Hamlet?

[Robert]

I was wondering about Hamlet's character type. Possibly an INTP?

I think Introvert, Intuitive and Perceiver are all obvious. Most of the play consists of his own internal soliloquies, which consist most often of theorizing and self-doubt. The question between whether he's a thinker or a feeler is more difficult. Although Hamlet is characterized as the prototypical 'emo kid', obsessed with his own emotions, etc., that's obviously based on a shallow knowledge and not a close reading of the play. Many parts of the play consist entirely in his showing a complete lack of feeling. For much of the play he is incapable of rousing himself into the proper feeling suggested by his uncle's murdering his father and commit himself to the vengeance he knows it is his duty to exact. This is why the play is so long, and is often commented on by people who read the play as confusing. Another startling element of his personality is how utterly unfeeling he is capable of being towards Ophelia, responding with a coldness to her that shows a willful denial of her emotional position in the goings-on and only connecting her theoretically with his father's betrayal through her father's supporting his uncle in spying on him. When she later kills herself as a result of his actions he overreacts emotionally, insulting her brother at the funeral, claiming that he felt most for her, which seems absurd considering his actions - possibly it is the result of guilt for how callously and cruelly he played with her emotions while she was alive. Anyway, this could benefit from more discussion.

If I'm right and he is an INTP this possibly solves the question of INTP main characters. One of the greatest and most discussed main characters of the entirety of literature would be an INTP!

 

[Beat Mango]

I brought up Hamlet in the fictional characters thread. I think yes, however, remember that he's under a lot of stress because of the situation he's in, so he may not be acting his usual self. A lot of people act reclusive and think too much under stress (we had a similar discussion about Will Smith's character in Seven Pounds).

 

[Ermine]

I agree with BM. A big part of his personality in the play is the fact that he's under a lot of stress and is acting insane. We don't really see Hamlet in a comfortable natural state. If I had to guess, he could easily be a polar opposite of the INTP under a lot of stress.

He definitely exhibits INTP traits, perhaps INFP. I say INFP because a lot of his motives seem to be moral. For example, a lot of his anger is not only from the fact that his uncle killed his father, but because he thinks his mother is being unfaithful, even though his father is dead.

 

[Robert]

I'm not sure we're ever led in the play to believe there's been a massive change in his personality, only that he's more given to grief than the other characters believe is natural. But that's natural in terms of human beings, not natural in terms of Hamlet's character. Hamlet seems pretty in control of his faculties as far as I can tell. And he decides to act insane part way through, which explains the nonsense speeches (I know there's method in the nonsense) to Polonius & Ophelia.

Not sure about his motives being moral in a 'feeling' sense.

It seems more that he's motivated by deep feelings that he's not completely in control of, which is typical to INTPs, in whom feeling takes residence primarily in the unconscious.

In support of this, consider the speech with his mother, in which he says many painful things to her without any concern for the hurt he causes her, indeed going on after she pleads with him to stop: 'O Speak to me no more! / These words like daggers enter into my ears.' (a description that interestingly enough parallels a several online descriptions of the INTP's ability to use words in a scathing manner). The Ghost of his father appears at this point and tells him to look at his mother, the implication is to feel for her in the position she's in:

GHOST

[...] But look, amazement on thy mother sits!
O step between her and her fighting soul.
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works.
Speak to her, Hamlet.

He acts in pretty horrendous ways at various points also. His response to murdering Polonius by mistake for example is very cold, contrasting his state as a corpse to his idiocy when alive:

HAMLET

I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room.
Mother, goodnight indeed. This councillor
Is now most still, most secret and most grave,
Who was in life a most foolish prating knave.
Come sir, to draw toward an end with you.

And at one point he is considering killing Claudius when he is praying. But then decides not to, reasoning that if he kills him while he is praying, he will be forgiven his sins and go to heaven. So instead he plans to wait till Claudius is in the height of sinning and then kill him, ensuring he'll go to hell. That suggests a T-type personality. We might reason it was actually pity working on Hamlet at this point, but the pity being unconscious and only manifesting itself in such a logical argument is again suggestive of an INTP ...

Another bit of evidence in support for considering him a Thinker imo is his obsession with the difference between the emotional 'forms' displayed by those around him and his own genuine inner emotion:

HAMLET

'Seems,' madam -- nay it is, I know not 'seems'.
'Tis not alone my inky cloak, cold mother,
Nor customary suits of solemn black,
Nor the fruitful river in the eye,
Nor the dejected haviour of the visage,
Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief,
That can denote me truly. These indeed 'seem',
For they are actions that a man might play,
But I have within that which passes show,
These but the trappings and the suits of woe.