Interpreting Hamlet

In German eighteenth-century culture, Shakespeare’s work was translated, staged, and discussed with a passion that has remained unrivaled. Philosophy was no exception to this trend. In the second half of the eighteenth century, Lessing, Herder, and Schlegel all turned to Shakespeare’s work and used it as an anchoring point for reflection on theater and dramatic poetry. In different ways, they came to see Hamlet a work that captured the dynamics of modern life, especially its emphasis on interpretation, relativism, and the threat of nihilism. The changing attitudes toward Hamlet reflect, in turn, a changing attitude toward interpretation and understanding, as these topics are addressed in Shakespeare’s work and in eighteenth-century aesthetics and philosophy more broadly speaking.