Literary Fiction and Empathy

I personally love reading fiction. I enjoy reading books that aren't of real occurrences, mostly because it helps me to believe that some things are possible, even if they didn't really happen. Fiction is the window into someone's thoughts and feelings, and when you read their work, you read a piece of them. Maybe what they wrote is something that they want to happen, or maybe they had a dream about it. Maybe it happened to someone they knew. You never know, and that's part of the curiosity that comes with reading a fictional book. When you read a book that you are extremely into, don't you just imagine yourself as the character? Don't you just feel like you are them in the story, and when you first take your eyes off of that page, you have this wild realization that "wow, I am me, and this person is just a character". It's kind of amazing, really. And I don't use that term 'amazing' just because it's the first word that popped into my head. It really does amaze me how you can forget every problem you have ever had, or are dealing with, and can insert yourself into an unreal person in rows and rows of jumbled letters.
Sorry, I got off topic. But I have this premonition that Hamlet and the way the Shakespeare portrays his character is going to help us understand what is happening in the characters' heads. And the fact that it is fiction only gives us more insight into who Hamlet is and his emotions. If this was non-fiction, we wouldn't know what Hamlet is thinking, because the author isn't him and can't tell us what he is thinking.