The Hamlet Impasse

This essay analyzes the narrative of the process of creating a Hamlet staging, conducted by the character Wilhelm Meister in Goethe’s novel Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship. The essay is based on the concept of self-formation (bildung), present in the book and also in other works by the German author, to trace relations between the theatrical creative process and its historical context. It also seeks to present the creative process described in the novel as a kind of synthesis of multiple concepts developed by German and European theater in the 18th century, showing the dialectical inspiration of the theatrical journey narrated by Goethe.