The Inevitability of Death (A Discussion of the Theme of Death in Act V of Hamlet) All around the world we as human live very different lives. There are countless different cultures, religions, and ideologies. History has proven the vast contrast two civilizations can have. There is however one thing every person from any nation, race, or class have in common. From whatever background you come, we as humans will one day face death. It is said that death is the great equalizer. Even if you are of the highest esteem and are buried abounding in wealth, you are still bones in the ground. Death does not discriminate against any human, despite race, nationality, religion, sex, or even age. It is because of this, that death has often intrigued many …show more content…
Before the duel is proposed to Hamlet, we are informed of Laertes fighting ability. This creates doubt in Horatio's mind about his best friend, Hamlets ability to win. As Horatio tired to stop him, Hamlet informs him that he has been in continual practice since Laertes left for Paris, and that he believes he can win. However Hamlet does admit to an uneasy feel, but resolves that he should disregard it. Horatio advises him not to ignore his mind when it tells him that something is wrong. Hamlet then delivers the following lines saying, “There is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ‘tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all. Since no man of aught he leaves, knows aught, what is’t to leave betimes?” (Act V, Scene II, lines 211-215) In these comments, Hamlet suggests that a man never knows when he will die but that a man's death is preordained. Death will come to all of us when it is meant to. This means that it is not when death occurs that matters, whether that be now or later, but the readiness of the man, how prepared he is for death. At this point, Hamlet is ready to avenge his father or die
Death, Decay and Disease in Hamlet Within ‘Hamlet’, Shakespeare makes a number of references to Denmark's degraded state due to the deceit that lies within. These references are made by Hamlet, Horatio as well as the apparition, thus enforcing the strong theme of death, decay and disease. As aforementioned, Hamlets makes a number of references to Denmark. Preceding the death of his father and the marriage of his mother, his mental state begins to fall into demise. Although he appears to not have much courage at first, his focus remains on avenging his father, whose murder is described as being "most foul." As noted in one of Hamlet's first soliloquies, his downward spiral has already begun and already he is contemplating suicide; "O that this too too sullied flesh would melt, thaw, and resolve itself into a dew (I, II, 130)" and "seems to me all the uses of this world.
It is primal instinct for humans to say they understand what something means, even if they have never heard of it before. Take the word mortality, for example, news reporters and journalists are constantly saying it, but ask a viewer what it means and they will stumble. William Shakespeare however, understood mortality very well and was quite fond of using the word as a motif in many of his plays, especially so in Hamlet. By using direct references to disease and illness, an unweeded garden, and rotting and decay, Shakespeare’s Hamlet illustrates how death and corruption run rampant in the helpless state of Denmark while under the rule of Claudius.
...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.
There are only two scenes in Hamlet act 5 by William Shakespeare. Those two scenes are arguably the most famous in Shakespearean literature. It is filled with soliloquies, heartbreak, and death. Typical Shakespeare, right? During the first four acts of Hamlet, Hamlet has a crazy, wild, heartbroken attitude. But during the fifth act, he is calm and collected and knows exactly what he has to do to enact his revenge on his uncle. He has grown up and knows that everything is already planned out for him. Hamlet is changed in act 5 and he is ready for action. There are many factors that make act 5 contribute greatly to the success of Hamlet by William Shakespeare and they are death, love, and betrayal.
Hamlet’s ultimate battle with his emotions happens right before the fencing match with Laertes. With just one phrase, Hamlet defeats the emotions that have been plaguing him not to act: “Readiness is all…Let be”(5.2.221). These two words signify Hamlet’s preparedness to exact revenge for his father’s murder. Before this quotation, Hamlet’s emotions were impeding his actions. Now that his emotions are gone, Hamlet is ready to act.
