Theme Of Loss In Hamlet

Intertwined Troubles
The complexity of the human brain is a puzzle that is not easily understood, but to some the puzzle fits together like a mosaic. The psychology of loss is necessary to recognize how the mind works during hard times. Loss is broken down into five stages, those stages are denial and isolation, anger, bargaining and acceptance. In Shakespeare's play Hamlet Hamlet and Gertrude’s personalities/actions apply to the human experience including the stages of grief and difficult decisions.
Imagination can bring out the most in people’s capability, yet it has had the power to bring joy to sorrow. In Hamlet the main character Hamlet watched a somber play that featured a player named Hecuba. Though the play was “...fiction” and had

never occurred to the player the player “Could force his soul to his own conceit().” The player seemed to have felt more emotion than Hamlet could express at the time. If the player had the “motive()” and experience “that [Hamlet] has he would cause the audience to “drown the stage with tears()” . Hamlet cannot tell how he felt to his mother Gertrude, and grieve with her because he respected and loved her.
Individuals have related themselves to others for the entirety of humanity. Hamlet looked for issues within himself after deciding he wasn’t able to express himself. He calls himself “pigeon-livered()” because he did not “fatted all the region kites”. Meaning he his weak for not killing the king sooner. He blames himself for not killing a“...kindless villain()” who is the king. Murder is a difficult task to commit, Hamlet is right for thinking through his decisions. It could go terribly wrong because his uncle could have never killed his father. The consequences of that could be dire, but he remains loyal to his father’s ghost who could possibly be an imposter. Even though he doesn't see it himself that it is okay to question that.
No matter where one comes from or who they are, they can experience loss. No matter if one's mother had married their uncle or their brother had died in a car accident. Physiologically they will go through the stages of grief, in the early stages there is anger, denial, and isolation. It is common to switch between phases. Mourning can confuse the way someone's thoughts are processed in difficult situations. Most people that have gone through this have come out a changed person, for the better or for the worse. Acceptance is the final stage, sometimes the person never achieves this. If reached people grow from the experience. However, if it doesn't happen the person will suffer in life, or in extreme cases commit suicide.
I have experienced a personal situation similar to Hamlet in this portion of the play.

When I was 10 years old, my father Jason Tourville died in a car accident. He fell asleep while driving up to our house in Forest Ranch. Only a week later my mother got together with one of her friends, Steven. She said she cared about my father, but she seemed to have moved on quickly. My mother had already made plans with him about the future.
Shakespeare was far from a modern day psychologist, yet he seemed to have known a lot about it. Both my mother and I were in the stages of grief about my father’s death. She was more in denial, she tried to replace him and act like nothing happened. Which could be the reasoning for Gertrude's actions. Though Hamlet’s situation was more dramatic, I found myself question things like he did. I was increasingly sorrowful and feeling cheated out of my own life. I couldn't tell my mother how I felt, because I cared about her too much to make her feel worse.
Whether elderly or young, intelligent or not we are all intertwined as a species. Shakespeare’s literature is proof that even back in the 1600s people still reacted the same as they do today. The stages of loss can occur in anyone and influence people to do things they wouldn’t normally do. It is found that though decisions can be even more complex under these

conditions.