Existence In Hamlet

1132 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The problem of moral decisions in hamlet

Questioning Existence: The Path to Peace

“To be, or not to be” said Hamlet, a young prince with an important decision to make. Should he live a torturous life full of pain and grief or slip off peacefully to the other side of life? Hamlet had just found out that his father’s death was not a natural death. That, in fact, his uncle was the one who murdered him. For the past few months, Hamlet had been in a state of extreme grief and this news only added to that mood. Coincidentally, Hamlet was not the only one to question his existence in the play. Followed by him, was Claudius, Ophelia, his best friend Horatio, and even his mother, Gertrude. At the end of the play, Ophelia loses her mind and is said to commit suicide. Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother,
An attitude of “God does not approve so I will not do this”. Hamlet himself say, “For who would bear the whips and scorns of time…But that the dread of something after death.” This young prince was ready to end it all. With his father’s passing still fresh to the touch and emotional betrayal of the too quick remarriage of his mother, he was ready to die. No one realized the magnitude of grief Hamlet was going through. At one point, he even speaks of wanting his flesh to melt and how meaningless he feels life is. Hamlet wanted nothing to do with the lies, betrayals, and scandal, he just wanted his family back together. Even though Hamlet was ready to die, he knew God would not approve. Instead he ironically chose to pursue revenge that led to murder; as if the sin were any
In conclusion, religion controlled suicide back then just as much as it does now. If there was no idea of God, the suicide rate would be expected to rise. There would be no negative connotation attached to the word suicide anymore. It is a shocking thought, but people would be free to choose what to do with their bodies, tragedies, and lives. The question is, without the influence of religion, is suicide wrong, or right? Perhaps that is a question that will take even more time and history to

Show More
Related

  • Hamlet Literary Analysis - Stages of Grief

    1300 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...r. Hamlet speaks to Horatio quietly, almost serenely, with the unexultant calm which characterizes the end of the long, inner struggle of grief. He has looked at the face of death in his father’s ghost, he has now endured death and loss in all the human beings he has loved, and he now accepts those losses as an inevitable part of his own condition. “He states, “The readiness is all” suggesting what is perhaps the last and most difficult task of mourning, his own readiness to die” (Bloom 135). Hamlet recognizes and accepts his own death.

    Read More

  • Analysis of the Tone of the To Be or Not to Be Soliloquy in Hamlet

    644 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Stages of Grief in Hamlet, The Descendants, and Broken April

    1244 Words  | 3 Pages

    After the death of Old Hamlet and Gertrude’s remarriage to Claudius, Hamlet feels extremely angry and bitter. “How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable / Seem to me all the uses of this world!” (1.2.133-134). Due to the death of his father, he is already in a state of despair and the lack of sympathy that his mother has towards his sorrow does not aid him in recovering from this stage of grief. “Good Hamlet, cast thy knighted colour off, / And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark” (1.2.68-69). Hamlet is struggling to accept the fashion in which Gertrude is responding to the death of Old Hamlet; she seems quite content with her new life with Claudius, which is a difficult concept for him to accept as after the d...

    Read More

  • Hamlet: In Search of His Own Identity

    1373 Words  | 3 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Essay on Gertrude and Ophelia’s Death in Shakespeare's Hamlet

    1754 Words  | 4 Pages

    Apart from the ambiguity surrounding her death and her love for Hamlet, Ophelia is described by all as an innocent child, grappling with situations her youth is unprepared for. Even if she had consummated her love for Hamlet, I can still picture Ophelia as a vulnerable and innocent child who has to cope with situations beyond her control in a world where the role of the female is passive. It is this helplessness which Gertrude wants to look after as she “hoped thou should’st have been my Hamlet’s wife” and her madness which Gertrude wants to save her form by allowing Ophelia to make the decision over life and death.

    Read More

  • The Importance of Self-image in Hamlet

    1136 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hamlet based a lot of his actions on his religious moral standards. Although Hamlet had high morals, he still had many impulses that were against his moral standards that he wanted to carry out; such as the murder of his father and his thoughts on suicide. "His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God, God, how weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!" (I, ii, 36-138) Hamlet is saying that if it wasn't against his religion to commit suicide, he would do it. In his fourth soliloquy, Hamlet says, "Thus, conscience does make coward of us all." (III, i, 91) Hamlet blames his inability to act out his impulses on these moral standards that have been ingrained into his conscience. He finds the restrictions in his world unbearable because it is confined within religious and social class barriers.

