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.
Claudius is one of the main characters responsible for his own death in the play because he portrays himself to be untouchable; not thinking clearly of the consequences to his actions. He starts off by killing his own brother and marrying his queen, Gertrude, only because he lust power and sex. His cold-hearted actions make him the antagonist of Hamlet and most deserving of death. Through all of his malicious actions, he plans a duel between Laertes and Hamlet assuring Hamlet’s death as well by poisoning a drink and the end of Laertes’ sword. He definitely got a taste of his own medicine because he died a rightful death by the sa...
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...ich gives the character an almost happy tragic ending.
The charm given by Hamlet has to do with the fact that we can all relate with his struggles and principles. We each have to face a dilemma where we deal with a corrupt world in some point in our lives. The way he preserves his moral integrity is a prime example that he is human and relatable. His unbalanced characteristics, reactions and conflicting thoughts make him weak but perfectly human at then end of the day. His last act of dying is suitable to his flawed but human character, in which he also redeems himself. He attains justice for the death of his father, even at the cost of his own life. Even with the other characters, they realize their full capabilities when they face the struggle of forthcoming demise. By dying, they are able to overcome the anxiety and reservations that are associated with death.
"The major question in 'To be or not to be' cannot be suicide. If it were, as many have noted, it would be dramatically irrelevant. Hamlet is no longer sunk in the depths of melancholy, as he was in his first soliloquy. He has been roused to action and has just discovered how to test the Ghost's words. When we last saw him, only five minutes before, he was anticipating the night's performance, and in only a few moments we shall see him eagerly instructing the players and excitedly telling Horatio of his plan. To have him enter at this point debating whether or not to kill himself would be completely inconsistent with both the character and the movement of the plot. The metaphors all suggest that Hamlet's choice is betw...
Hamlet’s death is assured from his own obsession with death in the early part of the play. It seems as though Hamlet has gone mad and no longer values life, not even his own. His madness stems from Old Hamlet’s ghost exacting revenge; finding out his uncle murdered his father, and his mother’s cluelessness. All of these things combine to turn Hamlet into a heartless killer. One of h...
Hamlet is full of death. The whole plot revolves around the death of King Hamlet, and death is what drives the play forward. Hamlet is surrounded by death and struggles with dealing with it. Before the tragic ending Hamlet loses his father to murder and his love to crazed suicide, along with murdering Polonius himself. Shakespeare uses Hamlet’s questioning of his own mortality and fear of death to connect with the human problem: that if we all die what is the point of living?
In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Act III, Scene I, the title character, Hamlet, performs his most famous soliloquy, started “To be, or not to be….” This speech comes in the midpoint of the main action of the play. In the conclusion of Act II, Hamlet purveyed a more rational attitude and outlook, and this soliloquy contradicts such a persona. He seems to have reverted to his dark, contemplative state.
Claudius murdered Hamlet’s father, so that he could have the throne for himself. He never confessed and his dishonesty regarding the event led to a spiral of problems solved with more lies. Once Hamlet discovered the truth, the King used deception on Laertes in order to kill Hamlet and together they formed a plan. The king did this to keep power, and Laertes agreed in order to avenge his sister’s death. The evanescence of the plan was apparent when everything went wrong and both Laertes and the King die, “I am justly killed with my own treachery” (Shakespeare 5.2.337). Similarly, Polonius is killed by his avaricious ambition to gain power and become closer with the king and queen. Throughout the play, Polonius had been wrongly spying not only on his daughter and son, but also on Hamlet. To get respect from queen he tries to give advice on how to handle Hamlet and
... the only way to honour his father Polonius is by killing Hamlet. In addition, as Claudius reads the letter from Hamlet to Laertes he says “'Tis Hamlet’s character. “Naked” And in a postscript here, he says “alone.” Can you advise me?” (IV, VII, 52-53). This shows that Claudius takes advantage of Hamlet’s return alone as an opportunity for Laertes to kill him. Through Claudius’s actions the readers observe how he deceives Laertes into killing Hamlet for his own benefit without getting blood on his hands. Furthermore, Claudius’ desperation to kill Hamlet leads to him losing sight of what is important, which is being the king of Denmark, what he originally wanted, instead the lies he told and the manipulation he spread is now taking over. To conclude, it is evident through the play that the words and actions of Claudius have only lead to the spread of deception.
