Hamlet’s deadly grieving producing a fatal end
It is an innate human quality to fear death and what is to come; it is the fear of suffering and anguish. People typically grieve over the loss of a friend or loved one. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet’s obsessive thoughts about the deaths of others lead to his timely demise. The deaths of his father, Ophelia, and Polonius have different impacts on Hamlet’s state of mind. His father’s death invokes revengeful thoughts of killing the King. Ophelia’s death skews Hamlet’s vision of death. The death of Polonius shows the repercussions of Hamlet’s aggressive impulse. Clearly, Hamlet is fascinated by death throughout the play. Although this is deeply rooted in his character, his obsessive thoughts are a product of continuous grieving.
In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet learns from a ghost of his father’s brutal murder. Hamlet weeps and plans to take action but doesn’t deliver. Instead he plots his revenge and waits for the perfect moment to avenge King Hamlet. The ghost of Hamlet’s father influences Hamlet to seek revenge who would otherwise contemplate the subject to death,
GHOST: Revenge his foul murder and most unnatural murder.
HAMLET: Murder?
GHOST: Murder is most foul, as in the best it is, /
But this is most foul, strange and unnatural.
HAMLET: Haste me to know’t; that I, with wings as swift /
As meditation or the thoughts of love, may sweep to my revenge (I, v, 25-31).
Notably, the ghost tells Hamlet to enact his revenge in the opening scenes of the play; he seems hesitant, as if he questions death for the first time. Hamlet wants to make sure that Claudius did in fact kill his father, so he sets up a play to re-enact the crime scene and to Hamlet’s content, Claudius disp...
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...death of him. Hamlet’s obsession and numerous contemplations about death sets himself in the undesired direction of suffering with the deaths of his father, Ophelia and Polonius, all whom he believed were undeserving. His will to continuously get himself into situations that inflict a great deal of emotional stress is astonishing, and his change in attitude about his indecisiveness about murder is not beneficial, rather it kills him in the end. Having a healthy fear of death is normal --one must realize death is unavoidable, while constant thought about death creates unhealthy anxiety. An overdose on death-related thoughts will derange the mind of the fear of basic fear of pain or suffering. The result of fearing death too much is over-amplifying stress in a normal situation. Staying at a level of awareness of death is healthy and can help one stay alive longer.
Hamlet wonders whether to live or die, to suffer or take arm. Given to the pain he feels at his father's murder, and his mother's hasty remarriage to his uncle, to the murderer. he wonders if it is nobler to bear his grief, or to take action. His dad’s ghost has told him what really happened at the night his father died and told him to revenge. Now Hamlet has another choice to make. To trust the ghost or not. When Hamlet made the choice to listen and believe the apparition of his dead father, he willingly buys into the spirit's claim that he has been murdered by Claudius. This decision has huge repercussions for the rest of the play.
Hamlet’s misinformed and delusional state of mind mistakes Polonius for Claudius, which results in his death. More so Hamlet also induces Ophelia to lose faith in their love, which results in her own suicide. Not only is Hamlet delusional, but he also begins to relentlessly obsess about possible enemies in the royal court. Ophelia’s death is one of the great tragedies of the play, since Hamlet is completely obsessed with the ghost’s message of revenge. This delusional state does not go unseen by Gertrude and Ophelia, as they discuss the “wildness” of Hamlet’s state of
From past experiences in ones life, whether it be the death of a long aged gold fish to a deceased elder, one knows the pain and suffering that goes on afterwards. For one to finally move on and continue life without a tear in their eyes may take a while, yet having that immense step means to put the emotions aside and live life. Hamlet's father was murdered, and he soon sees his mother move on so quickly and marries his uncle, to continue being the queen. Hamlet's love for his father does not fade away within a two month span like his mother; he refuses to accept the fact that his father was killed, instead of a natural death. Because of this, Hamlet does not know what to do with his life. He mentions "O, that this too too sallied flesh would melt,/ Or that the Everlasting had not fixed/ His canon `against self-slaughter" (129-132). Immediately does Hamlet questions the existence of his own life, as he feels the need to melt and disappear, ultimately referring to suicide. The problem we face...
“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.
To begin with, Hamlet starts off his speech asking, “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” (Shakespeare 3.1.57-60). He wonders if he would be more noble if he took his own life and end his sorrows than if he continued to endure him. This question shows the pain and grief that Hamlet has experienced since the death of his father. According to Ophelia, later in Act 3 Scene 1, she reveals that Hamlet was once the obvious successor to the throne since he was charismatic and admired by the people. Clearly, in this part of the play, he is suicidal, and he is uncertain about many of the big decisions in his life. This extreme change in Hamlet’s behaviors makes the audience worry about Hamlet’s mental health. Is his feigned madness transforming into true insanity? However, his comparison to death and sleep suggests that Hamlet is in a state of reflection and learning. Hamlet’s analogy between death and sleep is the musings of an ordinary man who wonders what happens to a soul once its body dies. Just as no one knows what dreams they will experience when they lay in bed, no knows what they will experience when their body is finally laid in a grave.
Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder, says the ghost of Hamlet. The fact that his own uncle could kill his father leaves Hamlet dumbfounded and confused. Although Hamlet knows something is wrong in Denmark, he begins to question everything that the ghost has told him. When something needs to be done, Hamlet is too busy thinking about his problems. An example of this is when Hamlet has his knife over the head of Claudius, and is prepared to murder him.
