Grief, despair, rage, cunning, passionate intensity, and cool thought in Hamlet . . . Hamlet passes through all these states and emerges the hero of, not just the play, but his own life. Why am I here, he asks. What’s it all about? If Hamlet is indeed the greatest play by the greatest of dramatists, it is perhaps because the prince dares to ask these primal questions and demands authentic answers. Are we obliged to ask these questions too? That is the eternal challenge the prince holds up.