Beginning Hamlet

Reading through the first several Acts of Hamlet I can really see why this play is so famous. Out of all Shakespeare's plays I find that this one delves into the psycological aspects of the human mind and analyzes human behavior.

That's a pretty big statement, I know, but going through this play for the second time I can really see Shakespeare playing with the different plays found in Hamlet. As you meet Hamlet for the first time he speaks about the ways people really aren't in mourning with their "customary suits of solemn black,/ Nor windy suspiration of ford'd breath,/ No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,"

Hamlet suggests that people might perform the actions, but not truly be in the right emotional state of mourning. He says, "These indeed seem,/ For they are actions that a man might play;/ But I have that within which passeth show-/ These but the trappings and the suits of woe."

This is the first time that Hamlet makes a speech. This is the moment that audiences usually start gathering information about the character and what kind of person he is. Now, I don't think it is any coincidence that Hamlet says the words play and passeth show in his first big speech. Shakespeare is trying to explore at what levels people are living their lives as if in a play to satisfy an audience, or at what point they turn to their own emotions and act as they truly would.

Now the question must be asked. How much of your life are you acting out?