How does death dominate in Shakespeares Hamlet Essay Example For Students

How does death dominate in Shakespeares Hamlet Essay Shakespeare has dealt with the subject death and its connection with life in many of his writings. But none of them is so much concerned with the subject as in Hamlet. In fact the whole play is darkened by the shadows of death and life after death. In the opening scene we see a deads man spirit appearing on the stage; the very first time we see Hamlet, we see him in black-mourning for his dead father; whenever he is left alone by himself all he ponders on is either his own death, or revengeful murder, or dealt in general. In fact, the whole play consists of a series of murders and suicide, and ends with the major characters death. In the opening scene an aspartic appears on the stage which resembles the visage of the late King of Denmark. This ghost bridges the world of life and the world of death. It disturbs the normal calmness of the night; it seems to bring some kind of message from the region existing beyond this world. Later on in the fourth scene of act I, the ghost communicate with Hamlet and tells him that it is the ghost of his father and commands him to avenge his death. We also come to learn how the late king was murdered by his own brother who now wears his crown. The episode of the ghost remind us of Kyds The Spanish Tragedy, where the ghost of the murdered Andrea, along with the spirit called Revenge appear from the underworld and roam around on earth to witness the process of vengeance. But they do not communicate with the living. The ghost of Hamlet however, comes with a mission for the murder. It advises Hamlet Taint not thy mind which suggests that the ghost does not consider the matter of revenge too difficult a task and is anxious that Hamlet should not become too disturbed about it. To the ghost the challenge is probably like that which as the Danish King he accepted all those years ago when he agreed to face old Fortinbras of Norway in a single combat and had killed him. The ghost also tells Hamlet a little about the existence after death and the domain of death. The dead King burns in hellfire for dying without repenting for the sins he had committed during his lifetime and also includes that it is necessary to burn in order to attain salvation. Though the ghost instructs Hamlet to take revenge on Claudius, he forbids him to do any harm to the queen: Leave her to heaven he says, and suggest her earthly punishment should be the pangs of her conscience: those thorns that in her bosom lodge To prick and sting her. The ghosts commands indicate not only the pursuit of personal satisfaction but the existence of a world beyond the human world responsible for justice in the human world. It therefore can be considered as an ambassador of Death. . Hamlet vows to remember the ghost whiles memory holds a seat/ in this distracted globe, that is to say, as long as this disordered world attributes nay value to the past to establish standards of virtue and justice. Here to remember means to maintain and to restore it. In the section Of Redemption Nietzsches The Spake of Zarathustra, he says, This, yea, this is very vengeance! wills abhorrence of time and its It was. It is quite articulate that Hamlet is not prepared to accept the It was. Of time and that he regards revenge as a task of restoring the society that has fallen to pieces. The first Act ends with The time is out of joint: o cursd spite That ever I was born to set it right. Thus he takes up the responsibility of retaking revenge and vows to stick to it. In his soliloquies, we see Hamlet rebuking himself for his procrastination in taking revenge and calls himself a muddy-mettled rascal. Other than Hamlet, we also see young Fortinbras and Leartes as avengers in the play, both want to avenge the deaths of their fathers. Why hamlet is a hero EssayHe adds that if there were no fear of such dreams, any human being would put and end to his life, because nobody willingly goes through the ordeals of life. He thinks of the dread of something after death and the undiscoverd country from where no travelers returns and he shrinks from it. In this soliloquy, he contemplates killing others, then himself both are ways of taking arms against a sea of troubles, and wither way is seen against the background of a world beyond the living world, where he might be inflicted with punishments by God as he had heard from the Ghost earlier. Therefore, he questions whether tis nobler to take revenge or to go on enduring pain, and the thought of being punished by God for making a wrong choice terrifies him. His fearful imagination of life after death is echoed in Measure for Measure, where Claudia Ay, but to die and go we know not where, and considers the weariest and most loathed worldly life a paradise compared to what we fear of death. On this subject L. C. Knights comments An over-strong terror of death is often one expression of the fear of living. Only those who take an affirmative attitude towards life can take an affirmative attitude towards death. In the grave-digging scene Hamlet observes a grave-digger digging the grave of Ophelia and in the process throwing of some skulls and bones. This scene makes him sink into deep thoughts concerning the meaning of life and death. Looking at a skull he thinks of the ultimate goal of a mans life. The body of a lawyer ends up being the same as skull and bones as Yorick, the jester in the grave. Even the bodies of Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar are turned into mere clays. Earlier when Claudius had asked Hamlet about the body of Polonius, he replied that worms are feasting on it. But in the grave-digging scene, Hamlet reminds himself that death diminishes all vanities in man, for it is the ultimate end of every man. Yoricks jaws that made the courteous roared with laughter are shapeless now. Therefore, he sarcastically tells the skull of Yorick to go and tell the women who in order to beautify themselves paint an inch thick on their faces, must meet their ends just the same way as he did. Afterwards he dejectedly asks Horatio To what base uses we may return Horatio! At the end of the play Gertrude is killed by chance, Leartes and Claudius are slain by Hamlet and Hamlet dies wounded by the poisonous sword of Leartes, only Horatio lives to tell the story to the Danes. But the end does not only consist of human deaths but also death of beautiful things. The King thats dead is referred to as the majesty of buried Denmark. Much later the first words of the mad Ophelia are Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark? this suggests that the death of the old King marks the end of an era. The story of Hecuba and the dounbshow called mousetrap are also concerned with death similes of death, for example bosom black as death recur in the play. The play is in fact, envelope by the smoke of death, rendering it the mysterious darkness that critics have found interesting for ages. No other play of Shakespeare is so much obsessed with the subject as is Hamlet.