Online Great Books Podcast

Scott and Producer Trent wrap up their discussion of Shakespeare's Hamlet, close-reading Hamlet's soliloquies and dissecting the structure of Shakespeare's verse. They reflect on Shakespeare's impact on modern literature, the curiously secular perspective of the play in a highly religious time period, and whether Shakespeare sought to moralize or draw conclusions (spoiler: we don't think he does).   You can't read Hamlet and not talk about the most famous of his soliloquies, the "To Be or Not to Be?" speech at the heart of the play, both literally and figuratively. A surface level reading suggests that Hamlet is contemplating suicide at this moment of the play, having come to no certain conclusions about the best way to resolve his dilemma -- his father murdered, his mother's loyalty in doubt, and many of his friends suspect. It's an understandable position, but perhaps Hamlet is also touching on something deeper, a question of existence; whether humans would be better off having never existed, rather than fa