ipl-logo

Hamlet's Obsession With Death

939 Words4 Pages

The Tragedy of Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, in the 1600’s, is about the Danish prince, Hamlet, who's father dies months before the opening scene of the play. Hamlet is mourning his father’s death, to later find out he had been murdered by his own brother, Claudius. After murdering the King, Claudius quickly weds his brother's widow, Gertrude, and takes the throne from its rightful owner, Hamlet. Hamlet’s rage sends him spiralling into madness. The madness starts by the truth of his father’s death, and continues to fuel thoughts of death. This madness can be classified as necromania, “an obsession with death or the dead” (thefreedictionary.com). Throughout the play, the reoccurrence of death as a theme is prominent, from the classic ending of a Shakespearean tragedy, the death of all the main …show more content…

Grief is defined by Merriam-Webster as the “deep sadness caused especially by someone's death” (merriam-webster.com, 1) and is characterized by five stages, one of them being depression. According to the Mayo Clinic, depression has a symptom of “frequent or recurrent thoughts of death, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts or suicide” (mayoclinic.org). Hamlet is experiencing grief and depression, and is evident by his constant talk of death or suicide. For example, his soliloquy in which he contemplates whether ”to be,or not to be: [. . .]/ To die, [ or ] to sleep [. . .]/ For in that sleep of death what dreams may come” (III.i.56-66). Hamlet is conflicting with himself about whether he should kill himself, take action by killing Claudius, or do nothing. Another example is when Hamlet states that he would kill himself if “the Everlasting had not fix’d/ His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter” (I.ii.131-132). He’s saying if there wasn’t the chance he would go to Hell because of his religion's ban on suicide, he would kill himself. This depression is not only from grief but from his temperament

Show More
Related
694 Words | 3 Pages

Queen Gertrude teaches Hamlet a valuable lesson about death when she says “Thou know’st ‘tis common; all that lives must die, / Passing through nature to eternity” (1.2.74–75). She tells us that all we know is that we go from earthly existence back into the mysterious pace from whence we came. In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet contemplates what happens when we die and what it means to die. Hamlet's point of view on death changes throughout the play. His views range from one side of the spectrum – contemplating the worth of life – to the other, which is death.

Read More
1432 Words | 6 Pages

Death seems to be the biggest mystery in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. From the start of the play with the Ghost of Hamlets father appearing to avenge his death, to Hamlet’s most popular “To be or Not to be” soliloquy, and to the plays bloody conclusion; the uncertainty of death seems to always be on our protagonist mind. Death has become a recurring theme throughout this whole play. His thoughts of death range from death in a spiritual matter, the truth and uncertainty in what death may bring, and the question of his own death.

Read More
719 Words | 3 Pages

Hamlet is quite struggling about to live or to die. At the beginning of the play, he is grieved at his father’s death and his mother’s hasty marriage with his uncle. He decided not to die at last. It is very easy to see that Hamlet was crazy at that time. He talked about he wanted to relieve after death but there was still nightmare after death.

Read More
987 Words | 4 Pages

To further explain, when Hamlet learns about the true means of his father’s death, and as the plot thickens, he starts to contemplate suicide. In the famous “To Be or Not To Be” speech, Hamlet fights with himself on the value of life, and if it is worth all the hardship he is facing. He believes that living life is suffering “The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”(III.I. 127. 66). The mental anguish that Hamlet feels from holding such heavy burdens, without enough time to properly grieve, is so severe that he considers suicide as a good way out. This very depressing view on life has been induced due to the negative effects of loss.

Read More
676 Words | 3 Pages

He states that it is against God's will to take one’s life, “Or that the Everlasting had not fixed / his cannon ‘gainst self-slaughter” (I.ii.42). During the time in history in which Hamlet was written religion was a predominant aspect of society and daily life. The author of the play, William Shakespeare lived in England, where Christianity was dominant. In the Bible, Christianity’s sacred text, it forbids the taking of one’s own life in an act of suicide. It describes it as being a sin to kill you and that it goes against God's will,

Read More
1071 Words | 5 Pages

His depression is so great that he has thought of suicide, a huge cultural sin, as he knows. Hamlet’s thoughtfulness is also conveyed, taking six lines to delve into his emotions.

