Hamlet Reader Response Critical Debate

Hamlet Reader Response Critical Debate
Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, is one of the most critically debated plays of all time. The tragedy centers on young Hamlet’s quest to avenge his father. During the course of the play, though, Hamlet seems to become engrossed in almost everything but revenge, lending to the ambiguity of the play. The most effective way to interpret the proper meaning of Hamlet is to use reader-response criticism because reader-response criticism allows the reader to determine where the meaning of the story resides by focusing on the text and the initial reactions it evokes.
In order to understand meaning below the textual surface of Hamlet, a reader must be able to make inferences about what is being implied. Reader response is the best way to make inferences about the meaning of Hamlet because it allows the reader to determine meaning from the ambiguity while reading and interpreting the text. Reader-response criticism holds that individual reactions of Hamlet change as the story progresses, and different readers interpret its meaning differently. This means that the meaning a person derives from Hamlet will certainly be different from the meaning a different reader comes up with. One meaning will not necessarily be better or worse, just different from each other.
Throughout the play, Hamlet displays an antic disposition. Critics have long debated whether, in his quest to avenge his father, whether he actually became crazy or if he really was just acting. A reader response view of Hamlet’s antic disposition allows readers to make that decision for themselves. Hamlet displays his antic disposition in Act 2 scene 2 when he pretends to not know Polonius and calls him a fishmonger. When reading this scene, it may seem that Hamlet is truly mad, but taking a reader-response view of it allows the reader to see that what Hamlet is saying actually makes sense. A fishmonger is a euphamism for a person who is dishonest and gains from using others to...