ipl-logo

Death In Hamlet

834 Words4 Pages

William Shakespeare is one of the most famous playwrights of all time, who is known for his comedies, histories, and tragedies. One of the most famous being Hamlet, a play about a prince whose father gets murdered by his uncle, who is now king. Hamlet contemplates death on a path to seek revenge for his father, while pained by the sight of his mother now married to his uncle.
“If thou hast nature in the, bear it not”( Shakespeare, William. 61). One of the last words Hamlet heard from the ghost of his father. These words stick with Hamlet through every action he takes. His whole journey is based off of these simple words. When Hamlet found out that his father was murdered he seeked revenge. From this it is led to believe that his father must …show more content…

During Act 5, Hamlet is at the graveyard where Ophelia is being buried a few graves over and holds up a skull of a court jester he once new. It portrays the finality of death; the irreversible end to life. He seems to be speaking to the skull of the jester saying how “not one now to mock your own grinning?”, that he is no longer able to do what he did when he was alive( 251 ). Like his “To be… Or not to be…” soliloquy, this scene gives Hamlet yet another chance to evaluate death and what it means to him( 127 ). How when you die, your purpose in life is no longer there. He assesses what each person 's true motive in life is, why we are here, and what we were made for. Not only did the skull represent life and death, the skull also gave him a chance to think about the good times he had when he was a child. He is reminded of the many times the jester “hath borne’ him ‘on his back”, and all the joy he had during his childhood( 249 ). With everything that is going on with him, it adds a calm before the storm that happens in the following scenes and provides a shift in tone which is vary rarely seen in the play. This leads Hamlet to see what good can come from life instead of the severe moments that he has come across during his

Show More
Related

  • Hamlet Holding The Skull Of Yorick Essay

    1399 Words  | 6 Pages

    your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? " This signifies the importance of the past and death in Hamlet's life., and Hamlet also questions his state of living in act 3, scene

    Read More

  • Hamlet's Perception Of Death In Hamlet By William Shakespeare

    421 Words  | 2 Pages

    In William Shakespeare's renowned tragedy, Hamlet, the titular character's thoughts on death are frequently expressed throughout the play. Hamlet's perception of death evolves as he experiences the consequences of his actions and begins to understand the true nature of life and mortality. At the start of the play, Hamlet is already contemplating the nature of death, and he speaks of it as an escape from life's pain and suffering. In his first soliloquy, Hamlet expresses his frustration with his mother's hasty remarriage to his uncle, who has become the new king of Denmark.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Despair In Hamlet

    394 Words  | 2 Pages

    At this point in the play, Hamlet discovers that Claudius is only putting on a show and is "a villain" who is only "smiling" to disguise his murderous actions with happiness. This foreshadows the rest of the play when Hamlet makes the sudden decision, fueled by his despair, to perform the same act as Claudius. He takes Claudius's deception and twists it into his own, where Hamlet pretends to go into a manic state of despair to distract the court from the revenge plan that Hamlet is planning to both expose and dispose of Claudius. Hamlet's lines through these passages show the despair he feels by discovering the true nature of his father's death and

    Read More

  • Grief In Hamlet's Grief

    1071 Words  | 5 Pages

    In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet struggles to cope with his late father’s death and his mother’s quick marriage. In Act 1, Scene 2, King Claudius, Queen Gertrude, and Hamlet are all introduced. Hamlet has just finished publicly speaking with his mom and the new king, and after he is interrupted by his good friend Horatio, who reveal the secret about King Hamlet’s ghost. Hamlet’s soliloquy is particularly crucial because it serves as his initial characterization, revealing the causes of his anguish. Hamlet’s grief is apparent to the audience, as he begins lamenting about the uselessness of life.

    Read More

  • Futility Of Life In Hamlet

    962 Words  | 4 Pages

    He maintains that his life has no value throughout the play and contemplates suicide. Hamlet's questioning thoughts on life's worth is further expressed the ten lines of 203-212 in act V scene i. which read ““No, faith, not a jot, but to follow him thither/ with modesty enough and likelihood to lead it:/ Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander retur-/ neth to dust, the dust is earth, of earth we make/ loam, and why of that loam whereto he was con-/ verted might they not stop a beer-barrel?/ Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay,/ Might stop a hole to keep the wind away./ O that the earth which kept the world in awe/ Should patch a wall t' expel the winter's flaw!” Hamlet speaks these lines during an exchange with the gravediggers, one who was singing and juggling skulls while he worked. In these lines, Hamlet explains how no one's life is really worth anything because, in the end, we are all reduced to corpses, skulls, dust, and clay. By using Alexander and Caesar as examples, two influential and powerful leaders of

    Read More

  • Honor In Hamlet Essay

    799 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the play Hamlet, we find that Hamlet meets with his father’s ghost, and about his father murder by the hands of blood related brother, Hamlet takes a decision, to revenge and restore the glory back

    Read More

  • Importance Of Adversity In Hamlet

    898 Words  | 4 Pages

    We see his relation to death and how he is intrigued by it, in his soliloquy in Act one scene 2 he says the lines”o, that this too sullied flesh would melt” signifying his sense of wanting to disappear. The re-marriage of Gertrude with Claudius, his Uncle taking over as king instead of him, makes hamlet feel a

