This peak of drama is an exploration into the human soul, emphasizing emotions such as remorse, rancour, the need for revenge, and folly. Long before existentialism, Hamlet asks for the meaning of existence: what it is and why existence exists.
The dramatic tension is perfectly crafted and sustained; Shakespeare's sentences are also perfect and magnificent; the scenes eternal: Hamlet's encounter with the ghost of his father; his monologue on "to be or not to be"; Ophelia's death and burial; the theatrical representaiton of Claudius's sin; the climax at the duel. Hamlet is one of those works of art which have done the magic of becoming part of the popular, "subconscious" culture, much as "Don Quixote", the "Divine Comedy" or the classic Greek tragedies. Without regard to the actual number of people that read them, these works belong to us all because they have been determinant in the shaping of our culture.