This book chapter traces the use of Shakespeare in the works of Eyvind Johnson (1900-1976) from the 1920s until the 1940s. Its main argument is that the role of Shakespeare in general and Hamlet in particular change in accordance with Johnson's own changing political, ideological and aesthetic outlook. In the earlier novels, the Hamlet figure stands for the general sense of rootlessness and lack of initiative following the First World War, whereas later novel represent deliberate attempts at overcoming this impasse. Subsequently, if Shakespeare in the later 1930s could raise the question of the general relevance of literature and culture in an age of fascism, the Bard would later be aligned with the healing and reconciliation needed in the wake of the Second World War.