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Recommended: Hamlet and the theme of death

In the play “Hamlet,” named after the main character, William Shakespeare depicts the story over Hamlet’s changing attitude towards life and death after communicating with the ghost of his dead father. This is seen throughout the play as Hamlet is struggling being pulled between two different yet distinct compelling conflictions. At one hand he is eager to die and long for being released from his bodily prison as his soul is deeply miserable and tormented. However, the conundrum of what the afterlife might bring frightens him and he is left feeling both lost and confused over how to handle the situation. He also wants too avenge his dead father and redeem his family’s honor by killing his brother, who became the regent ruler upon his father’s death. Throughout the play Hamlet’s attitude changes from fearing death to accepting it as inevitable which pervades the play as he manipulates his own actions in the pursuit of avenging his father.
Having gotten the wind of the possible truth that his father was murdered by his own brother, Hamlet finds himself questioning if life is worth living as he gets obsessed with vengeful thoughts. This is demonstrated when Hamlet views death though the metaphor of sleep upon his monologue:

This illuminates his thoughts and reasoning about the afterlife as he contemplates both suicide and revenge, which make him raise the question what it really means to die. The thought of the unquestionable matters of the afterlife frightens him. Yet his possible choices are to either commit suicide or murder. Although he feels obligated to redeem his family honor, he is concerned that such a sinful act may be punished in hell (Tiffany). Furthermore, his religious beliefs and morals also holds him back out...

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... stages. From being eager to be liberated from his apparent limitations into a respectable end to his life. The subsequent message that the reader easily identifies from this is the value of life and that death is both unknown and certain. The play itself is built around struggles and goals that everyone can relate to as everyone has faced difficulties of making the right decision between conflicting needs.
His last demonstration before he dies shows his ability to let his inner qualities guide him which is a significant deviation from his otherwise weak character. Also, from Hamlet’s passing one realizes the importance of optimism as Hamlet gets drawn in to the abyss of darkness when nothing but vengeance controls his thoughts. It his negative character that creates the tragedy. One must be grateful of life and thus not let anger obliterate our awareness and heart.

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