William Shakespeare, who was one of the world’s prolific playwright and poet’s; living in the late 1500s and early 1600’s, he wrote tremendously about the human condition (how people think and behave), this then is translated into his works.  Act IV scene V, is one of my favorite scenes where his passion for human condition overtakes his work creating a very deep connection between reader and author.  Here the connection between the health of a state and the moral legitimacy of its ruler really stand in the foreground as well as many other plays on human condition.

Claudius is rotten, and as a result, Denmark is rotten too.  At the beginning of Act IV, scene v, things have palpably darkened for the nation: Hamlet is gone, Polonius is dead and has been buried in secret, Ophelia is raving mad, and, as Claudius tells us, the common people are disturbed and murmuring among themselves. This ominous turn of events leads to the truncated, miniature rebellion that accompanies Laertes’ return to Denmark.

This is where the reader can really come to grasp Shakespeare’s obsession with human condition. What Shakespeare juxtaposes as thematic elements are various dualities of life such as image and reality, god-like and bestial, remembrance and oblivion, resolution (thought) and action, blood and judgment, nobility of war and savagery of revenge. Hamlet’s youthful idealism runs into this duplicitous world of adults and the hi-jinx ensue’s.  This mastery of themes which incorporates his own interests created by Shakespeare goes many times undetected because of the skill and sheer brilliance of him, but as we peel back the layers we can begin to truly appreciate Shakespeare’s use of themes as a way for the reader to become closer with him.  Outside of the deep thoughts that were generated during Hamlet’s most famous scene it is through this act and scene that my appreciation of Shakespeare as a person was peaked.