Hamlet's visible influence

To me, the plot of Hamlet appears very soap opera-like. According to Wikipedia, some elements of the general soap opera are:

- “Soap opera storylines run concurrently, intersect and lead into further developments. An individual episode of a soap opera will generally switch between several different concurrent narrative threads that may at times interconnect and affect one another…”

- “…an emphasis on family life, personal relationships, sexual dramas, emotional and moral conflicts; some coverage of topical issues; set in familiar domestic interiors with only occasional excursions into new locations”

- “In many soap operas…the characters are frequently attractive, seductive, glamorous and wealthy”

- “Soap opera storylines sometimes weave intricate, convoluted, and sometimes confusing tales of characters who have affairs, meet mysterious strangers and fall in love, and who commit adultery, all of which keeps audiences hooked on the unfolding story twists.”

Sound familiar? Hamlet’s plot features all of these characteristics and appears to have part of the structural basis of a soap opera series. It more likely than not is the basis for a specific plot line in some stories, at the least, being Shakespeare’s most recognized play and therefore an influence to many succeeding works. Ironically, the synopsis of tomorrow’s episode of the notable soap opera The Young and the Restless even describes how one character discovers the truth regarding a serious accident, while another is haunted by memories of one killed in the accident (Source). Act 1, scene 5 much? Additionally, CBS lists the same soap opera’s biggest plot lines as being based around deviancy, rivalry, and most importantly, revenge (Source).

I guess this goes back to what Mrs. Clinch was saying before we started the play: as we read, we will begin to see how everything is Hamlet. “Everything is Hamlet. You and I are Hamlet. Life is Hamlet,” I believe her words were, and I’m beginning to see how this is true. Aside from soap operas, traces of Hamlet can be found in popular movies and novels. We know that Hamlet was the first work of literature to question the sham of everyday without easy answers, so perhaps all these succeeding adaptation-like works are more attempts to answers these tough questions regarding the futility and wrongs in life. After all, a major part of human existence is questioning.

I wonder what Shakespeare’s purpose was when he framed Hamlet in what we know today as a soap opera-like structure. Much of the inner workings and details of the plot are revealed in Hamlet’s personal soliloquies and events in which all the characters are not present with the main action of the play. Why did Hamlet hear about his father’s stealthy murder in the presence of a ghost? Why was Hamlet the only one to hear about his father’s murder? Why does Hamlet not immediately share with his peers what he discovered? This type of situational and dramatic irony is often a driving force found in soap operas, but during our read of this play it has become obvious that Hamlet is pretty close to being the original soap opera that started it all.