Hamlet Analysis: Nietzsche, Socrates, Absurdity, Art

Full text of the analysis: http://thehumanfiction.wordpress.com/2011/08/28/shakespeares-hamlet-analysis-...

This video is about the interlinking of themes in Hamlet, Nietzsche, and Socrates. The two principle ones are the absurdity of life and the use of art to guide us through it.

All images and video used were from the public domain.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• shakespeare
• hamlet
• analysis
• commentary
• nietzsche
• socrates
• absurdity
• art

[mrbrianmoran]

One may have a desire to reduce human suffering for example,One may think humans are cruel,but I think its factual to say that humans (through medicine) have prevented far more suffering than they have caused,and with this success we get overpopulation and more challanges.Personally I see suffering as the guardrails of intelligence.Some years ago I had a desire to change things but those desires change completely with differnt insights that in an absolute sense the world has changed

[TheHumanFiction]

@mrbrianmoran The desire to contribute to something larger than yourself is noble. But technology (and most "advances") have a cruel downside. For example, the pharmaceutical companies that force old people into poverty to pay for their meds, the fact that factories used to build new gadgets pollute our earth and give people asthma. I think much of the bad that happens in the world comes from good intentions, but the world doesn't fit our mental models. Thanks for all your interesting comments!

[mrbrianmoran]

Physics cant demonstrate the existance of a solid world,the very atoms seem to have no substance,Its strange how shakespeare repeats the Idea "we are the stuff that dreams are made on "I re-read Zarathustra today each time I read it is seems vaster than the previous read.You may like a book called 'I am that" by sri Nisargadatta Maharaj". I also Like Hamlet,I remember getting totally immersed in Kenneth Brannaghs version.its strange how people are drawn to Sha,Nie and Soc. could also add Chomsky

[TheHumanFiction]

@mrbrianmoran I agree with your thoughts on the universe--the idea of solids is only a delusion, but so is the importance of any single person, objectively. How many have tried to change things before? Billions. How many have changed humanity, the larger course of nature? Zero. The impact of an indivudal is tiny. Native Americans never heard of the Roman Empire, for example. Chomsky can study language but not change the way we speak. That's what I mean. But I will check out your recommendation!

[mrbrianmoran]

@TheHumanFiction Why should a single person change the world?The desire to change the world is concieved by the same mind that causes the world(human world) to be as it is.The desire for change is motivated by pleasure and pain, never by Intelligence.Its true that a single person has a tiny impact on the collective perception but not on the true perception.It is fear and pleasure that makes us overestimate the significance of the collective perception...but im not sure

[TheHumanFiction]

@mrbrianmoran I was trying to say that our desires to change things/humanity are at the heart of the absurdity of life, the rat race we get caught up in because of the impossibility. On this I think we agree. I wasn't trying to lament the fact that I (or anyone else) can't change humanity. I'm not sure I understand "true perception"...you mean change at the individual level?

[mimjack]

Awesome thinking. thanks!!! (I have my Hamlet exam tomorrow, I'm on a desperate attempt to grasp every little word I get)

[mrbrianmoran]

I believe Rationality has infinite possibilities, an unexamined mind who believes it is being rational but is unaware of its underlying irrationality will end up in disorder.A mind that is not aware of the depth of the infleuence of fear and pleasure may believe it is being rational and then believe that rationality leads to irrationality,or checkmate its own will to act.But the actions of a rational mind will appear incoherant to the unexamined mind.To "know thyself" is an endless task

[mrbrianmoran]

by "true perception" a"more insightful perception".If I were the King of spain in the 15th centuary and I wanted to dispell the fears my sailors had of falling of the earth,I could try all kinds of tricks and drugs,but the only thing that would work is to communicate the true nature of the earths shape.I could not change the world without this knowledge,yet with this knowledge the correct action becomes natural and the fears cannot be recreated (assuming the priests stay away)

[mrbrianmoran]

Sorry if I misunderstand you (very possible),I hope I dont sound antagonistic.I agree that our "desire" to change things is absurd,but our dispassionate curiosity to change things and understand things can be spectacularly successful ( in science),yet with the same immature desires these successes could wipe us out,but this would be a natural result,we would join the other attempts life has made and life will try again,one death is all we have regardless of our egos,Thanx for your reply

[TheHumanFiction]

@mrbrianmoran You make a good observation about Hamlet. I think you are correct that he had some flashes of insight, in his madness, but he was incapable of holding on to them as he returned to his base state of consciousness. I think it also fits into the theme of "rationality leads to irrationality." As for the overman, Nietzsche does explicitly say the he laughs at the absurdity of the world (like Zarathustra does)--we don't know what they are thinking but we can hear them laugh....cont.