Hamlet is essentially the story of a young man trying to avenge the death of his father. In this story, Shakespeare has incorporated complex themes, such as the mystery of death, the complexity of action and the impossibility of certainty through various techniques: structure, characterisation, soliloquies, setting and imagery. Shakespeare has also used these techniques to serve another purpose - to enable the reader to sympathise with Hamlet despite his melancholic view of life, aggressive mood swings, and over-reflective temperament.

Hamlet is a very pensive individual. He is a man who is drawn to difficult questions or questions that cannot be answered with any certainty. For example, in Act 3, Scene 1 Hamlet ponders whether suicide is an option to end the pain of life in the "To be or not to...