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Hamlet monologues and soliloquies essay
Essays on fear of death
Analysis of the characters in Hamlet
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In the first section of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet that we read, Hamlet talks about death. He wonders whether it is better to die than to stay alive and deal with all of life’s hardships. He goes on throughout the monologue exploring the idea of fighting through life or giving up and going into the unknown of death. One line in particular that I liked was when it said “end the heartache” (Ln. 6-7). Hamlet is talking and saying that maybe it would be better to die so that all of the troubles would go away. Life is hard for sure, and sometimes people think that if we end our lives we end the troubles we have will go away and we don’t have to worry about it anymore. Shakespeare knew how to make his characters so real, he knew how to portray them going through hard times and thinking about things that all humans wonder at some point in their life. …show more content…
We have no clue what will happen when we die and if it really will take our troubles away. Going along with that, another part that is important was when it said, “who would fardels bear, [t]o grunt and sweat under a weary life, [b]ut that the dread of something after death” (Ln. 21-23). The author is exactly right. Human beings have a natural fear of the unknown, and Shakespeare isn’t afraid to point that out. Death is scary. When we are young we don’t realize that yet. We are not afraid of death, we are just curious about it. Then as we get older—later adulthood—we fear death because we have no idea what will happen when we die. We don’t know what happens when we die and that scares us. Humans naturally fear the unknown, Hamlet knows this and is thinking about it, understanding that some people choose to deal with the hardships of their life because they are afraid that death will not be the way they want it to
We’re all going to die right? Then why is it that we fear death so much? In William Shakespeare’s well-known tragic play, Hamlet, the reader views Hamlet’s attitude towards death evolve. Shakespeare proves that Hamlet’s attitude towards death develops throughout the play; he starts off desiring death, then is fearful of death, and finally is confident about death.
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.
In the beginning of the play Hamlet's view of death is mournful but, as the play continues he begins to think of death as this incredibly terrifying concept, this is clear when he states “To die,to sleep-- to sleep, perchance to dream […] But that the dread of something after death, The undiscovered country of whose bourn” (Shakespeare III i
At first, he believes that his death will end his suffering as he contemplates suicide multiple times. After deciding against this, Hamlet takes another course of action, revolving around the death of his uncle Claudius. It is due to Hamlets negative view on his situation and the way he deals with his loss that he loses everything he holds dear to him. His friends, his sanity, his lover and most notably, his life. There is not a person on earth that tragedy will not eventually strike. It is the ones who remain positive in the face of tragedy that are able to overcome it and be
At the beginning of the play, Hamlet is discouraged with his life because his mother remarried his uncle soon after his father’s death. According to Simon Critchley in the New York Times, Hamlet in the beginning of the play “is a creature of endless vacillation, a cipher for the alienated, inward modern self in a world that is insubstantial and rotten.” In the eyes of his friends and family he is melancholic and people can not quite understand why he is depressed. In Hamlet’s first soliloquy about death Act I, Scene II l.130-159 he expresses his first thoughts on suicide. He is “an outraged man who, disgusted by his ‘sullied flesh’, can see no outcome to his disgust other than death” (Delville, Michel). Hamlet appears to be more melancholic, and desperate than at any other point in the play. Desiring his flesh to “melt,” and wishing that God had not made “self-slaughter” a sin, saying that the world is “weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable.” Hamlet thinks suicide seems like a desirable alternative to life in a painful world, but he feels that taking his own life is not an option because religion forbids suicide. According to Michel Delville, “ God, the Everlasting, he tells us, does not allow one to act in this way. God still rules the universe and Hamlet must obey his strictures. Hamlet then goes on to describe the causes of his pain, primarily his disgust towards his mother’s marriage to his uncle Claudius. His speech is imbued ...
Sadness is the first emotion that is usually related to death. In the play, Hamlet does not try to disguise his sorrow after his father’s murder. This sadness is intermingled with disgust for the others around him who moved on with their grief and criticized him for continuing to mourn. After being criticized by Gertrude and Claudius, Hamlet chooses to talk to open space to reveal his feelings (1.2.129-158). Hamlet clearly shows the sadness in his heart, as well as the idea of bitterness. He continually attacks his mother’s quick grieving: “O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason / would have mourned longer” (1.2.150-151). This sadness continues in his fake madness, seeping into conversations that show his need for escape. In a confrontation with Polonius, Hamlet ends the con...
In act 3, Hamlet questions the unbearable pain of life and views death through the metaphor of sleep. "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. To die, to sleep / no more" (3.1.64-68), details which bring up new thoughts about what happens in the after life. Thus, Hamlet contemplates suicide, but his lacking knowledge about what awaits him in the afterworld causes him to question what death will bring. For example he states, "The undiscovered country, from whose bourn / no traveler returns, puzzles the will / and makes us rather bear those ills we have / than fly to others that we know not of" (3.1.87-90), again revealing his growing concern with "Truth" and his need for certainty. Once again, death appears in act 4 with the suicide of Ophelia, the demand for Hamlet's execution and the gravedigger scene. All of these situations tie back with how death is all around Hamlet and feeds his obsession with it. Finally in act 5, Hamlet meets his own death, as his obsession to know leads to the death of himself.
Hamlet is scared because he does not know what happens after you die. He is not afraid to die, but he will not kill himself because he is afraid that he will go to hell. In act 3 scene 3, Hamlet shows his belief in the bible by not killing his father while he is in prayer. He says,
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.
Shakespeare paints a vivid picture of the deaths that are carried out in the book with his use of words and description of life and the afterlife. The death of each individual holds a certain meaning, for each death sets about a reaction. It just goes to show that revenge and greed is never the answer and a heart filled with such will be the death of one self. No one in the book dies without a purpose or without an elaborate reason.
Throughout the passage, Shakespeare uses a biblical lexicon that demonstrates Hamlet’s anxiety about the consequences of actions and, more specifically, of death. Hamlet first references “the Euerlasting” (l. 1.2.131) in the third line of the soliloquy. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) tells us that “Euerlasting” refers to God, but we might ask ourselves, why “Euerlasting?” Why not some other word? By choosing the word “the Euerlasting” for Hamlet’s speech, Shakespeare highlights the permanence of one’s fate. This
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.
In Hamlet, Hamlet wants to avenge his father’s death, but wonders whether the struggle of living and carrying through with his plans is worth the hardships, or if death is a better option. Shakespeare writes a soliloquy where Hamlet discusses with himself whether he should live or die. Shakespeare discusses the idea of suicide through metaphors, rhetorical questions, and repetition until Hamlet decides that he is too afraid of death to commit suicide.
In Hamlet 's mind the idea of dying is not what scares him. It is the uncertainty of what the afterlife is that frightens Hamlet away from the actual act, even though he 's infatuated with how to kill himself and get to the other side. The point in the story that is really a turning point for Hamlet occurs in the graveyard scene (Act V) Before; Hamlet has been horrified and shocked. When he sees Yorick 's skull there, which is someone Hamlet loved and
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.