The tragedy, “Hamlet” written by Shakespeare introduces the reader to a complex character who is the Prince of Denmark. The death of Hamlet’s father and the swift marriage of his mother to his uncle helped to shape Hamlet into the complex character that he became. In Act I, Hamlet is melancholic, which leads to him becoming delayed in his actions and finally towards the end of the story he becomes decisive, finally carrying out his revenge for the death of his father.
After the death of Hamlet’s father, his mood becomes melancholic, which dictionary.reference.com defines as “to be in a gloomy state of mind, especially when habitual or prolonged; depression.” The melancholic Hamlet wishes to commit suicide, but knows he cannot because of God. Hamlet states during Act 1. 2: “ O that this too sullied flesh would melt, / thaw, and resolve itself into dew”
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Hamlet once again contemplates suicide in his third soliloquy “To be, or not to be? That is the question – whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and, by opposing, end them?” (III.i.57-61), showing that he is depressed because he is contemplating killing himself. The inability to get his revenge also depress Hamlet. He says: “How all occasions do inform against me, and spur my dull revenge? What is a man if his chief good and market of his time be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.” (IV.iv.31-4). Hamlet is depressed because of his fruitless attempts to revenge his father’s death. According to Mr. Bradley “the tragedy of Hamlet is that these very characteristics, which were the reasons for his superiority, because of the marriage between his mother and uncle and the murder of his father is the reason for his destruction.” Mr. Bradley sees “Hamlet’s inability to gain his revenge as a moral disillusionment.” Mr. Bradley
Based on the play of Hamlet by William Shakespeare, suicide is the most prevalent and important themes in Hamlet. Hamlet always asks himself for the reason to stay alive. Even though he always thinks that there is no reason for him to stay alive, however he always chooses to stay. The first reason Hamlet seems to contemplate suicide is because his life is contaminated by sins and revenge. The other reason he is thinking about suicide is because he is young and immature. Young adults usually look for escapes when they become angry with things. There are many instances where Hamlet contemplating suicide and he treats the idea of suicide morally, religiously, and aesthetically, with particular attention to Hamlet’s two important statements about suicide: the “O, that this too too solid flesh would melt” soliloquy (I.ii.129–158) and the “To be, or not to be” soliloquy (III.i.56–88).
I Hamlet's second soliloquy, we face a determined Hamlet who is craving revenge for his father. “Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat/ In this distracted globe. Remember thee!” Hamlet feels sorry for his father who was unable to repent of his sins and is therefore condemned to a time in purgatory. He promises his father that in spite of his mental state (he is distracted, confused and shocked) he will avenge his death. He holds him in the highest regards because he sees his father as a role model. “Yea, from the table of my memory/ I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records,”. He’ll erase all prior Knowledge and experience and leave only his father’s “commandment”. He will engrave it in the front of his mind to show his
In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, suicide is an important and continuous theme throughout the play. Hamlet is the main character who contemplates the thought of suicide many different times throughout the play, since the murder of his father. Hamlet weighs the advantages of leaving his miserable life with the living, for possibly a better but unknown life with the dead. Hamlet seriously contemplates suicide, but decides against it, mainly because it is a mortal sin against God. Hamlet continues to say that most of humanity would commit suicide and escape the hardships of life, but do not because they are unsure of what awaits them in the after life. Hamlet throughout the play is continually tormented by his fathers death and his
The play “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare is about a guy named Hamlet going through a hard time in life, after the death of his father, and the remarriage of his mother to his uncle. Throughout the play were are able to get a greater understanding of who Hamlet really is. The actions of Hamlet in Shakespeare's master piece “Hamlet” proves him to a revenge seeker, emotional, and crazy.
