Obsessed
Death is the end of the road. However, just as important as death is what comes after it. Almost every culture or religion features some kind of afterlife, whether it be the Valhalla and Hel of Norse religion, the Underworld of the Greeks, or the Heaven and Hell of Christianity. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the titular character obsesses with what happens after death, driving much of his action (and inaction) throughout the play; however, by the end, his struggles teach him a key life lesson that is still preached today.
Hamlet’s desire for revenge indirectly starts with his obsession with death. When he finds out from Horatio that a ghost who looks like his father has been haunting the castle, he makes the decision to go and speak to the apparition. In the Shakespearian era, this decision would have likely been seen as irrational due to the various fears and superstitions regarding ghosts. When he sees the ghost with his own eyes, Hamlet is so obsessed with the deathly figure that he decides that “be [it’s] intents wicked or charitable, / [it] comest in such a questionable shape / that [he] will speak to [it]” (I, iv, 21). The ghost informs Prince Hamlet that Claudius killed King Hamlet.
After Hamlet finds this out, he sets out to avenge his father and kill his uncle. It’s not easy to kill a king, given the various protections typically afforded to one, and given an opportune chance, one would assume that he would take it. However when Hamlet discovers Claudius kneeling, appearing to be praying, in perhaps the most ideal time of the entire play, Hamlet passes on the opportunity, claiming that he will wait till
“he is drunk asleep, or in his rage / or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed, / at game, a-swearing or abo...
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... all” (V, ii, 116). He is prepared to face the onset of his death.
Hamlet’s obsession with death entirely influences the outcome of the tragedy. His actions and inactions are initially driven by the fear of mortality and the uncertainty of the afterlife. However, near the end of the play, he no longer fears death, instead embracing it in the readiness that he preaches and accepting it when it comes. Though still fixated upon his own mortality, he finally takes advantage of the obsession to achieve his own goals; the lesson Hamlet learns is one that many try to follow today. “Carpe diem,” we say - live every day as if it were your last, do what you truly believe in, because you’re wasting your time otherwise. This lesson, one of many taught through Hamlet, is one that could be well learned by the multitudes of people who hate their own lives and live in misery.
From the appearance of the Ghost at the start of the play to its bloody conclusion, Hamlet is pervaded with the notion of death. What better site for a comic interlude than a graveyard? However, this scene is not merely a bit of comic relief. Hamlet's encounter with the gravedigger serves as a forum for Shakespeare to elaborate on the nature of death and as a turning point in Hamlet's character. The structure and changing mood of the encounter serve to move Hamlet and the audience closer to the realization that death is inevitable and universal.
Ultimately, Hamlet does decide to kill Claudius. He does so for a variety of reasons. Most importantly, his mother; in drinking Claudius' drink and poisoning herself, she becomes conscious of Claudius' treachery and implies withdrawal of all support of Claudius. This eliminates the threat of motherly estrangement, virtually paving the way for Hamlet to kill Claudius. Also, however, Laertes informs Hamlet of his knowledge of Claudius' treachery in the very end, as well as his distaste for Claudius, thus removing the threat of friend estrangement. In addition, Claudius' treachery is itself immoral, justifying Hamlet to kill him on principle and since Hamlet was mortally wounded, he had nothing to lose.
“The very conveyances of his lands will scarcely lie in this box, and must th’ inheritor himself have no more, ha?” Hamlet’s realization in 5.1.88 is one of great weight and resulted in more deep thought on the concept of death. Throughout Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” the subject is deeply considered and consistent breakthroughs and new realizations are revealed through Hamlet’s character. The primary evolution of Hamlet’s understanding stands with the coping, dealing with the finality of death, conflicts with morality and revenge in its intimate relationship with death as it applies to Hamlet.
Being that death is a universally explored topic, William Shakespeare, a master of English literature, opted to thoroughly investigate this complex notion in his play Hamlet. Shakespeare cleverly and sometimes subtly brings the reader/viewer through a physical and spiritual journey of death via the several controversial characters of Hamlet. The chief element of this expedition is undoubtedly the funerals. Every funeral depicts, and marks, the conclusion of different perceptions of death. Shakespeare uses the funerals of the several controversial characters to gradually transform the simple, spiritual, naïve, and somewhat light view of death into a much more factual, physical, serious, and down to earth outlook.
King Hamlet was beyond annoyed that Hamlet had done what every child does when their parent asks them to do something, and did the exact opposite. Not only had Hamlet spoken to his mother about her poor choices, but he also had yet to kill Claudius. In Hamlet’s defense he had a good reason for why he hadn’t killed his uncle yet (definitely a good conversation to have over the holidays) and had half of Shakespeare’s characters taken the time to make sure things are done right then there probably wouldn’t be so much tragedy. Hamlet had waited to kill Claudius because he wasn’t certain about the ghost being his father and so he did not want to commit a sin that was not necessary. However, he still failed because he entertained King Hamlet’s ghost and that is a sin in and of its own. In order for Hamlet to decide whether or not he can trust the ghost of his father he decides to put on a play for his mother and uncle that was based around his father’s murder. As the play took place, Hamlet kept a close watch on Claudius and all of his emotions and that is how Hamlet knew that the ghost was not an evil spirit, but was definitely his beloved father. Once Hamlet comes to terms with the fact that he’s letting down his father even after he’s passed Hamlet is able to come up with a plan to kill Claudius so that he can suffer the same way that he has made
This famous soliloquy offers a dark and deep contemplation of the nature of life and death. Hamlet’s contemplative, philosophical, and angry tones demonstrate the emotions all people feel throughout their lifetimes.
