Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The theme of death in Hamlet by Shakespeare
The theme of death in Hamlet by Shakespeare
Hamlet's insight to life and death
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The theme of death in Hamlet by Shakespeare
Ophelia is Hamlet's girlfriend/lover, his thoughts and perceptions of death eventually drive her to committing suicide. Due to his hate towards Claudius he accidently kills Polonius in the bed chamber whom happens to be Ophelia's father. The theme of death is spreading like a disease as Hamlet plays the perfect host to it. She is ultimately destroyed by this. On top of that Hamlet denies her love as he leaves Denmark. Ophelia is completely affected by the chain reactions of Hamlets perspective on death and she falls into a river. As she falls into the river as reported by Queen Gertrude, she does not fight death, she allows death to take her away from the life she is suffering in.
Through Hamlets perspective of death he really takes an interest
…show more content…
” It is a question of life and death, this question poses the understanding that he is unsure whether he can live or whether he wants to die. This question greatly shows that it does not matter which he chooses, this again relates to the fact that either way he has lived and at the end of the day he will die. Consequently, even after Hamlet kills Polonius he does not care as he knows Laertes will seek revenge against him. So he must still go ahead and complete his task to kill King Claudius as he will die anyway. The cycle of life will eventually catch up to him and he is not afraid to die. His view of death as ‘common’ has immaculate relations to the way in which life is meant to go. The theme of death feels so belonging in the world according to Hamlet that it hypnotizes him to carry out all these beliefs to an extreme level. The theme of death also sparks other themes into existence such as ‘Religion’. His thoughts on suicide are clearly not thought through thoroughly as if he believed in religion Hamlet would know suicide is the worst sin there is. The projection of this implies he is not religious and does not believe in an afterlife. Ultimately, we live and die, but the result is that we rot in our grave and do not live eternally. In the bible humans are placed in dominion over the earth, therefore for Hamlet to believe that “everything that lives dies” lowers our
To begin with, Hamlet starts off his speech asking, “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” (Shakespeare 3.1.57-60). He wonders if he would be more noble if he took his own life and end his sorrows than if he continued to endure him. This question shows the pain and grief that Hamlet has experienced since the death of his father. According to Ophelia, later in Act 3 Scene 1, she reveals that Hamlet was once the obvious successor to the throne since he was charismatic and admired by the people. Clearly, in this part of the play, he is suicidal, and he is uncertain about many of the big decisions in his life. This extreme change in Hamlet’s behaviors makes the audience worry about Hamlet’s mental health. Is his feigned madness transforming into true insanity? However, his comparison to death and sleep suggests that Hamlet is in a state of reflection and learning. Hamlet’s analogy between death and sleep is the musings of an ordinary man who wonders what happens to a soul once its body dies. Just as no one knows what dreams they will experience when they lay in bed, no knows what they will experience when their body is finally laid in a grave.
The story of Hamlet is a morbid tale of tragedy, commitment, and manipulation; this is especially evident within the character of Ophelia. Throughout the play, Ophelia is torn between obeying and following the different commitments that she has to men in her life. She is constantly torn between the choice of obeying the decisions and wishes of her family or that of Hamlet. She is a constant subject of manipulation and brain washing from both her father and brother. Ophelia is not only subject to the torture of others using her for their intentions but she is also susceptible to abuse from Hamlet. Both her father and her brother believe that Hamlet is using her to achieve his own personal goals.
Gertrude explained that Ophelia 's heavy clothes pulled her down deep into the stream:"...her garments, heavy with their drink, pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay to muddy death" (4.7. 178-181). Even in her last moments, Ophelia lets a greater power do as it pleases with herself. Instead of screaming for help and struggling to breath, she just sings a song while she is still floating on the surface. Nature chooses when she can take her last breath. Every time Ophelia has been used and verbally abused, her father was behind it. Grieving her father’s death, Ophelia had no idea what to do and became mad. “Grief at her father’s sudden and unexplained death has unbalanced her mind” (Schücking). With no father to tell her what to do, whether to freak out or call for help, Ophelia does what her father had always taught her. She lets the water do as it wishes with her regardless if it takes her last breath. Ophelia only does what she knows it
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.
Ophelia, in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, represents a self-confident and aware female character. She analyzes the world around her and recognizes the multitude of male figures attempting to control her life. Her actions display not only this awareness, but also maturity in her non-confrontational discussions. Though she is demeaned by Laertes, Polonius, and Hamlet, Ophelia exhibits intelligence and independence and ultimately resorts to suicide in order to free herself from the power of the men around her.
