Hamlet's Existentialist Visions Do we count? Will everything we do last? These are questions of existentialism. The dictionary defines existentialism as “the plight of the individual who must assume ultimate responsibility for his acts of free will without any certain knowledge of what is right or wrong, good or bad” (Merriam Webster). In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet struggles with the concept that nothing in our lives lasts and time sweeps away everything. Hamlet's main conflict was his existentialist view of the world. A prince of Denmark has any value if "Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returns to the dust; the dust is earth; from the earth we make dirt; and because of that dirt, to which he converted, they could not perhaps stopper a barrel of beer ?The imperious Caesar, dead and turned to clay, could plug a hole to keep out the wind" (V. i. 206-209)? Hamlet has seen examples of lives crumbling to dust. Twenty thousand men and twenty thousand ducats are spent on "A small plot of land that has no profit in it other than the name. To pay five ducats, five, I would not cultivate it." (IV. iiii. 19-21). These lives are spent for nothing and even Hamlet's father, a good and wise king, was murdered leaving Hamlet alone in mourning for a long time. The king's wife said, "Seek your noble father in the dust: you know he is common; all that lives must die, passing through nature to eternity." (I. ii. 72-74) and later encourages Hamlet to stop pretending to cry for his father. Hamlet protests that he feels real sorrow for his father, but fears that his father's life is already becoming meaningless. This existentialist view of the world forced Hamlet to overanalyze before the action... middle of the paper... Hamlet died believing his life counted for nothing. Works cited and consulted: Bloom, Harold. Introduction. Modern critical interpretations: Hamlet. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986.Bradley., AC Shakespearean Tragedy: Lessons on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth. New York: Penguin Books, 1991.Burton, Philip. "Hamlet." The only voice. New York: The Dial Press, 1970. Page No. http://www.freehomepages.com/hamlet/other/burton-hamlet.htmMack, Maynard. "Hamlet's World." Yale Review. vol. 41 (1952) p. 502-23. Rpt. in Shakespeare: Modern Essays in Criticism. Rev. ed. Ed. Leonard F. Dean. New York: Oxford University P., 1967.Shakespeare, William. The tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http://www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html