Aha Moment: Hamlet

A listener named Jeff House told us about his revelation experience with Hamlet. As a teenager he watched the Christopher Plummer film on TV with his big sister, who was enthralled; House was nonplussed. “The language didn’t make sense,” he remembers. The hero was all doom and gloom, consumed by questions about the nature of existence. “I couldn’t figure out what Hamlet’s whole concern was. … I thought he was ‘much ado about nothing.'”
Then, in his early 20s, House had a trauma of his own. He lost his first serious relationship and his faith – and with that, the support of his family. “I remember having a strong sense that I had failed.” One day, at a community theater, he found himself sitting in the audience for Hamlet. He chose the back row, figuring he’d slip out when he got bored. Instead, “I was stunned. I was watching my life on stage – and I wanted to see what happened.”
One of Hamlet’s famous lines is a personal motto for House: “The readiness is all.”
  
â?? Is there a play, book, song, or other work of art that has changed your life? Tell us in a comment or by email.