Read More
1267 Words | 6 Pages

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

Read More
766 Words | 4 Pages

“...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…” (Act 3 scene 1).Hamlet starts to have second thoughts about suicide, regarding that if it should just be sucked up and live on or die and ignore. Morality was one major reason he had second thoughts about suicide. Although hamlet did not technically commit suicide there was a character in the play that did. Ophelia, a young girl, also known as Hamlets secret girl, committed suicide because she felt destroyed after Hamlet killed her father.

Read More
1533 Words | 7 Pages

Death is one of the most prominent themes in Hamlet, appearing in different forms. Shakespeare displays death through the suicide of Ophelia, Hamlet’s own thoughts and eventual suicide, and the murder of King Hamlet and Polonius. Hamlet displays suicidal tendencies throughout the play through his soliloquies. The first time that Hamlet contemplates committing suicide is when Gertrude and Claudius tell him that he has to stay in Denmark in Act one. “Oh, 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!

Read More
584 Words | 3 Pages

Many people are afraid of something whether it be certain animals, bugs, plants, or even people. However, I believe that everyone has a fear of death. When you die you don't know what happens afterwards. Some people think that your energy absorbs into the earth and you just become energy in the earth. Others believe nothing happens everything is simply black and your nonexistent.

Read More
873 Words | 4 Pages

When Hamlet meets with the ghost King Hamlet in the opening scene, he realizes that his father is murdered by Claudius. From Act I scene 5, the ghost King Hamlet is asking Hamlet to seek for revenge, “So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear” (1.5.12). By knowing this, Hamlet starts the revenge for his father and sets the tone of the entire play where death, revenge, murder, and suicide become the symbols of the whole play, and leads to the deaths of almost all the characters, including Claudius, Laertes, Polonius, Ophelia, Queen Gertrude, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Hamlet himself. Also, because of his father’s death and his mother’s quick marriage with Claudius, Hamlet has the idea of committing suicide. From Act I scene 2, "O, that this too sullied flesh would melt,Thaw, and resolve itself to dew" (1.2.133-134).

Read More
1250 Words | 5 Pages

In the “To be or not to be” soliloquy, Hamlet says, “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 61-64) Proving that he is so distraught about taking action against his uncle that he believes that death would be an easier alterative to losing his purity and innocence. He ultimately decides that suicide is not the answer, “With this regard their currents turn awry/ And lose the name of action,” (3.1 88-89) because he cannot take the uncertainty of the afterlife. This entire soliloquy also highlights Hamlets delayed action to his problems.

Read More
1306 Words | 6 Pages

Shakespeare presents death as an inevitable act of life, noting that all that is living must eventually come to an end. Due to “Hamlet” being a Shakespearean tragedy, the theme of death recurs throughout the play. Additionally, Shakespeare can be seen as using revenge as the main motive of a character’s murder, which makes “Hamlet” a revenge tragedy. The tragic nature means that by the end of the play, majority of the characters would have died. In this case, many of the characters have died due to murder or suicide.

Read More
847 Words | 4 Pages

In his soliloquy, he is asking himself whether it is better to live or to die, which he is considering to commit suicide. Also, in the soliloquy, Hamlet states that “Who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscovered country from whose bourn No traveler returns, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of?” (3.1.84-90). He explains that no one would like to live in an exhausting life, unless they don’t know what is going to happen after they die because they are afraid of what their after life is going to be. Both these quotes prove that the death symbol is always surrounded by Hamlet and he has a hard time to choose between life and

Read More
711 Words | 3 Pages

Because of how closely religion and moral was tied together, suicide was considered morally wrong due to its classification as a sin. Hamlet himself claims in the «O´ that this too, too solid flesh would melt» soliloquy that he would commit suicide had it not been deemed wrong by the church. In other words, the play Hamlet treats suicide as a

Read More

More about Hamlet's Obsession With Death

Related Topics

Open Document