"be true to thyself": the conflict between the son and the self in the name of HamletA is a very important aspect of a person. It helps define who that person is and what is important to that person. In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, the use of the same names for fathers and sons creates a dilemma that is not easily overcome. Laertes does not have the same name as his father, but is still controlled by his father. This rule applies not only to the characters in the work, but also to the work itself. Shakespeare's Hamlet was preceded by Thomas Kyd's play Ur-Hamlet, and Shakespeare had to work hard to differentiate his play from the original. Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, shares his name with his father, Hamlet, the former King of Denmark. This sharing of names confuses the identity of the prince with the king. Since the King precedes the Prince, he is able to develop his own distinct identity. He is "a good king" (1.2.186), a noble, courageous and self-confident man. It is therefore up to Hamlet, the prince of Denmark, to define himself beyond the confines of his father's name. Abraham Fraunce suggests that someone's definition consists of two parts, "the general and the difference... A man is a sensitive creature endowed with reason, where the sensitive creature is the general, and endowed with reason is the difference" (Qtd . in Calderwood 10 ). Hamlet is genetically related to his father as all sons are to their fathers. However, Hamlet is even more closely related due to their common name. Hamlet also inherits the act of filial obligation when the ghost returns and seeks revenge for his murder. When he vows to avenge his father's death, he promises to "renounce his personal identity and join his father not only in name but in fact" (Calderwood 10). Hamlet "adopts his father's cause - to make his father's enemy his own enemy, to take on his father's motives, goals, and sorrows - is to adopt his father's identity" (Calderwood 10). Before the ghost appears, Hamlet is beginning to define himself. as an individual person rather than as his father's son. He went to school to forge his own path in life. When his father's ghost asks him to take revenge on Claudius, Hamlet struggles to decide whether he will take on the role of "son" and merge with his father or become "self" and separate from his father..