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Love In Hamlet And Beowulf

Decent Essays

The death of a loved one can often leave someone in a mental imbalance of depression, sadness and denial. In the literary works Hamlet by William Shakespeare and Beowulf by R.M. Liuzza, both Hamlet and Grendel’s mother experience a negative psychological state after losing a family member, thus, causing them to blindly seek revenge. They sought to force the murderers to pay for their felonies, in lieu of acknowledging the truth. Both Hamlet and Grendel’s mother are clouded by their losses, only causing them to witness numerous other deaths along their venture of revenge that ultimately leads to their deaths.
A rather common psychological defense mechanism when someone experiences the death of a loved one is coping by dissociation. Hamlet, the protagonist of the story, attempts to justify his dissociation from life as the result of the death of his father. He contemplates whether suicide is the optimal answer to his problems. However, the only thing stopping him from doing this, is the fact that it is considered a sin and “his canon ’gainst self-slaughter!” (Hamlet 1.2.136). Hamlet is so discombobulated by this event, he does not realize, regardless of his loss, he still has a mother and girlfriend who love him dearly. Hamlet is so incredibly wrapped up in his own feelings that he does not stand to think twice about the people around him. Similarly, to Hamlet, Grendel’s mother no longer cares for anything anymore because her beloved son is dead. She urges to do something

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