Life

Shakespeare’s Hamlet, is a play that touches upon many themes, one of which, provides readers with an insight as to how Elizabethan England viewed life and death. Shakespeare uses soliloquies and significant speeches to convey the character’s true thoughts and emotions. Furthermore, the code of honour, an embodiment of how people should prioritize making decisions, is an underlying moral in the story. Essentially, the code of honour states that the country should be the top priority, secondly the family and lastly yourself. Hamlet, the protagonist in the play, was told by his murdered father’s ghost to avenge his death, but because he was reluctant to follow the code, the play ends in tragedy. Closer analysis of Hamlet’s principle speeches offers a window to his evolving view of life and death.

Hamlet repeatedly states his desire for suicide, but also questions the repercussions of taking one’s life. In the first soliloquy, the audience is introduced as to how Hamlet truthfully feels about his father’s death and Gertrude’s hasty remarriage to Claudius. He first says, “O, that this too too sullied flesh would melt, thaw and resolve itself into dew! Or that everlasting had not fix’d his canon ‘gainst self slaughter!” (Hamlet, I, ii, 129-131). Hamlet reveals his God fearing character, and his apprehension towards Heaven’s punishment for suicide. The rest of the soliloquy explains as to why he is depressed, and ends with him declaring that he must keep it all to himself, essentially to hide his true opinion regarding King Claudius and Gertrude’s marriage. The next scene where Hamlet’s suicidal thoughts are exposed is after he realized that he needs to avenge his father’s death, even though Hamlet is evidently not the type of person t...

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...s for the smallest misdoing. Hamlet was so entrenched in his self remorse that he could not honour his father, and in doing so also neglected his responsibility towards Denmark and Gertrude.

William Shakespeare attempted to show that suicide is not a noble act, but a selfish one that contradicts the purpose of life. According to the code of honour, it puts one’s needs and pains in front of your country and family’s needs. Shakespeare implies that it is the easy way out of life, and that so called perpetual sleep might be a nightmare that is worse than life itself. Contemplating about death while still alive can cause unwanted grief and distress, which resulted in Hamlet reflecting on life and death. It was through the soliloquies that his views of life and death gradually evolved, and eventually enabled him to do the honourable act of redeeming his father’s murder.