Throughout the play Horatio constantly tries to bring Hamlet back to reality by advising him to follow his mind instead of his heart. When Hamlet decides to follow the ghost, Horatio strongly opposes by saying, “What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord, or to the dreadful summit of the cliff that beetles o’er his base into the sea, and there assume some other horrible form, which might deprive your sovereignty of reason and draw you into madness?” (Shakespeare 1, 4, 69-74). Horatio’s warning to Hamlet suggests the idea that he views the unknown more cautiously than the reckless prince. Additionally Horatio’s inference about how the ghost might “drive [Hamlet] into madness”(1, 4, 74) displays a foreshadowing of Hamlet’s fate, emphasizing the idea that the warnings from the spokesman of common sense goes unheeded by the tragic hero. In addition to giving advice against the ghost, Horatio advises Hamlet in the matter of the match with Laertes saying, “If your mind dislike anything, obey it” (5, 2, 18). By this advice Horatio implies that he as well holds a suspicion against the King and Laertes and has doubts towards the match as Hamlet does, however, Hamlet ignores this sensible advice and leaves his life into the hands of
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.
“So shall you hear of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts, of accidental judgements, casual slaughters, of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause”, (Hamlet, Act V, Scene 2, Lines 381-384). Horatio, best friend of Prince Hamlet, says this in the final lines of the play. He says this after Gertrude, Queen of Denmark, Hamlet, Claudius, King of Denmark, and Laertes, son of Polonius all die in the battle between Hamlet and Laertes. Hamlet, King of Denmark, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, former friends of Hamlet, Polonius, councillor to the King, and Ophelia, daughter of Polonius are also dead. Death is a very important theme in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
The basis of one 's mortality and the complications of life and death are talked about from the opening of Hamlet. In the mist of his father 's death, Hamlet is having a hard time not thinking about and considering the meaning of life and how life ends. Many questions emerge as the story progresses. There was so many question that Hamlet contemplated. He was constantly worrying that is he revenged on his fathers’ death then what would happen. He would ask himself questions like, what happens when and how you die? Do kings go to heaven? If I kill, will I go to heaven?
The concept of human mortality and how it is dealt with is dependent upon one’s society or culture. For it is the society that has great impact on the individual’s beliefs. Hence, it is also possible for other cultures to influence the people of a different culture on such comprehensions. The primary and traditional way men and women have made dying a less depressing and disturbing idea is though religion. Various religions offer the comforting conception of death as a begining for another life or perhaps a continuation for the former.
As a logical thinker, Horatio is expecting the worst, perhaps that the past King Hamlet will want the young Hamlet to be reunited with him, the only possible way of this being death. Just as Horatio fears, Hamlet ignores his petitioning to ignore the current notion, and as a final plea to convince his love not to go, he physically holds Hamlet back while commanding him not to go (Shakespeare I.III.87). Despite Horatio’s begging and pleading, Hamlet brushes off his pleas and visits the ghost of his father. Doing this truly upsets Horatio because the last situation he wants to imagine is Hamlet leaving him for the dead.
Hamlet's fatal flaw is his inability to act. Unlike his father, Hamlet lets his intelligence rather than his heroism govern him. When he has a chance to kill Claudius, and take vengeance for his father's murder, he hesitates, reckoning that if he kills the man while he is at prayer, Claudius would have asked for pardon from the Lord and been forgiven of his sins, therefore allowing him to enter Heaven. Hamlet decides to wait for a better opening. His flaw of being hesitant in the end leads to his own death, and also the deaths of Gertrude, Ophelia, Laertes, and Claudius.
Another characteristic that acts against Hamlet is his excessive melancholiness. Hamlet experiences rejection from his true love, anger from the murder of his father, betrayal from his friends and family, and fear from what lies ahead. These feelings of pain and sorrow are embedded deep inside Hamlet, and eat at him like a terrible disease. Unfortunately, by the end of the play Hamlet has stopped fighting this disease and left his future up to fate. As he begins his duel with Laertes he says: "the readiness is all", meaning that fate will decide the future and if it means death he will accept it.
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.
William Shakespeare's’ Hamlet tells the story of a great tragedy in which death is the permeating idea and connective thread. Through the experiences of Hamlet, Shakespeare is able to explore the complexities of life and death. Following the murder of his father, Hamlet seeks to avenge his death in the process of defining the meaning of his own life within himself. In the process of reaching complete madness, Hamlet contemplates his own death, experiences the death of those closest to him, and causes death. From these experiences, he further explores the concepts of mortality and the afterlife. Death is present in every aspect of the play because it allows Hamlet to explore his reflections and realizations on the futility of the human condition,