For high school students, the works of William Shakespeare are not the easiest literature to understand, much less to interest them. The first hurdle, of course, is the language. With all the “LOLs”, “ridics” and “OMGs” used in a teenager’s everyday vernacular, Shakespearean lines like “to be or not to be: that is the question” can sound a lot like the teachers of Charlie Brown for the teen ears. What a wow wow.

The next difficulty is seeing how the complex writings of a 400-year-old dead man with a dog collar are relevant to today’s teenager. So what is the best way for teenagers to relate to Shakespeare? One word: Hamlet.

Literary scholars love to expose Hamlet’s psychological struggles with mortality and madness, his inability to act or make decisions, or a perennial favorite topic of discussion: whether Hamlet is attracted to his mother. But critics of fancy pants always seem to forget that Hamlet acts like your typical surly teenager who has a big problem with his parents, his girlfriend, and this whole thing called life. He may or may not be a real teen, but the Danish prince certainly wears teen “umbrellas and woe suits” like a boss.

Teenagers can find many ways to relate to Hamlet and his existential suffering. He could be the entry character into the score of other perennially conflicted and philosophically complex performers of Shakespeare. Hopefully, teenage readers won’t find common ground through the whole uncle who kills the father then marries the mother thing, but perhaps they can take comfort in the utter confusion, grievance, and anguish that incessantly troubles . and paralyzes Hamlet. He is the Holden Caufield of the Elizabethan era. While it’s such an anachronistic stretch of a comparison, the similarities between The Catcher in The Rye’s protagonist and Hamlet are there. Surely, JD Salinger might have had Hamlet’s nasty “Take you to a nunnery” speech to his friend Ophelia in mind when Holden goes berserk because Sally Hayes (rightly) refuses to run away with him, calling her a “real pain in the neck.” ass.”

Also, both leads are in a kind of limbo in their lives, unsure of who they are and what they should be doing. Should Hamlet try to find out if a ghost claims his uncle/stepfather poisoned his father? Is that ghost real or is it just going crazy? Furthermore, should Holden try to be human and get closer to the “false bastards” or continue to feel lonely and abandoned, just like the ducks in the pond must feel every winter? Decisions, decisions, and they are not in a hurry to take action either.

Such similarities point to how valuable Shakespeare’s Hamlet can be to a puberty-stricken teenager dealing with the uncertainty and confusion of growing up. Forget Romeo as the quintessential Shakespearean adolescent role model. Of course, Romeo and Juliet is a bit more accessible, especially with a remake of a modern 1996 movie featuring a young Leonardo Dicaprio playing the dreamy Romeo. However, most teenagers do not have passionately poetic outpourings with their star-crossed lovers and are married within days of meeting. Hamlet, on the other hand, tackles the real issues teens face every day: parents, girlfriends, confusion, depression, loss, loneliness, and even mortality. And some also go through the stage of dressing completely in black.