    Read More

  • Comparing Hamlet And Branagh's Speech

    550 Words  | 3 Pages

    but it brought out Hamlet’s intelligence and solidified his sanity. The dark background of the set forced the audience to focus on the little details of Gibson’s expressions and then the bodies that appeared with their eyes closed using sleep to symbolize death. All of the coffins represent the many different ways that Hamlet could kill Claudius but they are also an allusion to Hamlet’s struggle with life. Gibson’s tone is sad, depressed, and yet soft throughout his soliloquy. There was no music which allowed the audience to rely on his words and expressions to portray the emotion of the

    Read More

  • The Mystery Of Death In Hamlet

    2157 Words  | 9 Pages

    It is not only his presence, but also his words that suggest the idea of death, as the Ghost gives the account of his murder - ‘Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole with juice of cursed hebenon in a vial, and in the porches of my ears did pour the leperous distilment, whose effect holds such an enmity with blood of man that swift as quicksilver it courses through the natural gates and alleys of the body, and with a sudden vigour it doth posset and curd, like eager droppings into milk, the thin and wholesome blood. So did it mine, and a most instant tetter bark’d about, most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust all my smooth body.’ Not only does Hamlet have to plan his revenge, but he must also deal with his ideas about death. Old Hamlet’s murder begins the theme of death in “Hamlet”. Hamlet’s vow to avenge his father’s murder and consequent plot to kill Claudius ultimately leads to the deaths of his future father-in-law Polonius, his bride to be Ophelia, his mother Queen Gertrude, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Claudius, Laertes and Hamlet

    Read More

  • Hamlet Death Analysis

    1206 Words  | 5 Pages

    Death, and what comes after it, has fascinated human for as long as we have been able to conceptualize it. Fear and curiosity drove a ceaseless search for the ultimate unknown: the afterlife. Tied to this obsession with mortality is the concept of causing death, either someone else’s or your own. William Shakespeare focuses on the ideas and taboo nature that surround death, specifically suicide, in his play Hamlet. Through Hamlet’s soliloquies, the events surrounding Ophelia’s demise, and the truly tragic ending of the play, Shakespeare shows the conflict between the preoccupation with death and the possible relief it could provide and the religious, moral, and other possible drawbacks that concern the act of ending a life.

    Read More

  • Memory And Remembrance Of The Dead In Hamlet

    1425 Words  | 6 Pages

    The remembrance of the dead allows for friction between Hamlet, Claudius and Gertrude to be created due to their different methods of viewing death. This also explains the willingness with which Hamlet accepts the vengeful act his father bestows on him, as he continued to mourn his father’s death while his family had accepted it. The importance of rememering the dead allowed for the action of the play to exist, as it is this remembrance which created Hamlet’s plot of revenge. Finally, the importance of the remembrance of the dead in Hamlet is that it conjures actions laden in revenge, which leads to the violent end to the

    Read More

  • How Does Hamlet End His Life

    358 Words  | 2 Pages

    thought of ending his life and escaping from all these depression and emotional torture. “What is the good of living when shame torments our conscience and cowardice holds us back from gallant enterprises?”(Act 3, scene 1). Here, Hamlet is being confronted with a situation that is too much for him to handle. Hamlet wonders, what is the gain in avenging his father’s death, if it can not change anything or make him happy? It will not bring his father back to life, he will not possess his mother, he might not be crown king and he might be jailed, even when he had every opportunity to kill his uncle while he was praying, instead of claiming that he does not want him to go to heaven.

    Read More

  • Death Theme In Hamlet

    847 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, Hamlet is tangled with the theme of death. During the play, he presents how his life is surrounded with death after the death of his father. Death theme is the most occuring theme Shakespeare writes about in his plays, which most plays have a very dramatic death theme and most of time involve the death of the main protagonist. Throughout the play, Shakespeare presents the idea of life, which is the never ending cycle of death and revenge. Shakespeare starts the theme of death with the death of King Hamlet, which stimulates Hamlet to seek for revenge with his various soliloquies considering death from various points of view and certainly leads to a dramatic ending.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Death In Hamlet

    1306 Words  | 6 Pages

    Shakespeare presents death as an inevitable act of life, noting that all that is living must eventually come to an end. Due to “Hamlet” being a Shakespearean tragedy, the theme of death recurs throughout the play. Additionally, Shakespeare can be seen as using revenge as the main motive of a character’s murder, which makes “Hamlet” a revenge tragedy. The tragic nature means that by the end of the play, majority of the characters would have died. In this case, many of the characters have died due to murder or suicide.

    Read More

  • The Tragedy Of The Ghost Of Late Hamlet

    237 Words  | 1 Pages

    “Oh I die, Horatio,” breathes young Hamlet, the Danish prince and philosopher, spluttering his final words to his best friend before he closes his eyes for eternity. A few steps away near the throne lies Claudius, brutally stabbed and very much still; the King is dead, and the revenge of the Ghost of late Hamlet is fulfilled. However, these two bodies are not the only ones that are inanimate. Splayed across the court are the helpless limbs and lolling heads of Laertes and Gertrude, whose departures were not meant to be. Neither did Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Polonius nor did the lovely, blossoming Ophelia need to face perennial sleep; the lives of seven, including Hamlet himself, deserves to prevail but, of course, does not.

    Read More

More about Death In Hamlet

Open Document