.
"Hamlet" by William Morris Hunt, 1864
The thing about Hamlet is that he’s not a hero in the usual sense. He doesn’t rush into action. He doesn’t make clean decisions. He thinks. And the more he thinks, the worse everything gets. That feels true. Most of the time, thinking doesn’t make life easier. It makes it more confusing. You see all the angles. You see how your choices might not work. You start asking big questions like “What’s the point?” and “Who am I to judge?”
That’s why people still read Hamlet. Because Hamlet sounds like someone we know. Maybe someone we were, or still are. He’s a smart person who sees too much and feels stuck. He wants to do the right thing but doesn’t know what that is. And he’s surrounded by people who lie, posture, and pretend. He doesn’t want to be like them. But he’s not sure how to live without becoming like them.
"Don César de Bazan" by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1878
The play is full of contradictions. Hamlet says he loves Ophelia, but he also treats her terribly. He’s disgusted by the corruption in Denmark, but he kills two innocent men without warning. He hates actors, then delivers one of the best speeches ever written about acting. All of that is confusing. But it’s also why the play feels real. People are messy like that.
One of the hardest things about reading Hamlet is watching someone get crushed by his own intelligence. Hamlet’s not dumb. He sees the problem clearly: his father was murdered, his uncle did it, and now that uncle is king. But what’s the solution? If he kills Claudius, will that fix anything? Or will it just make him into another version of the thing he hates?
There’s a famous line in the play—“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” It sounds like something you’d read in a Stoic book. But in context, it’s terrifying. Hamlet says it when he’s coming apart. He means that the mind can turn anything into a nightmare. Even something good. The more you think, the worse it gets.
"Hamlet and Gertrude" by Joseph Severn, 1830
That’s the real subject of Hamlet: the mind as a trap.
Shakespeare understood something most people don’t want to admit—that intelligence isn’t always an advantage. Sometimes it paralyzes you. Especially when you care about doing what’s right. Especially when you’re surrounded by lies. Especially when you’re trying to live in a world that punishes honesty.
Most stories reward decisive action. Kill the bad guy, save the kingdom. Hamlet punishes it. By the time Hamlet acts, it’s too late. Almost everyone’s dead. And even then, we’re not sure if what he did was just. Maybe he should’ve acted sooner. Maybe he should’ve walked away. But that’s the point: there’s no clear answer. Only consequences.
People often call Hamlet a tragedy. But it’s more than that. It’s a play about how impossible it is to live a clean life in a dirty world. Hamlet wants clarity. But clarity never comes. So he dithers, doubts, delays. And we watch him spiral.
"Ophelia" by John Everett Millais, 1852
What’s strange is how familiar this all feels. We live in a world full of noise, corruption, and performance. We’re told to act, to choose, to build. But if you stop and think—even for a second—you start to wonder whether any of it makes sense. Hamlet did that. And look where it got him.
Still, Hamlet isn’t hopeless. There are moments in the play—brief ones—where it feels like Hamlet sees something deeper. Like when he holds Yorick’s skull and remembers that even the funniest man he knew is now just bone. Or when he says, “The readiness is all.” By the end, he’s not overthinking. He’s ready. He’s not chasing certainty anymore. Just truth.
That’s why Hamlet still works. Not because it gives answers. But because it shows what it feels like to ask the right questions.
5 Memorable Ideas:
The mind as a trap. Hamlet doesn’t act because he thinks too much. He’s not weak—he’s just caught in the web of his own mind.
Corruption makes morality hard. In a world full of lies, trying to be honest makes you vulnerable. Hamlet knows this, and it terrifies him.
Decisiveness isn’t always a virtue. Most heroes act quickly. Hamlet waits. And the play punishes and honors him for that at the same time.
Seeing too clearly can paralyze. Hamlet sees everyone’s flaws—including his own. That clarity doesn’t help him; it traps him.
Tragedy isn’t about loss—it’s about being human. Hamlet isn’t just a victim of fate. He’s a reflection of what happens when we try to live well in a broken world.
5 Favorite Quotes:
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
“What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties… and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?”
“To be, or not to be: that is the question.”
“Give me that man that is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him in my heart’s core.”
“The readiness is all.”