Ancient Greek and Christianity both have different vision of death. Therefore, the idea of death and the afterlife was contrarily shown in the two texts. Death permeates Hamlet from the beginning of the tragedy through the ghost of king Hamlet. Suicide was desirable way to replace suffering the life but it is forbidden by the Christian religion. Also Hamlet explains how the body return to dust at the end and what happen in the afterlife. However, death in apology by Plato was unknown idea thus Socrates does not fear it. In addition death is an honourable thing for men. For Socrates death is the nonexistence or the transmigration of the soul.
Hamlet wrote a short scene depicting how the late King Hamlet was murdered, and requests that the visiting players preform this scene in the presence of the King. When the King abruptly leaves before the closing curtain; Hamlet believes that it is a sign of guilt. Ready to slaughter the King after this revelation, Hamlet stealthy enters behind Claudius while the man is alone, with his sworn drawn. Though before he strikes Hamlet takes notice that Claudius is praying. Quickly Hamlet makes the justification that if Claudius was slaughtered while upon his knees repenting then his soul would rise to heaven, “And so he goes to heaven,” (3.3.79). Postponing his revenge until the time when Claudius was, “When he is drunk asleep, or in rage./Or in th’ pleasure of his bed,/ At game a-swearing, or about some act/That has ...
In act 3, Hamlet questions the unbearable pain of life and views death through the metaphor of sleep. "To be or not to be: that is the question: / whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer / the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles / and, by opposing end them. To die, to sleep / no more" (3.1.64-68), details which bring up new thoughts about what happens in the after life. Thus, Hamlet contemplates suicide, but his lacking knowledge about what awaits him in the afterworld causes him to question what death will bring. For example he states, "The undiscovered country, from whose bourn / no traveler returns, puzzles the will / and makes us rather bear those ills we have / than fly to others that we know not of" (3.1.87-90), again revealing his growing concern with "Truth" and his need for certainty. Once again, death appears in act 4 with the suicide of Ophelia, the demand for Hamlet's execution and the gravedigger scene. All of these situations tie back with how death is all around Hamlet and feeds his obsession with it. Finally in act 5, Hamlet meets his own death, as his obsession to know leads to the death of himself.
Hamlet’s psychological influence demonstrates his dread of both death and life. In Hamlet’s famous soliloquy, “To be or not to be” (3.1.64), he refers the “be” to life and further asks “whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” (3.1.65.66). By this, Hamlet is asking himself the question of whether to live or die.
Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a tragic play about murder, betrayal, revenge, madness, and moral corruption. It touches upon philosophical ideas such as existentialism and relativism. Prince Hamlet frequently questions the meaning of life and the degrading of morals as he agonizes over his father’s murder, his mother’s incestuous infidelity, and what he should or shouldn’t do about it. At first, he is just depressed; still mourning the loss of his father as his mother marries his uncle. After he learns about the treachery of his uncle and the adultery of his mother, his already negative countenance declines further. He struggles with the task of killing Claudius, feeling burdened about having been asked to find a solution to a situation that was forced upon him.Death is something he struggles with as an abstract idea and as relative to himself. He is able to reconcile with the idea of death and reality eventually.
Hamlet’s soliloquy, “To be or not to be, that is the question,” found in Act 3, Scene 1, of William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, is one of the most recognized and famous soliloquies in all of English literature. Hamlet uses this moment alone to ponder what he will do in response to his father’s death. In this statement, Hamlet explores the idea of living and dying and what can be found in death. Is death like a dream while one sleeps? Or do we cease to sleep? Or is it just nothing? These are questions that Hamlet considers while deciding the fate of King Claudius. Hamlet wants to seek revenge on Claudius for killing King Hamlet and for marrying the queen, yet he knows that if he were to kill Claudius, he himself would also be killed. Hamlet’s debate of life versus death makes him question the advantages and disadvantages of existence and whether or not it is right to end his life or that of another.
Death threads its way through the entirety of Hamlet, from the opening scene’s confrontation with a dead man’s ghost to the blood bath of the final scene, which occurs as a result of the disruption of the natural order of Denmark. Hamlet is a man with suicidal tendencies which goes against his Christian beliefs as he is focused on the past rather than the future, which causes him to fall into the trap of inaction on his path of revenge. Hamlet’s moral dilemma stems from the ghost’s appearance as “a spirit of health or a goblin damned”, making Hamlet decide whether it brings with...
Tragic death plays a really big role in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Hamlet often considers death in many different perspectives, and definitely obsesses with the idea more so after his fathers’ death. Hamlet’s soliloquy is one of the most famous in literature, “To be or not to be, that is the question…” Hamlet’s dilemma is the pain of life that he must endure or the uncertainty of death. From the beginning of the play to the very last scene, the fascination between life and death plays a role throughout. Hamlet is troubled through the play after realizing that his uncle was the one who murdered his father and is now married to his mother. He wants to avenge Hamlet Sr. death and kill Claudius but feels that killing himself would be an easier resolution. After the death of his murdered father and appearance at his funeral, Hamlet will not leave anywhere without making the statement of his all black attire on the inside and out. The turn of events throughout the play only help the reader understand the debt of each character and their specific role to Hamlet and to the story in regards to life and death.
In his tragedy Hamlet, William Shakespeare explores and analyzes the concept of mortality and the inevitability of death through the development of Hamlet’s understanding and ideology regarding the purpose for living. Through Hamlet’s obsessive fascination in understanding the purpose for living and whether death is the answer, Shakespeare analyzes and interprets the meaning of different elements of mortality and death: The pain death causes to others, the fading of evidence of existence through death, and the reason for living. While due to the inevitable and unsolvable mystery of the uncertainty of death, as no being will ever empirically experience death and be able to tell the tale, Shakespeare offers an answer to the reason for living through an analysis of Hamlet’s development in understanding death.