To Tell My Story: Grief and Self-Disclosure in Hamlet

Self-disclosure, telling the story of their loss to an empathic listener, helps bereaved men and women work through the pain of their grief, integrating their loss into the narrative of their lives. This article examines Shakespeare’s Hamlet in this context, describing how dramatic self-disclosure may have helped Shakespeare work through his grief after the death of his son in 1596 and his father in 1601. As we now know, writing can be an effective means of self-disclosure, helping people express and heal painful emotions. Not only did writing Hamlet in the wake of his loss enable Shakespeare to portray emotions of intense grief in his protagonist, but performing the play added the dimension of public self-disclosure, informing the play with unprecedented emotional depth.