Hamlet: That Little Bitch

By: Alex

Graphic by Emily

Upon expressing my excitement for reading Hamlet for a third time for a college English class, one of my high school friends did not share my excitement. Instead, he only responded, “Is Hamlet still a little bitch?”

As we were classmates in AP Lit senior year, Hamlet, one of our main texts, became the butt of all jokes. By the time we finished that play, no one wanted to read anything ever again. Though my classmates would be super bummed to re-read a story that they hated so much, I could never tell them how excited I was to dive back into this goldmine. For, there is no other character that I know who can explain the indecision and ambivalence of angst as well as Hamlet.

Hamlet, a young prince, returns home from college for his father’s funeral, only to find out that his father’s brother, Claudius, is the one who murdered the king, and Hamlet’s mother/King Hamlet’s wife is now remarried to Claudius. Hamlet has been betrayed and abandoned by everyone he has grown to love. He spends most of the story trying to figure out how to avenge his father’s death and gain some sort of purpose from his newly empty life, but in doing so, he treats the people around him very coldly. Hamlet becomes wrapped up in his own head, he wants to do his own thing, so his relationships with the remaining people in his life who care about him suffer, giving him a spoiled exterior, but a troubled interior.

Like any tragic coming-of-age character, Hamlet questions his purpose, all while trying to gain approval from those around him in an attempt to validate himself. The bother of living up to this and proving himself leads to deep, prolonged musings-- a fancy way of saying, ANGST. When we experience angst, we think way too much, mostly about what we should be doing but aren’t, all the things we’re doing wrong, and all the things we’re missing out on.

This idea of angst is something I can really identify with.  Hamlet’s character is so real that he actually makes me feel something when I read. So because I (and Emily) identify with Hamlet so well, does that make me a ‘little bitch?’ I am like Hamlet. I don’t know what I’m doing, I can’t make a decision, and I contemplate life at the most inappropriate times… yes, sounds just like Hamlet. But somehow Hamlet’s heroic quest to figure out who he is comes off as annoying and rude.

Does Hamlet’s indecision make him a coward? Does my ambivalence make me weak? Though Hamlet is our protagonist, he does not end triumphantly, and that says something about the power of angst. Is someone who is so overwhelmed by feelings in a changing world unfit to be the hero for our readers? I think this is why so many find Hamlet annoying—because he was not able to shake the angst and man up, and in doing so, treated those around him like they didn’t matter.

But I am here to say that I support Hamlet. We can’t always be the ‘yes man.’ It is not always our responsibility to make decisions right away. We have every right to wallow in worry and even feel sorry for ourselves for being so conflicted. That’s what angst is. Of course, no one enjoys it, but how would we be anything but ordinary if we cast away every situation that required just a little thought?

The thing about angst is that it can be debilitating or it can be empowering. It can be debilitating in the sense that Hamlet was controlled by it. Which is what caused his indecision and probably what caused my AP Lit class to call him a ‘little bitch.’ But angst can also be empowering. Hamlet learned so much about himself in the time he returned home to redeem his reputation from tragedy.  The angst helped Hamlet become enlightened.

So just because Hamlet and I struggle with the anxiety of worrying too much about our futures doesn’t lessen our worth as people. I’m just worried about what I’m doing with my life, whereas Hamlet is worried about dealing with tragedy at home and how to become a man despite that situation. Though different anxieties, if anything, we should feel better that real problems actually make us feel something; that we are concerned enough about the world that we feel burdened by its well-being and the part we can play in making an impact on the people in it. For Hamlet and me, it’s about the bigger picture and for what its worth, I love that little bitch.