Analysis Of Hamlet And His Problems By T. S. Eliot

T.S. Elliot (1919) in his essay “Hamlet and His Problems”, points out the flaws in the previous criticism of the play and the play itself. According to the critic his predecessors found “a vicarious existence for their own artistic realization” making Hamlet a reflection of themselves making their criticism subjective instead of objective. Whereas he feels no such connection with Hamlet stating that,
“Hamlet (the man) is dominated by an emotion which is inexpressible”
This inadequacy of conveying his message leaves critics and readers alike in a sense of “bafflement” and makes the play “puzzling and disquieting”
Mr. Elliot may be right in calling “Hamlet” an unsolvable mystery but this does not make Shakespeare’s artistic talent lacking. Rather the “inexpressible” emotions that Hamlet places in front of the readers and audience alike, his confusion and angst are all existential feelings surfacing in a play written in the Elizabethan Age. This is the reason Eliot’s predecessors catch a glimpse of their “own artistic realization” in the play.

In (1942) A C Bradley’s extensive lecture on Hamlet we glimpse the recognition of Shakespeare’s existential thought that he observed. He says that what “engrosses our interest” in Hamlet is not the conflict between him and but that “within one of them”. He says that the play illustrates “strange facts of human nature” because Shakespeare wanted to bring them into light so the audience like Hamlet may ponder over the “mystery of life”.