One of the major issues that stood out in ‘Hamlet’ is death. Shakespeare is able to illustrate the theme of death through tragedy and comedy and is able to involve his audience to give them a chance to understand his plays. As ‘Hamlet’ opens up, there is the ghost of Hamlet’s father, which introduces this element. For example, it can be perceived to be a form of disruption and fear. This is seen in the way Hamlet’s father’s death affects his son so much that he thinks about not only killing himself but also considers committing suicide in many of the scenes. As well, through the ghost, he gives light to the consequences of death. From the time he meets the ghost, which is considered is father’s spirit, he then comes up with ways to deal with his death. Will he get revenge? Or will he commit suicide to take all of the stress away? Hamlet does not know how to cope with death so throughout the whole play, his attitude towards is father’s death is undecisive. The ghost of his father can gives Hamlet motives to fear death and to also take it as a joke. During the development of the plot, we find out how Hamlet feels towards death and whether his feelings change throughout this time. Based on the image Hamlet portrays, his personality, and his reactions towards death throughout the play, it can be argued that Hamlet’s thoughts and attitudes towards death generally remain the same from the beginning to the end of the play. To get revenge or not to get revenge?
Hamlet thinks a lot about death throughout the play. His attitude and thinking plays the main role of his character and how he reacts towards his father’s death. This can be conceived through many of his soliloquies. To begin, Act 1 Scene 2, he thinks about death as a way of escaping pain and miseries in life (1.2. 129-136). He finds that his life is full of weariness; therefore, he has a depressed state of mind. At this one point, he suffers dejection as a result of his father’s death and the way her mother decides to marry his father’s killer fast; thus, preventing him from inheriting the crown (Neill 247). He wishes his flesh would melt like dew and turn into water. He does not want to exists. “Tis an unweeded garden That grows the seed” (line 135-136), everything ws going wrong in his life and the seed was coming from his own mother because she decided to marry her husband’s brother. In the second dramatic monologue, he still welcomes death as a remedy for the pain he suffers. For example, he sees it as an act of revenge against his father’s death, which would be a form of relief to his melancholy, however, his fears are unable to act in a consequential manner. He ends up hoping that his uncle would confess killing his father. Not only does Hamlet think everything in his life is going wrong, it goes into further detail about how he confused whether to be alive or not.
Another way Hamlet thinks of death in this play is whether he wants to be alive or not. As well, in Act III scene I, “To be, or not to be, that is he question: Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows or outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles…”, he still thinks that death can offer him the much-needed escape route from the psychological torture to which his father’s death has subjected him. Nonetheless, he is still undecided on whether dying would be the best option. He thinks about the possible repercussions of committing suicide in this scene. This leads him to other many related questions instead of answers. Still confused, he adds the element of dreaming to the query. “To die, to sleep: To sleep, perchance to dream”. He says that those dreams that may be experienced in the sleep of death may involve so much fear that it may give a ‘pause.’ In sum, he fears what might happen to him after death though he embraces mortality.
The same pattern is seen in dramatic monologue 4.4. Within this setting, Hamlet has perceived in Denmark as a refuge. However, his willingness to die gets a boost soon through Fortinbras. The character plans to lead an attack on Poland, which is expected to be deadly. The fatal nature of the impending battle is captured in the words: ‘Go to their graves like bed…/when honor is at stake (4.4. 56, 63-63). Of importance here is that the inspiration that Hamlet gets from the soldier makes him more willing to die rather than seek sanctuary in Denmark. Thus, he embraces attitude towards death, which is something he has learned from the fighter. This makes him fear death less than before. Later on, for example, when he kills accidentally, he is indifferent to the act and even cracks jokes linked to it. In the end, when he kills his father’s killer, it can also demonstrate his perceived honor in killing. These three scenes show that Hamlet has an accommodating attitude towards death although he is not ready to die or kill because of uncertainty about the effects of death on him. Generally, these scenes show a consistent pattern of his thoughts towards death; thus, leading to the development of the plot.
***The second perspective in which the consistency of the concept of death can be looked at throughout the plot is relatable to the way Hamlet thinks about death to himself and when he is with other characters. Essentially, the way the character reacts towards death in these cases are generally the same. The same feeling is portrayed when he is with his friend Horatio (Act 5, scene 2). He tells Hamlet that he should listen if he has any doubts about the fight with Laertes and decides to tell the crowd that he is ill. In this case, Horatio suggests to his friend that there is the possibility of him dying in the duel. However, Hamlet tells him off. He claims that he does not believe in superstition. He trusts that God is in charge of not only his life but also of other living things. He asserts so in the speech below:
‘There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it is now, ’tis not to come. If it is not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come—the readiness is all. Since no man of aught he leaves knows, what is ‘t to leave betimes?’ Let be. (Act 5, scene 2, 205-210).
