William Shakespeare undoubtedly achieved one of his greatest characterizations when he created the role of Hamlet, in the tragic comedy Hamlet. Hamlet's appeal to audiences almost certainly stems from his many human foibles. What he is best known for is indecisiveness, but his inconsistency may be an even more notable trait. TS Eliot, in 1932, wrote an essay on Hamlet which is still cited as a well-known criticism of Shakespeare's great tragedy. Eliot argued that Hamlet is an artistic failure, due to a basic weakness of the play. It was his opinion that a playwright had a duty to the audience to write dialogues appropriate to the characters as they were developed in the play. Eliot points out that in the "wardrobe scene," when Hamlet confronts Queen Gertrude, his mother, in her bedchamber, his words demonstrate an animosity and vengeance for which the audience is totally unprepared. Because Eliot's charge against Hamlet is evidently valid, actors and directors attempting to stage Shakespeare's tragedy have struggled with the problem highlighted by Eliot's essay, both before and after its publication. The conventional approach in the 20th century has been to imply, on Hamlet's part, a frustrated and incestuous love for his mother, which may justify the words spoken by Hamlet, but for which Shakespeare provides no background. As a result, instead of solving the problem, this approach creates yet another inconsistency. Yet despite these inconsistencies, and despite Eliot's accusation of artistic failure, Hamlet continues to walk the stage and captivate spectators. If it is justifiable to look for logic and coherence in Hamlet, as Eliot did, one may find a distant gre...... middle of paper...... times illogical and incoherent. All these examples suggest, however, that the logic and coherence advocated by TS Eliot are not essential to the success of a play, nor to its greatness and immortality. Eliot's conclusion that Hamlet is an artistic failure is based on even more specious logic than that of the indecisive Prince of Denmark. A play succeeds because of its ability to arouse the audience's feelings, to transport members of that audience to places beyond the confines of the theater and their everyday lives. Audiences, both today and in Shakespeare's era, do not judge a play. plays according to its logical perfection. Hamlet, with all its inconsistencies, judged on the basis of its emotional power, the majesty of its language and its seemingly timeless ability to move and fascinate the audience, remains one of the greatest masterpieces of the theatre...