as an example - the Theme of Hamlet https://medium.com/luminasticity/the-theme-of-hamlet-3926a88...

sometime around the mid to late 1700s people started getting the idea that Hamlet was all about how he was a vacillating guy who could never come to a decision because the play's stated reasons for doing things were no longer believable, that is to say The Character Hamlet had significantly different emotions and opinions on things that we cannot understand or accept as stated.