By so doing it was believed that the sins of the dead person would be
Next, in one of the most famous soliloquies in the English language, Hamlet again contemplates the subject of suicide, but he does not do so on impulses of emotion. Instead, his contemplation is based on reason. “To be or not to be, that is the question: whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer outrageous fortune…or end them. To die, to sleep- no more- and by a sleep to say we end the heartache…’Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished. For who would bear the whips and scorns of time…who would fardels bear, to grunt and sweat under a weary life, but that the dread of something after death, the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler
Hamlet continuously throughout the play not only self-deprecates himself, but he also talks about committing suicide and the reasons he has for and against it. Hamlet self-deprecates for multiple reasons consisting of: Claudius killing his father, Gertrude marrying her husband’s brother after his death, his complications with Ophelia, and his very own insanity. From Hamlet’s self-deprecating tendencies, it is evident that he is not only depressed, but suicidal. Hamlet has many things going on in his life, and to him, he doesn’t know if his life is even worth living. Hamlet states, “To be or not to be? That is the question…Be all sins remembered.” (3.1.57-91), meaning that Hamlet really couldn’t care less what happens anymore. Hamlet summarizes the pros and cons to suicide, and he questions what he should do. He does this because he has changed – primarily his personality – and the events occurring around him are
Hamlets contemplation of ending his life shows an inward conflict within himself. In his first soliloquy, he debates whether he should commit suicide. "To be, or not to be- / that is the question: / whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer/ the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, / or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing, end them" (3.1. lines 64-68 Shakespeare). He questions why he should live with all of this chaos but overcomes this internal conflict because he acknowledges that in his religion suicide is a sin. “O, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt, / Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew, / or that the everlasting had not fixed His canon 'gainst (self-slaughter). O God! God!” (1.2. lines 133-136 Shakespeare). This soliloquy signifies the reality of Hamlet s internal conflict and also shows the reality of his external conflict with the society he is surrounded by. This declamation establishes
When analyzing Shakespeare's Hamlet through the deconstructionist lens various elements of the play come into sharper focus. Hamlet's beliefs about himself and his crisis over indecision are expounded upon by the binary oppositions created in his soliloquies.
Hamlet’s character drastically develops over the first four acts of Hamlet, and his character development is most evident through the soliloquys he delivers throughout the play. The most character development can be seen from the first soliloquy, to the second, the third, the sixth, and the seventh and final soliloquy. Hamlet’s inner conflict with his thoughts and his actions are well analyzed in his soliloquys, as well as his struggles with life and death, and his very own existence. He begins the play wondering what purpose he has in life now that his father is dead and his mother has remarried to his uncle. After finding out foul play was involved in his father’s death, he is motivated by revenge. Finally, he wonders how he can enact his revenge while continuously overthinking and overanalyzing his actions.
Hamlet feels the constant need to reassure himself that his beliefs are correct, especially in his soliloquies about death. It is stated, “O that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!...” (Act 1, Sn 2, 129-1559). Hamlet discusses how things were not good and he was just in mourning and despair in this soliloquy. In the noted to be or not be soliloquy he continues the decisions on death, “To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer, The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them?...” (Act 3, Sn 1, 56-89). As Hamlet continues through the play he gives up in a sense because of everything happening to the people he was close to and to him in general. He lost the people he cared about due to his uncle’s careless actions and his mother playing along with it. When he actually got emotion from his uncle things were only proven to be more complicated because his father’s ghost was correct. His soliloquies prove how Hamlet was overly depressed and wanted to die, although depression during this time period is completely different compared to now.
Hamlet professes to the audience about his desires to escape his situation and the betrayal of his uncle, and especially his mother. In the first few lines of his soliloquy, he describes his desires to escape by saying, “O, that this too too sullied flesh would melt, thaw and resolve itself into a dew (pg. 10)...” Hamlet contemplates his existence and use in the world, now that he’s living a nightmare, hence his tainted flesh. His tone is morose and gloomy, stating that he wishes ceases to exist and wishes it were acceptable to kill himself. He finds that it is useless to continue on in the world because he feels lost and everything has turned against him.
This line and the ones that follow reveal how Hamlet is unsure of whether it is better to live and “suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” or “take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them,” which essentially means committing suicide. The reason for why he has not yet committed suicide himself is a combination of guilt, for it is a sin to commit suicide, and a sense of responsibility to avenge the murder of his father which is
Hamlet is the first tragedy in the series of Shakespeare’s immense tragedies, and is one of his most successful, outstanding plays ever known. Hamlet is like a three-dimensional character, a complex being who is very difficult to understand, due to the many conflicts he inevitably encounters. Throughout the play, Hamlet experiences both mental and physical conflict that drives him crazy. Hamlet must determine what separates truth from its apparent representations, therefore must control the illusions from reality in order to deal with the physical aspects of his conflict. After the death of his father and his mother’s remarriage, Hamlet becomes depressed and contemplates on suicide.
Coming immediately after the meeting with the Ghost of Hamlet’s father, Shakespeare uses his second soliloquy to present Hamlet’s initial responses to his new role of revenger. Shakespeare is not hesitant in foreboding the religious and metaphysical implications of this role, something widely explored in Elizabethan revenge tragedy, doing so in the first lines as Hamlet makes an invocation to ‘all you host of heaven’ and ‘earth’. Hamlet is shown to impulsively rationalize the ethical issues behind his task as he views it as a divine ordinance of justice, his fatalistic view reiterated at the end of scene 5 with the rhyming couplet ‘O cursed spite,/That ever I was born to set it right’. These ideas are