Hamlet 2.2

I will tell you why: so shall my anticipation

Prevent your discovery and your secrecy to the king

And queen moult no feather. I have of late—but

Wherefore I know not—lost all my mirth, forgone all

Custom of exercises; and indeed it goes so heavily

With my disposition that this goodly frame, the

Earth, seems to me a sterile promontory,

This most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave

O'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted

With golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to

Me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.

What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason!

How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how

Expresss and admirable! In action how like an angel!

In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the

World! The paragon of animals! And yet, to me,

What is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not

Me: no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling

You seem to say so."

(2.2.293-312)

This is one of my favorite speech from Hamlet in many aspects, at least to me, there seems to be a connection between this speech, and Macbeth's "tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow," speech. I may be reaching, but I have since perceived both speeches to allude to the search of meaning in a world where reality and the appearance of reality is always in question. Hence, the absurdist* in me finds Shakespeare's tragic vision of man compelling, because in spite of the world's beauty…of the mystery that is man, in the end what are we left with?  In the end…"what is this quintessence of dust?" Is it simply this, a "tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury/signifying nothing" (Macbeth 5.5.26-27)? When one looks at the "slings and arrows" that is suffered onto man it is difficult not to fathom, and at least in some way share the bard's tragic vision of the world. 

Notwithstanding, the humanist in me, however, is in the same frame of mind as Picard, of the Star Trek Generations, that man can transcend this tragic existence. Therefore what Shakespeare would, through Hamlet, say with irony, I see as a declaration of what we, as humans ,may one day become "What a piece of work is a man!, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving, how express and admirable in action how like an angel in apprehension, how like a god" (2.2.303-307)