Hermeneutics Texts - Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare (1601)

Hamlet is the play that drives Shakespeare scholars the world over mad with philosophical, literary, and personal questions of all sorts. Master poet T.S. Eliot thought it was a failure. Most people in the world disagree. It’s certainly ambiguous as far as themes and characters and major dramatic events go. Hermeneutics dream-come-true, check.

Why do scholars attend to think stories in which the meaning is clear and orderly don’t have as much to offer as ones in which the meaning is ambiguous and uncertain? Why do you think this preference plays a role in hermeneutics?

If the meaning of Hamlet cannot be settled, but rather remains open, can we say that the play is ever really understood?