The character of Hamlet in William Shakespeare's play has been an enigma since the birth of the play. His inability to act, and his tendency to over analyse situations leads to the main events of the play. Schlegal is of the opinion that his distress is due to a lack of "firm belief in himself or anything else." Schlegal would appear to predominantly base this view on Hamlet's initial misanthropic and frequently suicidal speeches near the beginning of the play. Lines such as, "O that this too solid flesh would melt, thaw and resolve itself into a dew" certainly indicate a lack of optimism, as do his views upon the world in his first soliloquy, "How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world." He considers Earth to be like...