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Hamlet Mortality Essay

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Hamlet Essay: The Theme of Mortality The truth is: death is inevitable. Everyone will ultimately face death and many fear this certain encounter because it’s the fear of the unknown. No human being can predict what will happen in the afterlife and that’s why so many people set their hopes into religion. Religion gives people a purpose to believe; it’s to add comfort from the fear of not knowing. All in all, the complexities of life and death remain unanswered, but people continue searching. Hamlet is written by the famous writer William Shakespeare and was first published in 1603. This tragic play takes place in Elsinore, Denmark where a young prince named Hamlet recently experienced a loss of a father and yearns for revenge. While in the …show more content…

Hamlet even contemplates on his own life and seeks suicide to end his suffering in the real world. With the usage of metaphors, symbolism, and soliloquies, Shakespeare is able to carry out his theme of mortality successfully. There are many instances when Hamlet witnessed the spirit of his deceased father. Particularly, in the beginning of the act when Old Hamlet’s “canonized bones, hearsed in death, have burst their cerements” ( Act 1, Scene 2) to inform and tempt Hamlet to take revenge against King Claudius. Shakespeare utilizes this metaphor to compare Hamlet’s father’s bones to the holiness of a saint in order to emphasize the good in the deceased king who was unjustly murdered. By using this comparison, King Hamlet is overly depicted as a victim, which makes Hamlet’s mission for revenge even more significant. This supernatural being who appeared out of nowhere has the reader questioning if Hamlet should actually trust this ghost who …show more content…

They were making a grave for the recently deceased Ophelia. While digging, Yorick’s skull appears and Hamlet attains nostalgic childhood memories of the court jester. When Hamlet held the skull and stared directly at it, he mentions how he does not “know how many times [he] kissed the lips that used to be right [there]”(Act 5 Scene 1). From this moment, Hamlet realizes that everyone will “returneth to dust” even “Alexander” or “Caesar” who is “dead and turned to clay”. Yorick’s skull acts as an important symbol in Hamlet because it represents the permanence of death. Shakespeare uses this symbol to show the audience that everyone will eventually reach the same fate and that differentiating factors like class and race will no longer matter. This turning point for Hamlet helps him understand the ultimate deterioration of the physical body and how the social structure is

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