Hamlet kao dionizijski čovjek / Hamlet as the Dionysian Man

Abstract

This paper offers a discussion of the image of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy. In his book on tragedy, Nietzsche mentions Hamlet only in passing, so this is essentially an attempt to further elaborate some of Nietzsche’s basic theses. The paper is framed as a dialogue with Katie Brennan’s article Nietzsche’s Hamlet Puzzle: Life Affirmation in The Birth of Tragedy. Although the analyses in that article prove highly stimulating, this paper problematizes its approach to Shakespeare with the aim of offering alternative possibilities of interpretation. Brennan, in her reading of Shakespeare’s play, insists primarily on the significance of the Mousetrap scene as the key moment for bringing Hamlet closer to Nietzsche’s reflections on Dionysian knowledge. According to such an interpretation, Hamlet acts solely as an artist, which is then linked to Nietzsche’s discussions of art. In contrast, this paper, following Nietzsche’s views on tragedy more broadly, seeks to consider the entirety of Shakespeare’s drama, rather than the Mousetrap as a single fragment. The focus is placed on the relationship between Hamlet and the Ghost, and on the vengeance demanded by that relationship, with an additional discussion devoted to the ending of Shakespeare’s play. The aim of this paper is not merely to refute Brennan’s theses about Shakespeare’s Hamlet, although some of her significant claims will be questioned. Given that Brennan, as a Nietzsche scholar, understandably places the emphasis on Nietzsche, this paper attempts to deepen the analysis of Shakespeare’s Hamlet itself, which in turn leads to several new conclusions.