The Meaning Of Death In William Shakespeare's Hamlet

Steve Jobs has described death as “the destination we all share, no one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be because death is very likely the single best invention of life.” In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet is the main protagonist whose father has recently died and Hamlet 's uncle Claudius has taken the reins of ruling Denmark. Furthermore, Hamlet’s father appears in the form of a ghost to explain to Hamlet that Claudius murdered him and implores him to seek revenge on Claudius. Through mourning his father 's death and his task of murdering his uncle, Hamlet enters into introspection about the meaning of what life is. Throughout Hamlet, Hamlet 's uncertainty of the afterlife drives him to question if life has a greater meaning than his reality.

In the beginning of the tragedy, Hamlet believes in a higher power affecting his ability to enter heaven feeling that God is restricting his ability to act in a certain way. Hamlet reasons that suicide would “resolve itself into a dew, Or that the Everlasting had not fixed” but is restrained “ 'gainst self-slaughter! O God, God!” Through Hamlet 's upbringing, he has always believed in a god. He feels as if god restricts how he should act and behave, it actually seemed to help him navigate moral conflicts and be a person with high values. In this instance, Hamlet is beginning to see how hard it is to be alive and to him, suicide is a way to escape the tragedies that awaits him if he decides to continue his life. However, the belief in a higher power stops him from taking a trip to the graveyard, thus in the commencement of the play Hamlets belief in an afterlife is alive but as Hamlet looks at the suicide route he examines whether someone is watching his every