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Hamlet Suicide Essay

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The Theme of Suicide in Hamlet “To be, or not to be”, is the antithesis by which Shakespeare has created a dilemma of whether to live on with all the injustice and cruelty existing in the world or to accept the consequences of ending the life that is given by God(Shakespeare, III, I, 57). Shakespeare has depicted the societal beliefs regarding committing suicide as a sin associated with religious beliefs. The moral attitudes of both Hamlet and Ophelia toward their suicidal actions have been represented as a devout and an ethical taboo, which ultimately prevented one of them from self-annihilation, yet encouraged the other to implement it.
Hamlet’s “O, that this too too solid flesh would melt” soliloquy became the first scene in which the idea …show more content…

Therefore, Hamlet hesitates to kill himself considering the consequences of societal opinions towards him, even with his mental crisis. “That flesh is heir to: ’tis a consummation. Devoutly to be wish’d”(Shakespeare, III, I, 64-65), wherein Hamlet devoutly wishes for consummation which reveals the final instance of all suffering that could be done by death, but also to reach religious completion by salvation to God.
Further, Hamlet analogizes death to an undiscovered country. “The undiscovere’d country, from whose bourn. No traveller returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have. Than fly to others that we know not of?”(Shakespeare, III, I, 80-83). He states that only those who have experienced death can describe the afterlife, and those who are alive can just envisage it. Hence, how can we be assured that life after death is better since we are not aware of where we are going? The momentous soliloquy is accomplished when Ophelia is onstage. Shakespeare has concealed a message in this scene, Hamlet was a character who thought about ending his life but changed his mind with deeper contemplation; nevertheless, the story alters with Ophelia’s presence, and ultimately, she becomes nothing but death. The one who was a figure of vitality and cheerfulness ended her life by drowning herself in the river. The religious and societal discernment of the priests and others regarding Ophelia was the only remaining notion followed by her

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