In the play Hamlet, Shakespeare uses the recurring motif of death to explore the influence of death on the living. Death is the most influential issue in Hamlet, as it is the reason for all the chaos that happens in the state of Denmark. In the beginning of the play, Hamlet is heavily influenced by the death of his father and ignores his mother’s new, hasty marriage with his Uncle Claudius. He continues to show his sympathy for his father’s death by wearing dark-colored clothes to the wedding celebration.
Hamlet is Shakespeare’s most famous work of tragedy. Throughout the play the title character, Hamlet, tends to seek revenge for his father’s death. Shakespeare achieved his work in Hamlet through his brilliant depiction of the hero’s struggle with two opposing forces that hunt Hamlet throughout the play: moral integrity and the need to avenge his father’s murder. When Hamlet sets his mind to revenge his fathers’ death, he is faced with many challenges that delay him from committing murder to his uncle Claudius, who killed Hamlets’ father, the former king. During this delay, he harms others with his actions by acting irrationally, threatening Gertrude, his mother, and by killing Polonius which led into the madness and death of Ophelia. Hamlet ends up deceiving everyone around him, and also himself, by putting on a mask of insanity. In spite of the fact that Hamlet attempts to act morally in order to kill his uncle, he delays his revenge of his fathers’ death, harming others by his irritating actions. Despite Hamlets’ decisive character, he comes to a point where he realizes his tragic limits.
Furthermore, it is possible to propose that Shakespeare merely uses this scene to provoke irritation and consequently suspense from the audience. If Hamlet wasn’t given this opportunity to kill Claudius we would have not this insight into Hamlet’s indecisiveness, possible cowardice and inability to kill Claudius in cold blood. It is probable to suggest that through this soliloquy we are shown that Hamlet’s initial passion for revenge after the Ghost’s visitation has faded as the play progresses to merely thinking about killing Claudius.
After a death, we find ways of overcoming grief in this painful world. Some people binge eat their way out while others find the easy way out, which is suicide.In the play Hamlet, Shakespeare portrays mortality in the image of death and suicide.Shakespeare develops hamlet as a man who is sensitive and uncontrolled by his actions. Hamlet faces challenges that mess with his subconscious making him feel vulnerable to making decisions that will affect his life.We can say that Hamlet was very indecisive of living or not. He showed many signs of suicidal thoughts. Many can argue and say that Hamlet was depressed. Coming back home from school to attend his father's funeral in Denmark made him discover many things, such as, his mother Gertrude remarried to Hamlet's uncle Claudius who is the dead king's brother. To Hamlet he finds it loathsome for his
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.
This play is highly obsessed with death, just like Hamlet himself. It seems that Hamlet is on the verge of complete despair, with the only thing keeping him from committing suicide is spiritual awe. He is in the strange position of both wishing for death and fearing it instantly, and this double pressure gives the play much of its drama.
Hamlet is an extremely contemplative man, whether it is deciding to terminate his life or his uncle’s, Hamlet is constantly thinking. One of Hamlet’s most famous soliloquies “To be or not to be” demonstrates Hamlet’s lack of inability to decide his own fate. "The line; Who would bear the whips and scorns of time" (3.i.72) is a classic example of Hamlet weighing the pros and cons of taking his own life. Here, Hamlet is not only thinking of himself but the consequences it would have on everyone else. Hamlet is fueled by his emotions, and comes to the conclusion that if he takes his own life, no one will avenge his father’s death. Hamlet also decides that being being damned to hell for eternity is not worth it as evidenced in the line (3.i.85.) “The conscience does make cowards of us all." Hamlet wants to end the pain in his life but realizes it is much nobler to liv...
Hamlet soul becomes corrupt since the beginning with the sudden marriage of his mother to his uncle, the man who killed his father. His depression is much deeper then what everyone believed. Hamlet tries to explain it to his mother and Claudius that his grief is deeper and is much more then the appearance of someone who mourns. His mother seems cold rather then understanding she tells him to get rid of the black clothes and move on, “Thou kno’st’tis common. All that lives must die passing through nature to eternity.” (1.2.74-75) Claudius too is insensitive and says he over doing it and advises him to stop his “un manly grief.” (1.2.98) This lead to the physical and mental corruption Hamlet faces. He contemplates suicide. Suicides along with murder are against Hamlets religious beliefs and are the wor...
Hamlet is one of the most often-performed and studied plays in the English language. The story might have been merely a melodramatic play about murder and revenge, butWilliam Shakespeare imbued his drama with a sensitivity and reflectivity that still fascinates audiences four hundred years after it was first performed. Hamlet is no ordinary young man, raging at the death of his father and the hasty marriage of his mother and his uncle. Hamlet is cursed with an introspective nature; he cannot decide whether to turn his anger outward or in on himself. The audience sees a young man who would be happiest back at his university, contemplating remote philosophical matters of life and death. Instead, Hamlet is forced to engage death on a visceral level, as an unwelcome and unfathomable figure in his life. He cannot ignore thoughts of death, nor can he grieve and get on with his life, as most people do. He is a melancholy man, and he can see only darkness in his future—if, indeed, he is to have a future at all. Throughout the play, and particularly in his two most famous soliloquies, Hamlet struggles with the competing compulsions to avenge his father’s death or to embrace his own. Hamlet is a man caught in a moral dilemma, and his inability to reach a resolution condemns himself and nearly everyone close to him.