Os Costumes como determinantes do ser em Hamlet

Abstract

This paper intends to produce a reflexive analysis of the Customs as determinant of the Being in Hamlet (1601), by William Shakespeare (1564-1616). This discussion aims to suggest a reading based on the philosophy of Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900) and Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) with their visions of Nihilism and Pessimism, which are widely seen inside the play we have as our study object, which influenced the mentioned philosophers. “To be or not to be, that’s the question.” This quote pushed us into the theme we have used to develop this paper. The plays of Shakespeare unravel the essence of what was, afterwards, popularized and properly theorized by the existentialist philosophy which had in Sartre (1905-1980), under the influence of Heidegger’s (1889-1976) phenomenology, its theorization itself, what is worth to be observed, once the term was already used by various philosophical concepts (since Socrates up to contemporary philosophers such as Schopenhauer and Nietzsche), in which we find its elements – the existence and the subject as a starting point to explain the world itself, which is seen as meaningless and not susceptible to be abstracted. To discuss what may take the Customs as determinant of this Being to the author helps us to achieve the necessary understanding of one of the best writers of what we call universal literature.