Examples Of Selfishness In Hamlet

Bryant H. McGill once said, “The world is not fair, and often fools, cowards, liars and the selfish hide in high places.” One of William Shakespeare’s most famous tragic stories, Hamlet, is about a prince and his vision to see vengeance for his father’s death at whatever cost. In Hamlet, Shakespeare uses Prince Hamlet’s identity, sarcasm, madness, and suicidal tendencies to reveal what selfishness can do to oneself.
Throughout his life, Hamlet tries to find his identity in different people and in his actions. In the beginning of Hamlet, it is revealed that Prince Hamlet’s father was killed and his uncle has become the new king of Denmark as well as taken up the role of Hamlet’s father. This is what leads to Hamlet’s first words in the play,

During consideration Hamlet says to himself, “O, that this too too sullied flesh would melt, thaw and resolve itself into a dew, or that the Everlasting had not fixed his canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! O God, God! How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!” (1.2.133-138). Hamlet wishes that all this could dissolve into nothingness so he can be free from the weight he feels of bringing justice to his father. No more responsibilities would be laid upon him. Later on Hamlet thinks about suicide and what motivates people to act or not. Upon thinking about these things, Hamlet states his most famous soliloquy, “To be or not to be--that is the question: 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? To die, to sleep--no more--and by a sleep to say we end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to--‘tis a consummation devoutly to be wished!” (3.1.64-72). His thoughts about the reasoning behind committing suicide is that perhaps it is more honorable to endure all the trials faced in this life but to die would end them all, which would prevent oneself from ever feeling another