Throughout Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, the main character Hamlet presents different philosophies on life but all consisting of the same theme; death and the meaninglessness of life. Hamlet seems to believe that life has no meaning because death is inevitable and it happens to everyone whether it was natural or suicide.
Hamlet’s philosophy of life is overpowered by the thoughts of meaninglessness. On one hand he believes that humans can do anything they set their minds to; However, he also believes that the world “appeareth nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours” (II, 2, 325-326). The contradiction between his thoughts only strengthens his philosophy which influences the way he acts. Hamlet also states that humans are just collections of dust; “and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?” (II, 2, 332). He continues to make
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His dark thought are seen in the first act after his father’s death.
“O, that this too too sullied flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,
Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
His canon ‘gainst (self-slaughter!) O God, God!
How (weary,) stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!”
(I, 2, 133-138)
Hamlet believes that his life has become pointless since his father’s death and that to live is to suffer. However, he struggles with a self vs. self conflict because God “made” suicide illegal. His internal conflict when he is seen asking himself the point of suffering and whether he should end his suffering;
“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.”
(III, 1, 65-68)
Even though suicide seems to be the possible ending of Hamlet’s problems, he does not follow through because he thinks there are fears larger than
Hamlet views his existing life in a negative manner, and he sees that the only way to escape his misery is to take his own life. A thought of self-slaughter is enough to devalue one’s life, and throughout the entirety of the play it is the only way Hamlet values his own life. To live or not to live, that is Hamlet’s only question, while the value of his own life is not in
This famous soliloquy offers a dark and deep contemplation of the nature of life and death. Hamlet’s contemplative, philosophical, and angry tones demonstrate the emotions all people feel throughout their lifetimes.
From past experiences in ones life, whether it be the death of a long aged gold fish to a deceased elder, one knows the pain and suffering that goes on afterwards. For one to finally move on and continue life without a tear in their eyes may take a while, yet having that immense step means to put the emotions aside and live life. Hamlet's father was murdered, and he soon sees his mother move on so quickly and marries his uncle, to continue being the queen. Hamlet's love for his father does not fade away within a two month span like his mother; he refuses to accept the fact that his father was killed, instead of a natural death. Because of this, Hamlet does not know what to do with his life. He mentions "O, that this too too sallied flesh would melt,/ Or that the Everlasting had not fixed/ His canon `against self-slaughter" (129-132). Immediately does Hamlet questions the existence of his own life, as he feels the need to melt and disappear, ultimately referring to suicide. The problem we face...
The line “Doom’d for a certain term to walk the night, and for the day confined to fast in fires” shows Hamlet that his father is neither in hell nor heaven, but in some kind of mid...
Like most teenagers and young adults, Hamlet bases his decisions on his emotions. Feeling out of place in his family without his father, the desire to see him became more prominent; and with no sympathy or support from his mother or uncle, his depression worsened. Since he is not understood and has no one to relate his life to, he expresses his feelings to himself in his first soliloquy in Act one, scene two. This soliloquy reveals his suicidal state of mind when he says, “Or that the everlasting had not fixed His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter!” (1.2. 135-36). In this quote, he explains his frustration regarding God’s “canon” against committing suicide. This shows the audience the depth of his despair, since sui...
Hamlet although he believes that suffering must be endured or battled, he also understands that suffering is optional and that suffering is caused from pain and all pain can be relieved. At times Hamlet no longer sees the point of bearing the huge burden of suffering as he does, but rather to end the burden through suicide. These thoughts are however based or can be linked back to Hamlet’s emotion and how his negative emotions overcome his logical thinking. We see however Hamlet’s ability to think logically and understand the reasoning behind suffering and the preciousness of his life. At this point in the play Hamlet no longer doubts his meaning in life, this is quite pivotal because this then allows him the confidence and power to seek revenge on Claudius.