    Read More

  • The Importance of Fear in Hamlet

    1064 Words  | 3 Pages

    Displaying an 'antic disposition', Hamlet first attempts to side step his trepidation by feigning madness. After meeting with his fathers proposed ghost, Hamlet attempts to distance himself from the thought or evidence of death. Hamlet notifies his friends, Marcellus and Horatio, of his plan to distract the kingdom from his real intentions. Although Hamlet proposes this as a way to fool those in Denmark, in the last lines of his meeting with Horatio and Marcellus, he curses that this revenge be placed upon him. This is the first indication of Hamlets reluctance to perform murder. Hamlet then returns to Claudius and Gertrude, at the castle, and acts out his madness for them and for the visitor, Polonius.  Upon speaking to Polonius, Polonius picks up upon Hamlets 'madness', yet decides that this unnatural nature is because if Ophelia's behavior toward Hamlet. Indication of Hamlets fear is presented when Polonius asks leave of the prince. Hamlet then states that Polonius can take anything from him, anything but his life. Hamlet repeats thrice this idea of taking anything 'except [his] life.' Not only does this indicate how compulsive Hamlets fake insanity is becoming, but how afraid he is of dying. During the 'To be or not to be' soliloquy, Hamlet contemplates his view of death. As he go...

    Read More

  • Another Savior in History is Hamlet by Shakespeare

    1361 Words  | 3 Pages

    From the death of his father, the late King Hamlet, he is often faced with thoughts of suicide, sin, and life after death. Through his first soliloquy, Hamlet contemplates suicide because he cannot deal with the pain from his father’s death and the new marriage of his mother, Queen Gertrude and his uncle Claudius. Following Christian values, he goes on to say that it would be sin to do so, “O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fixed His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter!” (Act I, Scene II, line 129-132). He continues to keep this “Christian value” till the end of the play, but further contemplates his ow...

    Read More

  • Close Reading In Hamlet

    776 Words  | 2 Pages

    With Hamlet having to emotionally deal with his fathers’ death and the stigma of incest in his family, could be his undoing. Hamlet shares how dispirited he genuinely is. Hamlet expounds his heart-ache, but it is virtually like he does not want to kill himself. Towards the cessation of the passage Hamlet seems homogeneous to he has verbalized himself out of committing suicide. Ophelia and the love he has for her seems to be the only thing that is keeping Hamlet from killing himself.

    Read More

  • Hamlet: The Bewildering Human Condition

    1242 Words  | 3 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Hamlet, the Existentialist

    1068 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Free Essays - Hamlet as a Tragic Hero

    1445 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Social and Psychological Influences on Hamlet

    772 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Suicide in Hamlet

    1446 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Hamlet suicide is an issue of controversy and question. Hamlet is a confused man from everything that he has experienced in such a short period of time. And even though Hamlet contemplates suicide he is not the one who suffers from it. Ophelia is actually is the victim of the actual act of suicide. His morality, religion, and philosophical views on suicide keep him from committing the dreaded act.

    Read More

  • Condemned: Hamlet’s Moral Dilemma

    1663 Words  | 4 Pages

    Hamlet is one of the most often-performed and studied plays in the English language. The story might have been merely a melodramatic play about murder and revenge, butWilliam Shakespeare imbued his drama with a sensitivity and reflectivity that still fascinates audiences four hundred years after it was first performed. Hamlet is no ordinary young man, raging at the death of his father and the hasty marriage of his mother and his uncle. Hamlet is cursed with an introspective nature; he cannot decide whether to turn his anger outward or in on himself. The audience sees a young man who would be happiest back at his university, contemplating remote philosophical matters of life and death. Instead, Hamlet is forced to engage death on a visceral level, as an unwelcome and unfathomable figure in his life. He cannot ignore thoughts of death, nor can he grieve and get on with his life, as most people do. He is a melancholy man, and he can see only darkness in his future—if, indeed, he is to have a future at all. Throughout the play, and particularly in his two most famous soliloquies, Hamlet struggles with the competing compulsions to avenge his father’s death or to embrace his own. Hamlet is a man caught in a moral dilemma, and his inability to reach a resolution condemns himself and nearly everyone close to him.

    Read More

More about Existence In Hamlet

Open Document