Death is a question that is revealed through the characters in the play. Throughout the play Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, he portrays that greed brings disease to the mind then causes death and the cycle of people dying keeps going. The entire tone of the play is murder, death, suicide, and revenge with the never-ending cycle The death of characters becomes common and interesting. There is a deep understanding of death and decay The opening scene is with Hamlet’s father’s death and it is absolutely tragic for Hamlet Old Hamlet comes to him in his after-life and tells Hamlet, “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder”. After this, Hamlet seemed very eager for revenge Little by little, Old Hamlet reveals his killer as Claudius which is his brother, who then marries his wife, Queen Gertrude to become the king.
The Ghost and Hamlet are not happy about Gertrude’s incest with Claudius, but he tells Hamlet to keep her out the things as a way to protection Hamlet is appalled when he finds out the truth and has vowed to avenge his father’s death, but Hamlet becomes so obsessed with Gertrude’s sex life that it has become a problem and the Ghost has to return to redirect Hamlet anger with killing Claudius. Jamieson supports that “Hamlet is fascinated by death throughout the play, Deeply rooted in his character, this obsession with death is likely a product of his grief,” therefore the claim of tone is seen by other viewers (Jamieson 1). While Hamlet is feeling all of these emotions, he fears that the ghost is lying and he is uncertain about killing Claudius. So he sets up a ploy to test the ghost’s story and make sure Claudius is guilty of the murder.
“The spirit that I have seen may be the devil, and the devil hath power to assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps, out of my weakness and my melancholy, as he is very potent with such spirits, abuses me to damn me I’ll have grounds more relative than this The play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King” Hamlet is hurting, mourning, and more than willing to avenge the death of his father and this also turns Hamlet into a merciless killer. Another tragic death is Ophelia’s, the daughter of Polonius. She is innocent and dies by a tragic self»inflicted death due to being a small pawn in a game of chess between the royalty. Hamlet loved Ophelia very dearly and only wanted the best for her, but he drove her to her death unintentionally, “I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers could not with all their quantity of love make up my sum”. Hamlet had accidentally killed Polonius mistaking him for Claudius and Ophelia was positively devastated.
Then shortly after she had become mad and committed suicide. Hamlet is truly heartbroken, as well as the Queen, She gives a monologue about Ophelia’s death saying how she is despairing the death of her future daughter»in-law. Her brother Laertes had not been there for Ophelia after their father’s death and he understood how that also played a role in her suicide, but he is focused on trying to kill Hamlet to avenge Polonius death, as well as Ophelia‘s now. Before her death and Polonius‘ death, Laertes tells her to stay away from Hamlet because he just wants her virginity, Polonius had also told her something similar. They both had left this rude insensitive imprint on Ophelia and even after her death, she will remember it. “For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favor, hold it a fashion and a toy in blood, a violet in the youth of primy nature, forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting, the perfume and suppliance of a minute.
No more,” Laertes was being a hypocrite because he did the things he was telling her not to do, sleeping around. Hamlet was different than Laertes and did not want to use Ophelia, he was deeply in love with her, as was she. The last tragic death is Queen Gertrude. Her death was truly caught in the crossfire. She drank a drink meant for Hamlet plotted by her beloved new husband, Claudius and died due to poison. Claudius and Laertes both wanted Hamlet dead and they came up with three plans to ensure his death. Unfortunately, some things did not go as planned, “No, no, the drink, the drink! 0, my dear Hamlet! The drink, the drink! I am poisoned” the Queen shouts before she dies. Hamlet is outraged and is determined to find out who has done this to his mother. After a battle with Laertes, he confessed that the King is the one who is to blame as well as himself. Laertes is deeply remorseful and apologizes to Hamlet because he never intended for the Queen to die.
Hamlet then goes after the King and forces him to drink the rest of the poisonous drink, “Here, thou incestuous, murd’rous, damned Dane, drink off this poison. ls thy union here?“. Hamlet has taken five acts to avenge his father‘s death and after he has done so he feels accomplished. Now he has avenged his father and mother’s death. King Claudius never repented of his sins, so he will burn in hell just like Hamlet intended. The deaths of Old Hamlet, Ophelia, and Queen Gertrude were ones of tragedy because they were caught in the crossfire of revenge. The disease that overtook Hamlet and Laertes was revenge. In the moment, they did not care for the ones they were hurting or killing. Hamlet was so caught up with his end result he killed four people, not including Ophelia and considered them as collateral damage just to kill the one he really wanted, Claudius. Toward the end of the play, it seemed that Hamlet has gone mad and did not value his life or the life of others. However, this demonstrates the main idea that the cycle of death is truly neverending.