As he continues with his speech, he states that having life comes with many other things. Life comes with responsibilities and misfortunes and the only way to get out of those things is to end your life. Therefore, death is a way of taking action against your misfortune. But you have to take action while you are alive to be dead. So Hamlet is talking in circles with his logic. He says that death is nothing but a sleep. However he also says that we often change our way of thinking because of our fear of life after death. Hamlet has this fear which makes him reconsider contemplating suicide. We can not control our dreams, so with death or “sleep”, we can not control what may happen. The same things may happen in those dreams that happen in real life or it may be even worse. We can never be quite sure. This also scares him and stops him from committing
Hamlet’s belief in what happens after you die first came about after his father’s ghost tells him about his experience with dying before repenting of your sins. In act 1 scene 5, the ghost of Hamlet’s father says,
Her father's death strikes her heart making her lose hope that there is anything to live for. Through the perception of the people in Denmark they proclaim that she is hysterical and heartbroken, “Poor Ophelia has been robbed of her sanity… (240).” Upon her father's burial, Ophelia feels like he was not treated as a worthy individual because he was not given a proper Christian burial. Without any hesitation, she expresses her beliefs of the sudden betrayal the king and queen has done to her father after all that he did for them even though she did not know all that happened. Although, due to Hamlet's actions, the impact alone on Ophelia is profound, she suffers from the lost of two men in which she loves dearly, thus leading her to commit suicide, “Your sister’s drowned, Laertes (270).” With the mindset that he would be saving his love by holding the truth from her, Hamlet destroys many lives, including the one he loved the most- the person that kept him sane and actually understood
In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Ophelia is the most static character in the play. Instead of changing through the course of the play, she remains suffering in the misfortunes perpetrated upon her. She falls into insanity and dies a tragic death. Ophelia has issues surviving without a male influence, and her downfall is when all the men in her life abandon her. Hamlet’s Ophelia, is a tragic, insane character that cannot exist on her own.
Shakespeare shows the ideology of death internalizing within Hamlet first with Hamlet’s emotions following the death of Old Hamlet. In the scene in which Hamlet is introduced, Hamlet is portrayed as an embodiment of death, dressed in “suits of a solemn black”(1.2.81) and has “dejected havior of the visage”(1.2.84). Hamlet’s physical representation as death signifies his lack of desire to continue living himself, being detached and discontent with the world around him. Hamlet, in his first soliloquy, opens by stating, “Sullied flesh would melt/Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,/ Or that the Everlasting had not fixed/His canon ‘gainst Self Slaughter!”(1.2.133-135). This is significant, as it shows Hamlet’s full willingness to commit suicide and end Hamlet’s internal pain, if not for suicide being a sin under religion. The reason for Hamlet’s desire for death and his dis...
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.
He asks himself what is more “nobler” (3.1.58) to “suffer” (3.1.58) from “the slings and arrows” (3.1.59) or to fight against the “sea of troubles” (3.1.60) and “end them” (3.1.61). Hamlet’s indecisiveness emerges when he is evaluating both sides of murdering Claudius. Hamlet decides to kill Claudius while he is “a-praying” (3.3.74) but he rethinks the situation and realizes that he will only be “revenged” (3.3.85) if he kills him while he performs “some act that has no relish of salvation in’t” (3.3.92-93). Hamlet is ready to kill Claudius but he can not because Claudius will not feel the same pain that Old Hamlet
Another significant female character is Ophelia, Hamlet's love. Hamlet's quest for revenge interferes with his relationship with Ophelia. There is much evidence to show that Hamlet loved her a great deal, but his pretense of madness drove her to her death. Ophelia drowned not knowing what was happening to her. This can be deduced by the fact that she flowed down the river singing and happy when in truth she was heartbroken. Ophelia was very much afraid when she saw Hamlet "with his doublet all unbraced; No hat upon his head; his stockings foul'd, Ungarter'd, and down-gyved to his ancle" (Act #. Scene #. Line #). She described him as being "loosed out of hell" (Act #. Scene #. Line #). In addition to that he scared her when he left the room with his eyes still fixed on her. She is especially hurt when Hamlet tells her that he no longer loves her and that he is opposed to marriage. He advises her to go to a nunnery and avoid marriage if she can.
He is always worrying that he will be sent to hell for committing a sin. He believes in God and he believes in a heaven. Since Hamlet believes in both heaven and our God, he is not able to commit suicide and depart from this world. He wishes that he could die, but at the same time he knows that he must live. God decides where and when people die and his judgment is supposed to be final. Humans just think that they can end their lives and they 'll be alright with that. But it is God who determines when life is brought in and out of the world. Therefore, this is partly why Hamlet didn’t commit suicide.
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.