The Ambiguity Of Hamlet’s Character

Hamlet, one of Shakespeare’s masterpieces during the Renaissance, is regarded as the summit of Shakespeare’s art career. The hero Hamlet, especially the causes for his tragedy, has been debated for more than three hundred years in the literary world,so there are one thousand Hamlets in one thousand readers’ eyes. The ambiguity in Hamlet’s character has been a heated topic in literary research. By employing the theories of cultural studies and social psychology, this essay intends to make a thorough exploration and analysis of Hamlet’s ambiguous character in the play in order to study the deep social and cultural causes for Hamlet’s tragedy.By analyzing the socio-cultural background in Hamlet’s period, this dissertation focuses on the causes for the shaping of Hamlet’s ambiguous character in different aspects. This dissertation probes into the dynamic interrelationship between the interacted historical factors and the cultural thoughts and finds that the main causes for the shaping of Hamlet’s ambiguous character can be found in the religious ideology, the humanistic trend, Hamlet’s educational background, the events in his family, his responsibility for national fate and his task of avenging the death of his father.The study finds that the development and formation of Hamlet’s ambiguous character have a lot to do with the society, his family events and his personal qualities.The undecided, ambiguous features in Hamlet’s character are the reflection of the sociocultural situation in the transitional era. Therefore, we draw the conclusion that Hamlet’s tragedy is caused by the socio-cultural factors as well as his personal incompetence.In conclusion, it is the corrupt sociocultural environment, the dominant humanitarian thoughts and Hamlet’s inability to recognize the ambiguity of the transitional period that contributes to the formation of Hamlet’s ambiguous character.