Death And Loss In Hamlet Essay

756 Words2 Pages

Hamlet,one of the significant characters in the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare. The protagonist has confronted dilemmas and enduring egregious judgment and pain throughout the play. As the tragic hero, Hamlet is portrayed as a human being who has the guts to do it and take the consequences. Hamlet’s transformation and adaptation pertaining to life, death and loss have an enormous shift throughout the play. The murder of Hamlet’s father and his mother’s remarriage with his uncle happened before the opening of the play. Accordingly, Hamlet is confronting the unchangeable facts and being mad at the beginning. Constantly suspicions about the death of his father and incapable vent his individual emotions towards Gertrude’s hasty marriage. …show more content…

(Shakespeare I, ii, 129-132)
Hamlet knows he cannot suicide regarding his beliefs,“self-slaughter” is a sin and he begins to realize it is time to take the business into his own hands. The author portrays Hamlet into a person with lusts and madness, nevertheless, he did not forfeit his sanity. Additionally, a foreshadowing about Hamlet will become the hero of himself and his family. Moreover, the transformation of Hamlet’s moral values forced him to become a tougher and sensible person, particularly when he faces the dreads of mortality. When Hamlet speaks:
To be, or not to be: that is the question: 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 III, i, 56-60) he begins to believe life is worth living along with reasons why people cherishes their lifetime and should never think or attempt suicide. Hamlet takes an essential move in the right direction with his altered moral faith about life and mortality in this scene. Consequently, this is when Hamlet initiates the transformation and adaptation of his new

Show More
Related

  • Hamlet's Journey Through the Grieving Process in Shakespeare's Hamlet

    1241 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout the novel, Hamlet journeys through the grieving process in the stage of anger, depression, and acceptance. Elisabeth Kubler Ross states, “The purpose of life is more than these stages….it is not just about the life lost but also the life lived”

    Read More

  • Suicidal Irony In Hamlet

    654 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hamlet is self centered and irrational throughout most of the play. He goes through various stages of suicidal thoughts that all revolve around a multitude of selfish reasons because he can not deal with his problems. His outbursts, mood swings, and constantly changing character have led to a multitude of reasons for his decisions to not kill himself. Think of this, it is much easier to die for a cause than to live for a cause, and yet all Hamlet wants to do is take the easy way out. There are three major soliloquies that Hamlet has that prove as major turning points of his emotions. Hamlet’s suicidal thoughts ring loud and clear for most of the play, however they do change constantly and play key pieces that provide well written and thought provoking soliques.

    Read More

  • Hamlet's Capacity For Self-Sacrifice In The Face of Compelling Circumstances.

    1402 Words  | 3 Pages

    One single moment or event during the course of an individual’s life can effectively alter their priorities and transform their identity drastically. In The play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, Shakespeare introduces the readers to the protagonist Hamlet who is draped in anger and emotions and has a new-found mission in life. Initially, Hamlet is portrayed as an individual in mourning over his father's death and his mother's haste in remarrying to her brother-in-law and Hamlet's uncle, Claudius. However, Hamlet’s character and personality were drastically altered after meeting the Ghost and discovering the true nature of his Father’s death. Hamlet is now a man with a lust for revenge and a willingness to do anything that will enable him to accomplish this goal. When burdened with the task of killing Claudius, Hamlet chooses to sacrifice all he holds dear by transforming his identity in a noble effort to avenge his father’s death.

    Read More

  • Loss of Innocence in Hamlet

    1261 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...became a man, he is still left with uncertainty that ultimately results in his death. Unfortunately, this uncertainty of Hamlet's is one that cannot be overcome. Hamlet is a story of realizing that the world is not what we thought it was, that everything is not good, and that there are bad people in the world. It is a story about searching for the meaning behind it all and about trying to figure out how to make a decision. It is a story about becoming a man and Hamlet is the kind of character that keeps us enthralled until the very end.

    Read More

  • Father and Son Relationship in Shakespeare's Hamlet

    558 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the beginning of Hamlet, the Prince behaves as any normal person would following the death of a loved one. Not only is this a loved one, but an extra special someone; it is his loving father whom he adored. Hamlet is grief stricken, depressed, and even angry that his mother remarried so soon after his father’s death. Having witnessed how his father had treated his mother with great love and respect, Hamlet cannot understand how his mother could shorten the grieving period so greatly to marry someone like Uncle Claudius.  He is incapable of rationalizing her deeds and he is obsessed by her actions.

