A Fellow of Infinite Jest

     Hamlet should be funnier.

     And the truth is that the character is quite funny.  Since the clowns in this play don't appear until the fifth act, the majority of the comic relief rests squarely on his shoulders.  It's difficult to find a scene in which Hamlet isn't cracking wise.  But due to the character's reputation for being the Melancholy Dane his jokes are largely ignored or, at best, treated as part of an acerbic wit instead of played as being genuine attempts to amuse.

     Hamlet frequently talks to amuse himself.  He even, on occasion, attempts to amuse his friends.  He jokes around with Horatio even when speaking of the core element of his grief in Act 1.  He trades jokes with his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern upon their arrival in Act 2.  He constantly pokes fun at himself and others.  Yet these are frequently played as though Hamlet were sparring with inferior minds rather than enjoying himself and the company of those around him.

     Too much weight is given to Hamlet the somber grieving prince.  Too much weight is given to his statements of melancholy "man delights not me", "how weary, stale, flat and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world".  These are true sentiments, and they must be treated as such.  But we must also remember that at the end of both of those speeches comes exclamations of unrestrained joy at the arrival of friends.  At the end of each bout of melancholy comes a moment of forgetful happiness.

     Hamlet's complexity is enhanced by his contradictions.  We should not lose his sense of humor for the sake of smoothing those contradictions out.  The play will be all the more enjoyable for it.