Suicide In Hamlet

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).

Hamlet is mourning over the death of his father, he is in a depressed mood. He is mad at his mother Gertrude for marrying his uncle Claudius.

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

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

In William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, it’s clear that the title character, Hamlet, has a relationship with death, that relationship is often misunderstood. Some see him merely as an agent of death, and others believe he retains a lust for it throughout the entire play, inspired by the tragedy he’s experienced. While these interpretations are partially true, they don’t hold true throughout the play. Hamlet has a disdain for the world which makes him desire nothing but to fade away in the beginning of the play, but he develops a respect for fate and the unknown aspects of the afterlife. This respect eventually manifests itself in an attitude of indifference towards death.

Tis an unweeded garden that grows to seed. Things rank and gross in nature” (1.2.137). Hamlet expresses his life as a garden of weeds. It displays how

While in a few months after Kind Hamlet’s funeral, Hamlet’s mother married his uncle. All this tragic events made Hamlet feel that the world is “stale, flat, unprofitable” (1.1.137). He feels so depress that he starting to think that death could be an option to become free from all his worries. When Hamlet finds out that King Claudius poisoned his father, Hamlet's consciousness is “infinite, unlimited, and at war with itself” (Bloom). Hamlet is so torn because he is not a scholar not a killer.

In the infamous soliloquy, “To Be or Not To Be,” Hamlet contemplates committing suicide in order to end the pain and suffering that he is experiencing: “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. To die: to sleep;” (Shakespeare) This is by far one of the most renowned quotes from Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

During the Renaissance, the discovery of some of these ancient texts was a main spur for the ideas that followed the Renaissance. Most of the Renaissance intellectuals generally affirmed with the ideas of the church about suicide. In Shakespeare’s time suicide had become a paradoxical issue. On one side of the matter it carried the medieval Christian associations of shame and despair. On the other side it was seen as a noble and courageous act in the growing Renaissance tradition. In Hamlet the Christian view of suicide is best played out at Ophelia’s funeral. Her ceremony is very perfunctory and she can only be buried in consecrated grounds, grudgingly because of Ophelia’s high connections. Instead Shakespeare’s plays pity his characters problems which drive them to commit suicide and some approval for their courage. Hamlet has a reluctance to commit suicide because of his religion that he believes in. In his first soliloquy he states “O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,/ Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,/ or that the Everlasting had not fixed/ his canon ‘gainst self slaughter.” When he states that the “Everlasting had not fixed his canon against self slaughter” he wishes that God had not made it a law to not commit suicide. Hamlet is a Christian therefore if he were to take his own life it would be a sin against God. His soul would be condemned and he does not know what would come from the afterlife. We see this best in

When your back is against a wall and it seems that all hope is lost, do not give up. Because if you choose suicide, you will never live to see it get worse, however, you also pass up the chance to see life get better. Suicide is an important, recurring theme in William Shakespeare's, Hamlet, and it is a topic that Hamlet contemplates quite often throughout the play. Hamlet often goes back and forth between to be or not to be, but continues to believe that people although capable of suicide, choose to live. Hamlet is adamant that the unknown, the inconclusiveness of nobility, along with the sin attached to suicide is what ultimately keeps people from taking their own lives.

Hamlet’s inaction due to fear ultimately leads to the death of six characters, including himself. Hamlet’s outward conflict is the death of his father and consequently, his uncle becoming the King of Denmark. Hamlet expresses his distaste of his uncle becoming King when he says, “A little more than kin, and less than kind” (1.2.65). Hamlet implies that his uncle is too closely related to him after becoming his step-father. Moreover, during his soliloquy in Act 1 Scene 2, Hamlet blames his mother for being weak and criticizes her decision to marry someone one month after her husband’s death when he says, “A beast that wants discourse of reason/ Would have mourn’d longer” (1.2.146-7). Hamlet denotes that his mother is less reasonable than an animal as she marries one month after King Hamlet’s death, which is an insult to her intelligence. Furthermore, Hamlet compares the world to “an unweeded garden” (1.2.135) and this displays how he does not want to live in this corrupt world anymore. Hamlet’s inward conflict is his inaction after swearing to the ghost that he would exact revenge for his father’s murder.

He has a lot of trouble in coming to terms with all of the evil that is around him in a corrupt world. As Hamlet said himself, "'Tis an unweeded garden that grows to seed; Things rank and gross in nature possess it merely." One wonders how Hamlet can interact as well with his environment as he does; he has said many times that life is full of evil and deceit. He says to Rosencrantz that the world is a prison, in fact, "a sizable one, in which there are many jails, cells, and dungeons."

In Act III, scene I of Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, the thematic imagery, along with the symbolic use of syntax and diction that Shakespeare uses helps convey Hamlet’s state of mind as troubled and as having a painful view to life which, overall, is subtly expressed with weakness as he talked about death.

Death is a natural ending of one’s life journey. In Shakespeare's Hamlet, this theme is explored throughout the story, where the main character is a deeply troubled one and where the plot draws the audience into Hamlet’s speculations on death on multiple occasions. The question of mortality and existence is one that humanity has struggled with since the dawn of civilization, possibly even before; and it is this question that Hamlet is attempting to come to terms with following the passing of his father, King Hamlet. Shakespeare, using his unique literary style and theatrical story-telling, is not necessarily providing the readers with any answers but is rather taking everyone on the journey that every human travels when asking the question, “What is Death?”

The death of King Hamlet effected many individuals lives to the point where great changes were made. Especially in regards to his son, Hamlet, who took the death – murder- of his father personally in both mental and emotional ways. By doing so, Hamlet portrays and experiences the death and loss of his father by acting out in manners in which magnify his isolation and alienated actions. These would include excluding and distancing himself, turning on those closest, and taking on measures one would never do so when thinking rationally or clearly.