The self is a very difficult subject to describe favorably. It is essentially understood through a collective experience rather than a concrete definition. Society refers to one's “personal identity” as what makes a person the person they are, what makes a person different from others. Hamlet, William Shakespeare's tragic play, introduces a variety of characters who struggle to define their inner selves. The play's protagonist, Hamlet himself, is a character whose actions and inactions are driven by his struggle to define himself in the dichotomy of inner and outer identity. The question of “who is there,” a question posed at first externally from one character to another, is the question Hamlet asks himself throughout the play, and Hamlet's thoughts and actions are windows into this mindset. Hamlet is a character threatened by this question and by the dichotomy of the definition of identity between the external man, who is the cultural subject man, and the internal man, who is the conscience. Throughout the play, Hamlet is at war with the search for meaning in these dual concepts of identity, but Hamlet's thoughts, words, and actions, in opposition to himself and the other characters, convey that, for Hamlet, the reality of identity resides within the individual, and that at the end of the play, when he states, "This am I, / Hamlet the Dane!", ultimately reinforces the philosophical claim that identity exists in consciousness and in the self. Personal identity, especially Hamlet's conversation with his father's ghost, the implications of Hamlet's madness, and Hamlet's final confrontations with Laertes beside Ophelia's grave, show the progression of Hamlet's mindset on personal identity. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Hamlet's opening lines, "arise and open," immediately open up the theme of identity in the text. The question of internal versus external identity is made complex by the very nature of the problem because in this context identity is not simple, but polarized. That is, a total concept is compromised whose two contrasting aspects are the public and the private, or what the character Claudio calls "the external man" and "the internal man". To address this problem in Hamlet and answer the question of identity at a fundamental level, it is necessary to first determine the connection and dichotomy of the internal and external dimensions of identity. Seventeenth-century philosopher John Locke, in his philosophical work “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding,” provides an argument for inner identity, stating: “Consciousness creates personal identity…For, since consciousness always accompanies thought , and it is that which causes everyone to be what he calls self, and thereby distinguishes himself from all other thinking things, consists only in personal identity, that is, in the identity of a rational being: and to the extent that this consciousness can be extended backwards to any past action or thought, that far extends that person's identity; it is the same self now that it was then…” In this statement Locke is saying that identity not only exists in consciousness, wherever it may exist, but consists entirely in consciousness. Contemporary philosophy professor Elizabeth Wolgast, in her philosophical article “Personal Identity: Many Criteria,” provides explanations for many of the ways society defines the self, from practical to idealistic criteria, and states: “Each of us is a particular and lasting individual". person. We change in many ways over time... but our identity remains the same... a center thatencompasses what is most intimately involved in someone's conscious life." In this statement Wolgast makes a similar point to Locke's that, although one changes in many ways over time, identity remains constant in the self. In contrast to these points of View, the English theorists Jeffrey T. Nealon and Susan Searls Giroux, in the chapter on “Subjectivity” in their analytic theory-based textbook The Theory Toolbox, discuss the dichotomy between the “self” and the “subject,” as factions of identity, stating: “We tend to think of the 'self' as that which is primary, untouched by cultural influences like to believe that our individuality is the essence of our unique selfhood: the intrinsic, singular qualities that define us as. who we are... understanding the "self" as an internally generated phenomenon, a notion of personality based on the particular (yet strangely abstract) qualities that make us who we are. On the other hand, the subject is an externally generated concept, a effect, an understanding of personality based on the laws or social codes to which we are forced to respond… always understood in reference to pre-existing social conditions and categories.” This statement provides a counter argument to that of Locke and Wolgast, that humans are cultural subjects and the product is identity. Therefore, through these three points of view, I have posed the conflicting issue between external identity and internal identity. In Hamlet, the plot focuses on Prince Hamlet's struggle to keep the promise he made to his dead father, to seek revenge on his uncle and thus to claim his destiny, or decide which destiny he will choose, or determine whether or not he has a destiny. The first major indication of Hamlet's identity crisis comes in the scene where Hamlet encounters the ghost of his father, posing the question of identity for the rest of the play. In the darkness, the ghost speaks to Hamlet, claiming to be the spirit of Hamlet's father, calling Hamlet to avenge his death. The ghost's story confirms Hamlet's fears about his murderous uncle, and when dawn breaks, the ghost disappears and Hamlet, intensely moved by the bold reality of the situation, vows to remember and obey the ghost. As he leaves with Marcellus and Horatio, Hamlet laments the responsibility he now bears: "The time is out of place: O cursed spite / That I was ever born to set it right!". Hamlet's identity is immediately affected by the new responsibility he brings with him, and this is evident through the statement "that ever I was born to set things right" which represents Hamlet's claim to his identity as it is was presented externally. The ghost's request to Hamlet to take revenge on Claudius, and Hamlet's subsequent reaction, is the crucial event of the first act and sets in motion the main plot of the play while defining the question of Hamlet's personal identity, because his mission to kill his uncle has become reality. it has made him a cultural subject, a product of external forces, as he tries to reconcile this image of himself with his internal identity. The relationship between appearance and reality, or external and internal identity, is of crucial importance when considering one of the central tensions in Hamlet's identity conflict: his madness. Hamlet's inability to derive morality from the act of vengeance he has been asked to perform leads him to the idea of ​​feigning madness, which becomes his primary way of interacting with other people for most of the next three acts, and it is one of the main tactics Shakespeare uses to develop his character. Hamlet's decision to feign madness in order to prevent the other characters from guessing his reasons.