Shakespeare is known for his classical tragedies, the plays he wrote encased gruesome and tragic endings. Hamlet is a prime example of the actions of one character can cause the demise and suffrage of others. The character Hamlet is the instrument of the whole tragic plot and its deadly outcome. Hamlet’s narrative of important events that caused him to act this way is all linked back to his father's death. Hamlet suffers so he is longing for everyone else to suffer. Also, Hamlet displays
In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the titular character asks himself a very important and immortal question: “To be or not to be?” He goes on to elaborate in his soliloquy, questioning whether a long and simple life is worth more than a short and potent one. The answer lies not in the length of the life, rather, the amount of love which it holds. Love defines life, not length.
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...
Hamlet is an intensely cerebral character marked by a desire to think things through and pick situations apart. As such, for the first three and a half scenes of Hamlet, Hamlet broods over his father’s death instead of taking action against Claudius, his father’s murderer. Hamlet finally acts because he experiences three intense emotional jolts that allow him to view his situation from a new perspective and spur him to action. Together, these emotional experiences alter his personal philosophy about the nature of death and God’s relationship with creation, and compel him to finally take decisive action.
“Hamlet” the play by William Shakespeare is one of the legendary playwright’s most famous plays, standing the test of time even today and to know why can be answered by analysing what this play is truly ‘about’. To ask what any great William Shakespeare is ‘about’ is a very difficult task and the same is true when it comes to the play “Hamlet” as we need to look at every part of the play carefully to fully understand it. This play is about a very interesting story set in the middle ages Denmark that follows Hamlet and his royal family in the wave of his father's death. Hamlet starts the play being left broken by his death and mother’s remarriage, but soon the Ghost of his father appeared to Hamlet telling him the truth of his death being that
Hamlet’s mourning about the death of his father and the remarriage of his mother drives him to madness. This is the main characters inner tragedy that Shakespeare expresses in the play. First he considers suicide but the ghost of King Hamlet sends him on a different path, directing him to revenge his death. Shakespeare uses Hamlet to articulate his thoughts about life, death and revenge. Being a moral character he must decide if revenge is the right thing to do. Shakespeare relays many scenarios of reasoning to the audience about mankind His hero sets the wrongs on mankind right again.
This speech is probably the most famous speech in the English language. In this speech, Hamlet is basically contemplating to live or not to live. He compares death to little sleep, in which he doesn’t think would be so bad. Hamlet also discusses about how he feels betrayed by his mother because she married so soon after her father’s death. Hamlet then wonders in the speech, what it really means to be alive. He generally questions about life itself and weighs the moral ramifications of living and dying. Hamlet then essentially decides that the uncertainty of the afterlife prevents all of humanity from committing suicide. This speech connects many themes of the play together, including the unknown of the afterlife, the idea of suicide and death, and the connection between thought and action. It also reveals important aspects about the way Hamlet thinks. He has both a deeply passionate side to himself and a logical side that is always searching for the answer to why he faces misery. As a result of this, Hamlet is constantly contemplating whether vengeance is wrong or right and that fear is stopping him from taking action. This continues to show that Hamlet keeps becoming indecisive about his decisions because he does not want to actually kill his
After Hamlet had the player’s reenact Hamlet’s father’s death, Claudius started to freak out. Claudius started out quietly by having Rosencrantz and Guildenstern bring Hamlet to England to have him killed. “By letters congruing to that effect, the present death of Hamlet. Do it, England.” (4.4 73-74) Hamlet learns of these letters, and instead of showing the letters to anyone else to prove the king is a bad person, he hides it and continues to wait, before killing the king. That seems to be Hamlet’s tragic flaw throughout the play. When ever there is a chance for he to avenge his father, he turns it down or doesn’t notice it. When Hamlet gets back after the attempt for him to be shipped off to England he finds his love, Ophelia, dead. When he made the rash choice of joining the king, queen, and Laertes at the funeral and start fighting with Laertes, it cause the king to panic. Due to the kings panic he went to the emotionally distraught Laertes and comes up with a plan to poison Hamlet. However in the end the plan comes out sloppy because of how fast both Laertes and the king tried to push it. “I will do’t, and for the purpose I’ll anoint my sword” (4.7 159-160) “When in motion you are hot and dry (as make your bouts more violent to that end) and that he calls for drink, I’ll have prepared for him a chalice for the nonce, whereon but sipping, if he by chance escape your venomed
In this excerpt from Hamlet by William Shakespeare Hamlet is contemplating whether or not to commit suicide.