For context, he believes that God controls even things that are thought to be insignificant such as a sparrow’s life. “… If it be now, ‘tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now; yet it will come” (Act 5, scene 3, lines 217-222). In relation to the emotional state towards death, this shows that he is ready to die if it is God’s will. At this moment, he feels like he is powerless to stop such a thing. So, he welcomes death at any given point in time as God wills. The similarities in the both situations support the idea that the sensitivity Hamlet has towards death shows consistency. The consistency helps in the development of the plot and the concept of death in its whole play.
The other important part of the play is during Act 5, scene 2, when Hamlet learns a lesson during the graveyard scene. More importantly, he is able to notice death as a part of human life. It is welcomed. During this scene, the gravediggers pull out the skull of his old friend Yorick. Jest (Yorick) was someone he used to love and admire when he was a young boy. It is clear that he has come face to face with death in this case after his thoughts of mortality from the beginning of the story. What is seen in this section is that Hamlet is not only concerned about the death of a mere entertainer but is also considering what happens to great people like Alexander the Great. He realizes that both the weak and the mighty meet the equal end and “returneth into dust’ (5.1. 208-210). Everyone eventually has to die and Hamlet discovers this while talking to Horatio about the skull and Alexander the Great. This highlights the mortality of mankind to Hamlet. Therefore, this incident makes him believe that passing away should be accepted as part of human experience. The acceptance of death is again accepted towards the ending of the play. At this point, he kills Laertes and also dies after exchanging forgiveness with his killer. This point shows that he is has made peace with both himself and death in what can be interpreted as an act of embracing death as finality. Therefore, the acceptance of death in the two cases shows a steady attitude towards the way Hamlet perceives mortality across the length of the flow of events in the play.
The other area he handles death is when he jokes mockingly with Claudius and when he confronts the physical reality of death at the graveyard. During the first incidence, he kills Ophelia and Laertes Father Polonius by mistake for he had intended to kill Claudius. Nonetheless, he shows no remorse. He instead cracks jokes concerning the death. The same case is witnessed in the second incident in which the skull of the dead comedian reinforces the feeling that death is unavoidable and it should not be frowned upon. Innately, in addition to reinforcing the unavoidability of death, they also show how human life can be meaningless. For perception, there is the implication that the common people, like the Jester, and the strong, such as Alexander the Great, become the same in death. The regularity in the way Hamlet appreciates death is further illustrated through different parts of the play.
Within the same context, an equally important angle of analysis is the way in which Hamlet perceives passing away as something that can result in a religious magnificence. As already indicated, Hamlet embraces death but is only scared since he does not know what will take place after it. Furthermore, his belief in Christianity makes him not to kill his father’s killer as underscored below when he says: ‘A villain kills my father, and for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven”. In Act 3.3, he did not want to kill Claudius while he was praying because he did not want him to make it to heaven in a hurry. He did not know what type of salvation Claudius would have so he decided to spare his life. Killing him would be the easy way for Claudius to be forgiven of his sins but Hamlet wants him to live in shame. Therefore, killing him in the end was better for him because he decided to take his own life as well.
It is important to note that Hamlet supports his view on death based on the biblical teaching on repentance as a way through which a believer can go to heaven after death. Another reason for not murdering the killer is that he believes that the killing would lead to the man having the glory of going to heaven. The same is described at the point of his death at the end of the drama. The fact that he asks Laertes for forgiveness may be interpreted to mean that he still believes in the glory of death after repentance.
The last way in which the supposition gets context relates to Hamlet’s eventual death. At last, he dies at the end of the drama when he gets stabbed with a poisonous sword that belongs to Laertes. The killer decides to get revenge by murdering Hamlet for the death of both his father and sister, Ophelia. Furthermore, his apparent refusal to say more in the dying speech that he gives can be interpreted to be an act of showing his reconciliation with death. He seems to be accommodative to death just as he is in the soliloquies. At this point, the speech may mean that he has reached a point where he is ready to die so that the mental torture that he has suffered for so long could end. Importantly, the relationship that is shown in these parts of the play serves to emphasize the fact the feelings that the protagonist has towards the concept of death form a regular pattern that can be found in different parts of the text.
Finally, Hamlet’s thoughts and attitude towards death remain the same generally from the beginning to the end of the play. This is proven in many perspectives. They include, first, through the soliloquies throughout the play. The second perspective relates to death as a personal thing or a universal issue. The other important area that can give insight on Hamlets view of death is when he learns to accept death at the graveyard towards the end of the play. Another point of view that is important, is the way in which Hamlet perceives passing away as something that can result in a religious magnificence. Lastly, the attitude Hamlet has throughout the play relates to Hamlet’s eventual death in the end. The analysis of these different areas supports the view that the Hamlet embraces how he feels about death from the beginning of the play to its end.
