The Spirit of HamletWe remember Shakespeare's characters above all for their enormously complex personalities. Hamlet, with his internal conflicts, indecision, wit, and passive-aggressive behavior, is one of Shakespeare's most memorable characters. Yet so much attention has been given to Hamlet's internal conflict - whether or not he should kill his uncle - that much of his personality is easy to overlook. Hamlet's wit affects the audience in several scenes throughout the play and not only provides the reader with a greater understanding of Hamlet's deepest feelings, but greater insight into the play itself. In the first lines of the play, Hamlet expresses his deepest feelings through his wit. Hamlet's sarcastic conversation with Claudius and Gertrude makes the reader understand that he is extremely unhappy with the relationship between his uncle and his mother. Specifically, when Claudius refers to Hamlet as his "son", Hamlet uses the word "sun" such that Claudius could also interpret the word "sun" as the word "son", which would imply that Hamlet was happy of being Claudio's newly adopted son. Hamlet is obviously being sarcastic, because Hamlet resents Claudius for marrying his mother and referring to him as his "son" (1.2.62-67). Hamlet has just spoken the first lines of the play and Shakespeare is already showing the witty side of Hamlet's personality. This shows how important Hamlet's spirit is to understanding Hamlet's character. Shakespeare uses Hamlet's sarcastic remarks to portray Hamlet as cunning and to foreshadow how Hamlet will most likely deal with any problems that may arise later in the play. Hamlet, while conversing with other characters, reveals... half of the paper.. ....discover that Hamlet is not so much full of indecision as he is implementing his well thought out strategy to capture his revenge. Works Cited Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. Lectures and notes on Shakspere and other English poets. London: George Bell and Sons, 1904. p. 342-368. http://ds.dial.pipex.com/thomas_larque/ham1-col.htmGordon, Edward J. Introduction to Tragedy. Rochelle Park, NJ: Hayden Book Co., Inc., 1973.---. "Psychoanalytic Criticism and Hamlet". Wofford. 241-251.Jorgensen, Paul A. "Hamlet." William Shakespeare: the tragedies. Boston: Twayne Publ., 1985. Page no. http://www.freehomepages.com/hamlet/other/jorg-hamlet.htmlLevin, Harry. General introduction. The bank of the Shakespeare River. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1974.Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Ed. TJB Spencer. New York: Penguin, 1996.