Comparing the Reactions to Death in Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Samuel Johnson

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The death of a loved one can be tragic. It often alters how people think, feel, and act. Some people withdraw from life, some move closer to God, and some appear to lose their minds. Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Samuel Johnson both lost someone very close to them, but found very different ways to deal with their losses.

“Hamlet” and “Johnson” have only a few things in common. Both were written long ago and discuss death of family members. Johnson lost his wife, while Hamlet lost his father. Although the person they lost and how they died is different, the events changed both men’s lives. Both of these men made the choices to act the way that they did which caused their lives to be different.

While Hamlet is the character in a play written by William Shakespeare, Samuel Johnson was an actual living person. Shakespeare wrote this tragic play depicting the character of Hamlet whose father was murdered by his uncle and how he dealt with it. Samuel Johnson was a poor scholar who actually wrote “a scholarly edition of Shakespeare’s plays” (Shadow & Light, Tippens, Murray Walke...

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