Nietzschean Revaluations of <i>Hamlet</i> : On Skepticism and Suffering

Abstract Nietzsche’s comments on Shakespeare’s Hamlet reveal a subtle shift in his thinking about skepticism. In The Gay Science and Beyond Good and Evil Nietzsche describes Hamlet pejoratively as a skeptic who manifests the values of Christian morality and the acetic ideal. Yet in Ecce Homo and Nietzsche Contra Wagner, Nietzsche revalues Hamlet as someone whose suffering imparts certainty, nobility, and poignancy. Nietzsche’s writings on skepticism are equally ambiguous and, when read together with Nietzsche’s comments on Hamlet, reflect a revaluation of skepticism and suffering between his earlier (1882–86) writings and his final writings of 1888. In 1888, Nietzsche associates both Hamlet and skepticism with “certainty.” This “certainty” is a form of self-assurance, rooted in the passions, that allows one to be strong enough to experiment with new perspectives without becoming subject to fanatical convictions.