Futility Of Life In Hamlet

The idea that our actions could be meaningless is one that is not uncommon for one to ponder; though a troubling thought, it cannot be denied that once an individual is dead, their previous actions don't make any difference to things anymore. This idea is elaborated on by two great writers, William Shakespeare and T. S. Eliot. A universal theme about the futility of life is shared in Shakespeare's Hamlet and Eliot's The Wasteland.
In Shakespeare's play, the main character, Hamlet, regularly has doubtful and somewhat nihilistic views on his life. 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

Eliot are distinctly dissimilar, the messages expressed through these two excerpts are the same. Lines 203-212 in act V scene i. of Hamlet and Lines 66-75 in section I of The Wasteland both reflect the idea of the speakers that our actions in life are futile. This universal theme that is expressed in both works tells us that we are all connected through