Harbage on Hamlet

My most recent reading on Hamlet is Alfred Harbage's essay "As They Liked it:  An Essay on Shakespeare and Morality," excerpted in Hamlet:  Enter Critic.  In it, Harbage discusses the subject of Hamlet's dilemma in particular and the field of Hamlet criticism in general.  As Harbage puts it,

"Hamlet's dilemma is so obliquely treated that no two people can see it in precisely the same way, and no agreement will ever be reached on the exact element of which it is composed."

Further, Harbage states:

"The area of agreement about Hamlet includes, one should suppose, the belief that it tells an absorbing story full of arresting episodes in magnificent language."

The bulk of the essay excerpted here centers on one topic:  Why does not Hamlet slay Claudius now?  To that end, Harbage offers numerous answers.  He finds that although plausible answers may be justified within the text, they prove contradictory.  Ultimately, we are left attempting to read Shakespeare's mind.

Harbage's summation is a wonderful statement on Hamlet, the character, and Hamlet, the play.  It speaks to why both continue to interest readers to this day.

"[Shakespeare] has left this man, who is sad and gay, arrogant and humble, cruel and kind, brutal and tender, who can mock the aged but forbid others from doing so, who can talk bawdry but worship purity, who can kill, 'lug the guts into the neighbor room,' and then 'weep for what is done' as something for us to consider--an enduring moral enigma.  It is the most astonishing balancing feat in literature, and the play provides more pleasurable excitement than any other in the world."