I was talking to someone who said that Hamlet is Shakespeare's

>>9657025

What?

If anything, he's Shakespeare's most self-aware. Whoever you were talking to is retarded.

craft your own arguments or dont talk to anyone again

>>9657054
He is not Shakespeare's most self-aware character. I'd argue Brutus is more self-aware.

>>9657025

No. I'd say Falstaff and Hal are. Hamlet is an interesting character but works, he's another tragic hero archetype.

Richard II changes for me from arrogant tyrant to a melancholy man who knows how bad of a leader he is every time I read the play
I've written like 5 essays on it

Most complex may be a stretch, but he is complex and his character is important as Hamlet is a character driven play.

>>9657025
I strongly disagree. The title of the most complex character goes to Falstaff.

>>9657025
Complexity is in the eyes of the beholdere. (Just like complexion.)

Not at all. Hamlet is somewhat multifaceted as a character, but the core of Hamlet as a work is political commentary on the English court which Shakespeare himself had only limited meaningful knowledge of and had even less free reign to criticize.

I'd say Prospero is a good candidate, but I'll also admit I've not read all the Shakespeare I should

I'd say that he can be a complex character, because watching him fall apart as the line between "pretending to be insane" and "being insane" grows more and more blurry, but he's not super complicated to understand or anything. His motivations are straightforward, even if his methods are bizarre.

>>9657054
How does self-awareness bar a character from being a complex one?

>>9657721
Deep.

>>9657249
That line
'subjected thus
how can you tell me that I am a king'
is Shakespeare's purest moment of anagnorisis

>>9657226

Hamlet literally knows he's in a cliche revenge drama and tries to act out a better one.

>>9657236
>Hal
>>9657744
>this whole fucking post
>fucking PROSPERO

Cringed hard

>>9658136

Richard never realizes what he really is; he is too caught up in the performance of himself to actually understand himself.

>>9657054
>>9657744
pseuds

OP needs to clarify what he means by "complex" because Hamlet is complex in how he views justice and mortality, and the inability to distinguish if he's totally insane or if he's faking it and when does add depth to the character, but for some reason I find Timon to be a much more engaging character, and even though his motivations seem simple and everything does make logical sense, to see the extent to which he gives up on humanity and everything is baffling and so unrealistic I'd call that "complexity" too.

But Shakespeare's characters are fulfilling roles and I dont think, even with Hamlet, Shakespeare was trying to create a totally realistic person, he was just trying to bring introspection to the stage