Hamlet Death Analysis

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William Shakespeare's’ Hamlet tells the story of a great tragedy in which death is the permeating idea and connective thread. Through the experiences of Hamlet, Shakespeare is able to explore the complexities of life and death. Following the murder of his father, Hamlet seeks to avenge his death in the process of defining the meaning of his own life within himself. In the process of reaching complete madness, Hamlet both contemplates his own death, experiences the death of those closest to him, and causes death. From these experiences, he further explores the concepts of mortality and the afterlife. Death is present in every aspect of the play because it allows Hamlet to explore his reflections and realizations on the futility of the human
In the process of defending his father’s legacy to his mother, Hamlet mistakenly killed Polonius, whom he believed was Claudius behind the curtain. However, his reckless attempt to avenge his father’s death only secures his own fate against Laertes, who then vows to avenge his own father’s death. The climactic death of Polonius therefore sets the entirety of the plot into motion. As a result of her father’s death, and the combined feelings of abandonment she felt from all three men in her life, Ophelia then killed herself, which only contributed to the play’s dramatic tragedy.Queen Gertrude reported, “Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke, when down her weedy trophies and herself fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide, and mermaid-like awhile they bore her up, which which time she chanted snatches of old lauds as one incapable of her own distress, or like a creature native and indued unto that element” (IV. vii). Death is significant for several reasons in this aspect of the play. Hamlet proves that every individual reacts differently to death, and as a result of his father's murder, he has lashed out and committed the very crime he is attempting to avenge. Hamlet's treatment of Polonius's body also proves that he is extremely acquainted with the idea of death. Death is incorporated into this component of the play because it further proves Shakespeare's main idea expressed throughout the play, life is fleeting, and essentially we all meet the same

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