On Hamlet, Mortality, And the Narrow Divide between Life and Death Hamlet- one of Shakespeare’s most thoroughly referenced works, and one the most widely studied pieces of English literature. Thanks to modern ignorance and terrible acts of misattribution, Hamlet has become synonymous with epic single acts, standalone speeches and incredible and ageless words of wisdom. But the reality stands alone in its travesty- Hamlet is more realistically akin to incestuous desire, copious amounts of death, unreciprocated love and the dire consequences that result from waiting too long to carry out your premeditated homicides. Too often are Hamlet’s self-pitying words associated with emotional intelligence, and his madness feebly mistaken as a reference …show more content…
Aforementioned in this paper, Hamlet is of the school of belief that life is essentially worthless in the end- that in all its glory and grandeur, it is simply farcical to even attempt anything that does not provide immediate necessity to the individual because ultimately it has no bearing on society, there is no good or evil, there is only death and its living companions. But Hamlet merits that death too has its uncertainties, and (because of his Catholic faith) acknowledges that he will go to Hell if he kills himself, so he decides to continue, motivated further to at least live long enough to avenge his father’s death by killing Claudius. Here too Hamlet faces a dilemma whereupon he ventures out to kill Claudius only to find that he is repenting of his mortal sin of killing Old King Hamlet and thus clearing his path to heaven. Hamlet resolves to catch him in his whereabouts some other time in which he is not graced by the spirit of forgiveness, so that Claudius is to suffer an eternal torment- which Hamlet decides is the only punishment that will indeed fit the crime. In so choosing to do this, the true madness is revealed in the lapse of judgement Hamlet exercises by choosing to take it upon himself to kill the king- will he not also bear responsibility for Claudius’s death, and therefore susceptible to the same eternal discipline as his