In his tragedy Hamlet, William Shakespeare explores and analyzes the concept of mortality and the inevitability of death through the development of Hamlet’s understanding and ideology regarding the purpose for living. Through Hamlet’s obsessive fascination in understanding the purpose for living and whether death is the answer, Shakespeare analyzes and interprets the meaning of different elements of mortality and death: The pain death causes to others, the fading of evidence of existence through death, and the reason for living. While due to the inevitable and unsolvable mystery of the uncertainty of death, as no being will ever empirically experience death and be able to tell the tale, Shakespeare offers an answer to the reason for living through an analysis of Hamlet’s development in understanding death.
Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a tragic play about murder, betrayal, revenge, madness, and moral corruption. It touches upon philosophical ideas such as existentialism and relativism. Prince Hamlet frequently questions the meaning of life and the degrading of morals as he agonizes over his father’s murder, his mother’s incestuous infidelity, and what he should or shouldn’t do about it. At first, he is just depressed; still mourning the loss of his father as his mother marries his uncle. After he learns about the treachery of his uncle and the adultery of his mother, his already negative countenance declines further. He struggles with the task of killing Claudius, feeling burdened about having been asked to find a solution to a situation that was forced upon him.Death is something he struggles with as an abstract idea and as relative to himself. He is able to reconcile with the idea of death and reality eventually.
Hamlet is a conflicted character. He is maddened by his father’s, the King of Denmark, murder and his mother’s, Queen Gertrude, untimely marriage to his uncle, King Claudius, who is also his father’s murderer. It is a tangled web of lies, death, and duplicity that Hamlet lives in. “Denmark [certainly] is a prison” for him (II.2.262). Hamlet becomes withdrawn in the play, no longer having an enthusiastic and playful demeanor. His relationship with his mother is destroyed, he denounces Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Ophelia, and he becomes estranged with society as he feigns insanity. He is the quintessential character for Jean Paul Sartre’s existential principle that “Hell is other people.” Ultimately, Hamlet’s nature completely changes. He states to Guildenstern that as “of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises, an...
world which has led him to the brink of suicide. Hamlet voices his thoughts on
In this soliloquy Hamlet once again talks about suicide. He says he would like to get rid of his endless troubles by killing himself, because in death he can sleep and have no worries.
In the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, the protagonist, Hamlet is obsessed with the idea of death, and during the course of the play he contemplates death from numerous perspectives. He ponders the physical aspects of death, as seen with Yoricks's skull, his father's ghost, as well as the dead bodies in the cemetery. Hamlet also contemplates the spiritual aspects of the afterlife with his various soliloquies. Emotionally Hamlet is attached to death with the passing of his father and his lover Ophelia. Death surrounds Hamlet, and forces him to consider death from various points of view.
Hamlet’s anger and grief- primarily stemming from his mother’s marriage to Claudius- brings him to thoughts of suicide, which only subside as a result of it being a mortal and religious sin. The fact that he wants to take his own life demonstrates a weakness in his character; a sense of cowarness, his decision not to kill himself because of religious beliefs shows that this weakness is balanced with some sense of morality. Such an obvious paradox is only one example of the inner conflict and turmoil that will eventually lead to Hamlet’s downfall.
Hamlet’s psychological influence demonstrates his dread of both death and life. In Hamlet’s famous soliloquy, “To be or not to be” (3.1.64), he refers the “be” to life and further asks “whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” (3.1.65.66). By this, Hamlet is asking himself the question of whether to live or die.
William Shakespeare's Hamlet is, at heart, a play about suicide. Though it is surrounded by a fairly standard revenge plot, the play's core is an intense psychodrama about a prince gone mad from the pressures of his station and his unrequited love for Ophelia. He longs for the ultimate release of killing himself - but why? In this respect, Hamlet is equivocal - he gives several different motives depending on the situation. But we learn to trust his soliloquies - his thoughts - more than his actions. In Hamlet's own speeches lie the indications for the methods we should use for its interpretation.