When Is Hamlet Suicidal

Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Hamlet, is a tale of betrayal, death, and the contemplations of life. The play’s main focus is on the protagonist, Hamlet, and his quest for revenge; however, the ponderings of Hamlet is what the play is greatly known for. Suicide is a huge piece in Hamlet’s philosophical journey, but he is not actually suicidal despite popular belief. His actions and motivations point not to self slaughter, but instead to wondering.

Hamlet’s actions in the play portray a man who is not suicidal, but rather contemplative. However; many scenes in the play may convince readers that he is indeed inclined toward self slaughter. He loved and admired his father, Hamlet senior, deeply. Hamlet idolized him to the point that he compared

At the beginning of Hamlet’s first soliloquy Hamlet speaks first of “how weary, stale, and unprofitable seem to … [Hamlet] all the uses of this world … ‘tis an unweeded garden that grows … things gross and rank in nature” (29). He believes that the world has few uses which hold worth. “You cannot take from me anything that I will more willingly part withal-except my life”(97). The Tragedy of Hamlet has gained a reputation, particularly due to the third soliloquy in which Hamlet speaks his most famous lines, “To be or not to be-that is the question”(127). During this soliloquy, Hamlet questions whether life is worth living directly, stating “to die, to sleep-no more-and by a sleep to say we end the heartache”(127). He is pondering life and what it has to offer, yet he also knows that death is frightening. “For in the sleep of death what dreams may come, when we have shuffled off this mortal coil”(127). Hamlet is afraid of death, for it is unknown what lies ahead after death. Hamlet considers 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”(127). In this sentence, it becomes clear that, rather than