A Darker Side of Our Soul Exposed in Hamlet We live in a curious age of tabloids, talk shows and television soundbites that provide a shocking kind of news tacky. These sources of scandal create a profitable business with outrageous headlines. But this is nothing new. Humanity has always had a burning desire to discover secret truths, even in Shakespeare's time. Indeed, as Polonius said, “If circumstances guide me, I will find/Where the truth is hidden, even if it were truly hidden/Within the center” (2.2.158-60). The implication is that we are somehow better off knowing the hidden facts. But are we better off knowing these things? Since Shakespeare's time, human nature has remained fairly constant. With this in mind, many moral lessons from the past may be directly applicable today. But what was the wise William trying to tell us when he wrote Hamlet? Sure, there may be a myriad of subthemes and morals to the story, but there is one theme that stands out. From King Hamlet's ghostly revelation to Polonius' espionage, we see that a self-destructive human weakness that desires hidden, forbidden knowledge is at work. Likewise, we find a message regarding the morality of this interference in the lives of others. When we consider the final results, we learn that much of what we don't know, we don't actually need to know. The information is separated from us for a reason. If we persist in seeking what is hidden, we may very well violate the laws of our own survival. Furthermore, we may not even be able to understand the truth. Or, as Jack Nicholson would say, "You can't handle the truth!" Yet, who among us could resist a message from... the middle of the paper... The Forms of Vengeance: Victimization, Revenge and Revenge in Shakespeare." Early Modern Literary Studies 4.1 (May 1998): 5.1-6 http ://purl.oclc.org/emls/04-1/rev_goo6.html.Murfin, Ross C. “Deconstruction and Hamlet.” Wofford 283-293 -215.---. “Psychoanalytic Criticism and Hamlet.” 241-251. Pitt, “Women in Shakespeare's Tragedies.” Ed. Clarice Swisher from Shakespeare's Women. Np: np, 1981.Shakespeare, William. Ed. TJB Spencer. New York: Greenhaven Press, 1999. From The Court and the Castle. Yale University Press, 1957.