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Quintessence of Dust: The Mystical Meaning of Hamlet

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Watching Shakespeare's Hamlet enacted on stage and on film over the years, like many, I have been puzzled by various aspects of the play. Is Hamlet really mad? Are we mad if we fail to understand him? Why does he appear to be so indecisive? Other than the fact that everyone is dead at the end of the play, why is Hamlet's life a real tragedy? At last, all has become much clearer to me. Kenneth Chan, a medical doctor and physicist by trade and apparently a scholar and philosopher by avocation shares his vision of the meaning of Hamlet in his book QUINTESSENCE OF DUST - The Mystical Meaning of Hamlet. Chan suggests the play is nothing less than Shakespeare's reflection on the spiritual path each human must sooner or later engage or fail to find the Truth of his or her own life.

Chan suggests several of the themes found in Hamlet also run through Shakespeare's plays `Julius Caesar' (mentioned three times in Hamlet) and `Titus Andronicus' (deals with revenge). Included among these themes are the failure to be "true to one's self" and the propensity of humans to blame others for life's shortcomings.

What is the Truth? Chan suggests the truth is this...in the end we all die, but before we do, we will find multiple ways to avoid facing the reality of this eventuality. Some of us like Ophelia conform and hide behind someone else's mores, no matter how destructive their ideas are. Some like Laertes and Polonius take refuge in status and material wealth, still others like the King seek power, no matter how many others he must crush to achieve his goal.

His book has provided me with illumination about a topic that has been a lifelong interest and I recommend it to anyone on a step wise path.

This analysis really helped me understand Hamlet in a new way. Mr. Chan offers a very solid explanation for most of the mysteries in Shakespeare. I had a lot of "Aha" moments, while reading this book. The book helped me in my school work as well. Thank you Kenneth Chan.

I found this book very fascinating and enjoyable. It is a welcome addition to all my other commentaries on Hamlet. Whatever our views the approach made here is consistant, illuminating and precise. A minimal amount of the cultural, historical, Renaissance academic chit-chat is used. A clean look at the Play as a performance solidified the proper place for more academic concerns that a reading public discovers.

Talk about the yogi boogie! This is one book you won't find in Stephen Daedalas' study. However, after all the OMsss and Hari Haries, the author's view slowly emerges and is something well worth considering. Hamlet certainly didn't find it double- easy to self realize. Yes, he struggled but in the end did not become a Buddha (as the author sometimes implies). Hamlet evaporated into silence, becoming one, as Fortunbas assures us, with the image of his iron clad father.
Never the less, Swami Chan is probably right about Shakespeare being a Yoda and Hamlet certainly seems to be on a journey toward self discovery. However, the prince's realization does not end in the kind of satori Chan suggests- never the less, one probably can extract many useful koans from the famous play.
The Quintessence of Dust will help the reader consider the transcendental nature of the bard's plays. Stephan Chan points us towards the profound depths of the poet's vision and his treatise can aid in seeing a new dimension inside Shakespeare's imagination and way his works are as popular as the Bible. (Just check how many books about the English poet are still floating down the Amazon).
Unfortunately, the author of Quintessence didn't use both hands when fishing through the text. A closer reading of the play would have helped. To be fair, the author does seem to get down to business midway through his book, and yes, Chan's big idea about the plays meaning is BIG but the mystical note looses its resonance in repeat .. the author highlights the same point over & over until his book flirts with becoming a new age manual.
I did find myself wondering if all the players in Hamlet are the masks of a single character, a character morphing into the perfect, transparent, literary glyph? Hmmmm.... and you also may find yourself thinking about Hamlet in different ways after reading The Quintessence of Dust.