self-knowledge

This is an old question, but a good one. Hamlet is depressed at the beginning of the play and at the end of the play. Hamlet's melancholy, however, takes on quite different meanings. At the beginning of the play Hamlet is all like (I paraphrase here) “I hate my Uncle, my mom is a strumpet, I wear black all the time look at my inky cloak". As the play progresses Hamlet reflects endlessly on the nature of man. There is a space where Hamlet likes to pretend he's a tough guy. After a soliloquy calling himself a coward, he decides to man up and get some real vengeance. Hamlet's new resolve fades towards the end of the play. Hamlet is still weary of life, and perhaps the world, but with more reflection. Death isn't scary rather he quips about how there is "special providence in the fall of a sparrow". The inevitability of death makes his "undiscovered country" almost sacred. By the end of the play, Hamlet gets to be a little like his action hero Fotinbras; he kills the king and Laertes. The Hamlet that is carried off the stage as a soldier could have used some Prozac a couple of acts before but, before his death, understood his world much better.