    Read More

  • William Shakespeare Hamlet Suicide Quotes

    697 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hamlet. The son of a king. A man who could have had it all, but instead he chose the much more painful route of revenge and a life of bloodshed. The downfall of Hamlet is comparable to trying to hide a lie one has told. The deeper we try to cover the lie, the worse it gets and harder it becomes to do the right thing. The deeper the reader explores into Hamlets life, the messier and messier it becomes. With a mind full of suicidal thoughts and insanity with no effort to contain it can only lead one thing, and Hamlets downfall is the ultimate example. Pain, suffering, and extreme

    Read More

  • "To Be or not To Be:" Hamlet and His Suicidal Tendencies

    1106 Words  | 3 Pages

    William Shakespeare intended for Hamlet to be a tragic play of a hero: Hamlet. He does exactly that by allowing Hamlet to be exposed to suffering and being able to endure it without committing suicide. Although if one was to analyze the content of Hamlet’s “To be or not to be…” soliloquy once would realize that Hamlet is not really all that suicidal. However, there are moments throughout the play that arise the suspicion of Hamlet to no longer be able to endure the suffering and pain in his life. Hamlet’s judgment can be distorted when he does not act using reason but rather emotional impulse. His ability to accept and embrace suffering and pain, allows him to realize how valuable his life truly is.

    Read More

  • Hamlet Acts Morally, Harms Others by his Actions, and Realizes his Tragic Limits

    1017 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Hamlet-identity Crisis

    1845 Words  | 4 Pages

    Shakespeare’s Hamlet is arguably one of the best plays known to English literature. It presents the protagonist, Hamlet, and his increasingly complex path through self discovery. His character is of an abnormally complex nature, the likes of which not often found in plays, and many different theses have been put forward about Hamlet's dynamic disposition. One such thesis is that Hamlet is a young man with an identity crisis living in a world of conflicting values.

    Read More

  • Hamlet, the Existentialist

    1068 Words  | 3 Pages

    .... Life is typically lived by deception and death is something we do not understand and thusly try to ignore. Life is chaotic and has only the meaning you apply to it. Once suspended in that false order, Hamlet finds himself facing the true chaotic nothingness of life and death after the murder and betrayal of his father. The ghost of king Hamlet requests the societal norm of vengeance and prince Hamlet finds himself wrestling with the whys and hows of this plot. He is able to see that society is built upon falsities. ‘Noble’ action is a constructed notion and relative to each person. He comes to accept the idea of death and faces it.

    Read More

  • Hamlet: Growing Pains

    1471 Words  | 3 Pages

    world which has led him to the brink of suicide.  Hamlet voices his thoughts on

    Read More

  • Free Essays - Hamlet as a Tragic Hero

    1445 Words  | 3 Pages

    As the play’s tragic hero, Hamlet exhibits a combination of good and bad traits.  A complex character, he displays a variety of characteristics throughout the play’s development.  When he is first introduced in Act I- Scene 2, one sees Hamlet as a sensitive young prince who is mourning the death of his father, the King.  In addition, his mother’s immediate marriage to his uncle has left him in even greater despair.   Mixed in with this immense sense of grief, are obvious feelings of anger and frustration.  The combination of these emotions leaves one feeling sympathetic to Hamlet; he becomes a very “human” character.  One sees from the very beginning that he is a very complex and conflicted man, and that his tragedy has already begun.

    Read More

  • Conflict in William Shakespeare's Hamlet

    2442 Words  | 5 Pages

    Old Hamlet is killed by his brother Claudius. Only two months after her husband’s death a vulnerable Gertrude marries her husband’s brother Claudius. Gertrude’s weakness opens the door for Claudius to take the throne as the king of Denmark. Hamlet is outraged by this, he loses respect for his mother as he feels that she has rejected him and has taken no time to mourn her own husband’s death. One night old Hamlets ghost appears to prince Hamlet and tells him how he was poisoned by his own brother. Up until this point the kingdom of Denmark believed that old Hamlet had died of natural causes. As it was custom, prince Hamlet sought to avenge his father’s death. This leads Hamlet, the main character into a state of internal conflict as he agonises over what action and when to take it as to avenge his father’s death. Shakespeare’s play presents the reader with various forms of conflict which plague his characters. He explores these conflicts through the use of soliloquies, recurring motifs, structure and mirror plotting.

    Read More

  • Hamlet as the Tragic Hero

    828 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hamlet is the best known tragedy in literature today. Here, Shakespeare exposes Hamlet’s flaws as a heroic character. The tragedy in this play is the result of the main character’s unrealistic ideals and his inability to overcome his weakness of indecisiveness. This fatal attribute led to the death of several people which included his mother and the King of Denmark. Although he is described as being a brave and intelligent person, his tendency to procrastinate prevented him from acting on his father’s murder, his mother’s marriage, and his uncle’s ascension to the throne.

    Read More

  • Inconsistency in The Character of Hamlet

    1079 Words  | 3 Pages

    The perfection of Hamlet’s character has been called in question - perhaps by those who do not understand it. The character of Hamlet stands by itself. It is not a character marked by strength of will or even of passion, but by refinement of thought and sentiment. Hamlet is as little of the hero as a man can be.  He is a young and princely novice, full of high enthusiasm and quick sensibility - the sport of circumstances, questioning with fortune and refining on his own feelings, and forced from his natural disposition by the strangeness of his situation.

    Read More

More about Death And Loss In Hamlet Essay

Open Document