Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's Five Stages Of Grief Analysis

In her 1969 book, On Death and Dying, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross explores the behavioral changes of individuals that are dying and others who have faced the death of a loved one. It is in that book Kübler-Ross offers up the theory of the five stages of grief the mind undergoes with such traumatic events. Denial and isolation followed by anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. William Shakespeare in Hamlet shows [ how these stages of grief affect people] also shares the journey of a flawed prince tasked with revenge, [and how the stages of grief are almost a blockade for his revenge]. Contrary to what was described of Hamlet before the chain of unfortunate events, throughout the play, Hamlet goes from dreary to determined, mournful to resolute,

Hamlet realizes that acting quickly and thinking things through doesn’t matter because human life all ends up the same. So, he starts to understand the meaning of life and accept how his fate ends, but he first realized when he was with the Gravedigger. Firstly, Hamlet started to understand how life roles its course when he saw Yorick’s skull. When the gravedigger showed him Yorick’s skull, Hamlet recognized that we all end up the same way no matter if we peacefully die or get murdered. This shows that this is when Hamlet first started to understand the meaning that life and why we should value and appreciate our lives. At this scene, it’s also when Hamlet decides to understand the mistakes that he has made and face the consequences, but not be afraid because that’s how his fate ended up to be. Secondly, Hamlet understands the value that life gives because he told Horatio not to kill himself. When Horatio admits that he’s, “more an antique Roman than a Dane” (V.II.360), Hamlet quickly tells Horatio, “if thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,/ Absent thee from felicity awhile/ And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain/ To tell my story” (V.II.367-370). Instead of letting Horatio kill himself, he says to postpone the happiness of death because he needs to tell people tell his story. When Hamlet tells this to Horatio, he’s giving Horatio an excuse to stay alive because he knows that life is valuable and just because it’s hard, it doesn’t mean they should end their life. This demonstrates Hamlet interpreting his own meaning of life because he want’s Horatio to tell his story, so that others can tell his story and so on. Hamlet’s meaning of life is to tell stories and live based on the stories we hear. Lastly, Hamlet understands that the people in the kingdom won’t know what to do without a leader. So, while Hamlet is dying, he says, , “But I do prophesy th’ election lights/