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How Does Shakespeare Present Death In Elizabethan Culture

1050 Words5 Pages

In the great novel Hamlet by William Shakespeare, characters talk about death in a nonchalant way. They do not give the proper respect towards those who have died. These ideas are manifested through the grave scene, when Hamlet killed Claudius and others. The attitudes towards death in Hamlet show modern culture about the culture in Elizabethan culture though the similarities thought the play of Hamlet.
One example of the the nonchalant attitudes towards death is when Hamlet kills Polonius in Act 3 scene 4 as Hamlet lashes out at his mother. Seeing movement behind a curtain Hamlet stabs through the curtin thinking it was Claudius but killing Polonius instead. Hamlet sees his father’s ghost telling him to ease up on the Queen. Hamlet tells his mother to avoid sleeping with the King from this point forth.
“HAMLET
A bloody deed! …show more content…

During the book the priests of the church are debating whether or not to bury Ophelia should be buried in the church burial grounds because the churches burial grounds are hallowed ground and she should not be buried there if she committed suicide. This manifests the facts from Elizabethan times that suicides cannot be buried in the churchyard. This further proves the similarities from the great play of Hamlet and the culture in Elizabethan England times.

There is yet another example of how characters talk about death in a nonchalant way and treat death in a nonchalant way. Near the end of the play when the king is trying to kill Hamlet by making him duel Laertes which he had given a poisoned tip foil. Also the king had arranged for a poisoned drink of wine that at first he refused to drink thinking it was poisoned. During the beginning of the fight Queen Gertrude wishes Hamlet luck and drinks the poisoned wine with little attempt to be stopped from the king.
“QUEEN GERTRUDE
He's fat, and scant of

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