Act 2. Timon and Pumba arrive
During this scene, a lot about Hamlet's personality is revealed. It starts as Polonius reads the love letter from Hamlet that says "Doubt that the stars are fire; Doubt that the sun doth move, doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love." This indicates both his scholarly nature and his immaturity. It's a cute little love note, but more Romeo and Juliet love than the mature kind.
Later on, my stage directions read "Enter Hamlet, Reading a Book." This alone is a huge indication of the character and skill of Hamlet. Those who are walking about the castle reading books have clearly had sufficient practice and make a habit of doing so. And those are the sort of people I believe in befriending. He can (and chooses to) walk and read. This indicates his priorities. I like them.
Skip ahead to the part where Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and Hammy start chatting. it's been said a lot of different ways, but basically, if you want to know what a dude is like, look at his friends. They immediately start joking about hanging out in Fortune's privates. Seriously? An age range is definitely forming in my head. Pretty soon Hamlet shifts to explaining how crappy he's feeling to them. "I have of late-- but wherefore I know not--lost all my mirth." It goes on like that for half a page, but they don't let him keep wallowing in self pity. Instead, R starts laughing when Hammy says "Man delights not me." Again. I know some boys who would have conversations like this. But less shakespearian.
The scene goes on with the players. Monologues occur, etc. The last thing I got from this that stood out as Hamlet's character was that he decides to use a play to catch his uncle. It's kind of an unusual choice. He's not going to confront him head to head or anything. Okay...
Basically, the vibe I'm getting is that Hamlet is that guy who can hang out with the other guys and laugh about their dirty jokes and throw the football around, but his preferred sport is reading-while-walking, and he thinks more artistically. This is a contrast between his uncle and him-- his uncle takes action, etc, and I believe he sees hamlet as kind of a sissy. He urges him to cast off unmanly grief in the first Act. It's just another division between them
Maturity
How I read this was that Hamlet was hiding behind a mask of immaturity and madness to cover up the dark secrets of his vengeance to come. The one area that I can't agree with you about Hamlet being immature is the play scene. It just seems too thought-through for him to devise this way to confirm his Uncle's guilt rather than going fully on the witness of a ghost.
Ryan K Bishop
sonnet quatrain
I'm not sure why Hamlet's expression of love, that Ophelia should not doubt it, though it would be okay to doubt things that we know to be so (which emphasizes the strength of his love) would be immature. an you explain that more? Bradley
Bradley
Love notes
I just thought the idea of a sappy love note was a little immature. This is something I could picture pretty naive young lovers saying to each other far more easily than seasoned adults. It's cute, and it makes us go "Awww," but it doesn't seem super mature to me. Besides, all of the things that he said to doubt are a little ambiguous when it comes to truth value. Stars aren't fire, though they may have thought so at the time. The sun does move, but not around the earth. What was he referring to? How much would Hamlet have known at the time about all of this? It's kind of like if someone says to you "Doubt that pluto is a planet. Doubt that the universe will expand at a steady rate." These are both fuzzy things. Neither of them is making me super convinced about the intentions of the lover.
Erin Kay Schulz
astronomy
The sun was still thought to move, by most anyway, around the earth at the time of the play. It was becoming to be accepted that the sun was at the center of the universe, but only by the open-minded and educated. So, he was pretty much in line with the times. Also, it was the trend of the day to circulate poems among the court in manuscript format, so that wasn't unusual to send a poem to a loved one. Bradley
Bradley
shared trait within
Divided though they may be, hamlets uncle and hamlet himself do posess at least one shared quality, cunning. it takes skill to be able to pull off a poisoning sucessfully and not be found out about it by mostly everybody, and it also takes skill and cunning to turn the tables such as hamlet did using the play as bait to lure out the kings emotions.
"Oh great Sandwich Maker from Bob! Life, will be a very great deal less weird without you" Old Thrashbarg
deno
Cunning
I don't see the quality of cunning being particularly strong in the uncle-- I see him as more the sort that would use brawn to get rid of the king than brains. But the fact that he uses poison contradicts this view, so I guess he does have some of that in him. I just feel like he would have been more careful to not look so guilty if he was really cunning. Immediately after the Kings death, he shows what his motive would have been, (Power and the queen), and he doesn't try super hard to act sad about the death of his brother.