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Death And Mortality In Shakespeare's Hamlet

1131 Words5 Pages

Death is arguably the most central theme in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Hamlet deals with the idea of his own death and also thinks about his father’s in addition to thinking about the subject just in general. Death and mortality are displayed and play a vital role in the story from the very beginning. Shakespeare makes it very clear that Hamlet is afraid of dying mostly because he is concerned about what happens when you die. Deaths litter the entire plot line, especially towards the end. The theme of death can be found through the entire plot, but more than anything in the famous, “To be, or not to be?” soliloquy (Shakespeare, 127) . Here we are given insight into Hamlet’s view on the subject and can see that he thinks about it a lot, nearly …show more content…

Hamlet doesn’t seem to think twice about killing Polonius. This portrays that Hamlet has a darker side. This also reflects the ideology that Hamlet us indeed crazy. It is ironic that Polonius was spying on Hamlet at the time. Maybe he wouldn’t have been killed if he didn’t do this in the first place. It is further ironic that Polonius specifically told Gertrude to be very aggressive towards hamlet, but when she was aggressive, maybe the conversation would have stayed calmer and then Polonius would never have called out for help and Hamlet wouldn’t have known he was there. In other words, Polonius would not have gotten killed. Beyond all of this, Polonius’s death causes a chain reaction that results in many other deaths.
Ophelia’s death is a less significant event in the play, but it still touches upon the motif of death. Her death was different than the other deaths in the story. It’s as if she chooses not to save herself and lets her “garments, heavy with their drink” take over her in a sort of suicide (Shakespeare, 235). Ophelia’s death can be said to have come from Hamlet’s murder of Polonius and the fact that Ophelia consequently goes

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