Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship centers upon the protagonist attempt to escape what he views as the empty life of a bourgeois businessman. Wilhelm is introduced to William Shakespeare's dramas by Jarno, and after extensive discussion of Shakespeare's work they decide to gather a theater group. They give a production of Hamlet, in which Wilhelm plays the lead role. After a failed romance with the theater, Wilhelm commits himself to the mysterious Tower Society, and undergoes a journey of self-realization.