Existence, Contingency and Mourning in Cavell's 'Hamlet'

Abstract

Shakespeare’s Hamlet has fascinated philosophers, from Hegel to Nietzsche, from Benjamin to Carl Schmitt, and more recently taken up in French thought by Derrida and Deleuze. It is the play that Freud sets as the modern correlate of his interpretation of Oedipus. Cavell’s short essay ‘Hamlet’s Burden of Proof’ is far less discussed than his other readings of Shakespeare’s plays such as ‘The Avoidance of Love in King Lear’ and “Othello and the Stake of the Other.” It centers on the implications to be drawn from the play within the play, performed “to catch the conscience of the King.”