He never aspired to be Hamlet,

I'm just an entertainer. All I want to be is funny. I never aspired to play Hamlet.

I think something must happen to you when you get into eight grade. Like the Doug Swieteck's Brother Gene switches on and you become a jerk.
Which may have been Hamlet, Prince of Denmark's problem, who, besides having a name that makes him sound like a breakfast special at Sunnyside Morning Restaurant--something between a ham slice and a three-egg omelet--didn't have the smarts to figure out that when someone takes the trouble to come back from beyond the grave to tell you that he's been murdered, it's probably behooveful to pay attention--which is the adjectival form.

To each our own Hamlet.

I aspired to be extremely sophisticated.

It's more like it disintegrated.