How Does Shakespeare Define Death In Hamlet

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Death can have two different definitions. One theoretical and the other physical. To one who has never seen the body of one passed, they can explain death as the soul residing in the afterlife. Whereas, if the person has experienced the action of death they may describe what happens to the body. William Shakespeare’s character Hamlet rewrites his definition of death throughout the play. He goes from philosophical, to questioning his intellect, to the final definition of the physical aspect all while he tries to avenge his father.

Hamlet’s initial translation for death is the romanticized rendition. The one where passing away will cure all hardships. Written in his first soliloquy, Hamlet wishes to depart in order to escape the world he lives in. Longing for it even. “O that this too too solid flesh would melt…” (I, ii, 125-130). Making the audience identify this young man as being depressed to the point where he associates with the romantic novelists in death being peaceful. Moreover, in his second monologue Hamlet refers to dying as sleeping. Saying “To die, to sleep - no more: and by a sleep to say we end the …show more content…

Believing there is a certain place you go depending on the deeds you committed in your mortal life. The murdered King Hamlet becomes stuck in Purgatory for being in a state of sin during his slaying. “Doomed for a certain term to walk the night, and for the day confined to fast in fires, till the foul crimes done in my days of nature are burnt and purged away.” (I, v, 10-15). King Hamlet set the precedent for death when his resting place becomes determined by his last thoughts on earth. Claudius has his last thoughts on divine mercy during his confession, leaving Hamlet to believe he will go to heaven once passed. “... now a is a-praying, and now I’ll do’t- and so goes to heaven.” (III, iii, 70-75). Thus, continuing to mold the definition of death for

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