Grimm Brothers - Brick Shakespeare: the Tragedies-Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Julius Caesar

Likely first performed in or around 1600 and published into the First Quarto in 1603, Hamlet is one of the most adapted works of all time and continues to permeate modern storytelling through its use of powerful plot devices and transcendent characterization. As a departure from traditional dramatic works its senior, Hamlet uses soliloquies as existential portals to the characters thoughts and motives, rather than through dramatic action. Particularly true for the plays namesake, this spotlight on characterization gives the story infinite layering, from how it parallels Hamlets true madness against his feigned madness to how it uses metafictional ploys through The Mousetrap to draw out Claudiuss guilt. Hamlet is both a tortured victim of his fathers murder as well as a reluctant instrument of revenge. He spends much of the play toiling over whether to take action against his fratricidal uncle or himself, which causes a slow undoing of his own tether to sanity. While Hamlet caused a shift in dramatic perspective through its introspective characters, the Elizabethan audience was simultaneously coping with its own dramatic shift within the powers of the Church.

Not unlike other Shakespearean plays, Hamlet intertwines both Catholic doctrine and Protestant, specifically when focusing on the Ghost of King Hamlet and the death of Ophelia. Although Denmark and Shakespeares audience were historically Protestant, the subtle lacing of Catholic allusions suggests the remaining ties to the Catholic Church, if not in outward affiliation, then in lingering culture. Resultantly, Shakespeares audience would have empathized with Hamlets internal struggles with depression and guilt, establishing the play as a dark look into their own philosophical ambivalence. Hamlet tracks the gloom of a forlorn Prince as he looks death in the face as both a victim and a vigilante. Hamlets conflicts bridge worldly misfortune and existential woe through deep character development, clever plot devices, and the subtle weaving of religious significance.