The Real World In Maynard Mack's The World Of Hamlet

Maynard Mack’s essay, The World of Hamlet, is in fact about Hamlet’s world. He focuses exclusively on the imaginative setting that is entered when one experiences Shakespeare’s play. The microcosm of people, as well as their circumstances, actions and feelings all work together to create a realistic realm. Hamlet’s world, like the real world, is one of “mysteriousness” (343), “problematic nature of reality and the relation of reality to appearance” (345), as well as “mortality” (351). Mack's technique is to point out how each of the three attributes of Hamlet’s world construct a deeper meaning than what is readily apparent. While discussing the attribute of mystery, he writes, “man in his aspect of bafflement, moving in darkness on a rampart