The Five Stages Of Grief

His mother and his uncle have married after only 2 months of Hamlet’s father’s death. This has caused Hamlet to be in a heavy state of anger, mixed with his already deep state of mourning. According to Theodore Lidz, these two states can lead to one thinking back on all the negative wishes one may have had in the past. Considering Hamlet’s relatively young age, death wishes upon a parent are not serious but they are common among children. “…and as most, if not all, children have sometimes had death wishes toward a parent, guilt over such wishes can become intense when the parent dies.” (Lidz 48) All of these emotions mixed together so early in the play could lead to a sense of depression.

Grief is a painful emotion that people experience through troubling times in life, such as losing a loved one. Swiss psychiatrist, Elisabeth Kubler Ross, introduced the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance, in the year of 1969. She explains that there is no correct way or time to grieve; the stages are used to familiarize people with the aspects of grief and grieving. Grief can over take someone’s life and lead to a negative downfall, such as Hamlet experiences in Hamlet, written by Williams Shakespeare. He undergoes a variety of barriers throughout the novel, such as his father is murdered, which leads to his downfall-death. Although Hamlet grieves, the denial stage is not present in the novel as it

Write a 750-1,000 word paper analyzing Woterstorff’s reflctions in Lament For a Son. In addition, address Kubler-Ross’ five stages of grief, as they are expressed throughout Lament for a Son, and respond to the following questions:

Losing a loved one can take a harsh hit on one’s frame of mind. In the Shakespearian play Hamlet, the death of Hamlets father caused many problems, all of which eventually lead up to the tragic death of Hamlet. Each event that happens in the play is impacted by reason, fate and emotion. The events throughout the play that lead to hamlets downfall are determined by the roles of reason, fate and emotion. These three roles are key factors of the play.

In real life Shakespeare has a tragic event occur, the death of his son, Hamnet. His way of mourning and dealing with death was to write the tragedy, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Shakespeare uses Hamlet as a mirror to express his overwhelming despair. As said by an article written by Peter Bray, “ It is suggested that in creating Hamlet, Shakespeare must have drawn upon some profound personal experiences.” (Bray) Through Hamlet’s pain Shakespeare mirrors his own feelings of being lost and depressed. Within the play there is a common theme, the mourning of death and how it varies from man to man. Young Hamlet locks himself away and contemplates suicide saying. “To be or not to be”(3.1.57). He ponders whether given his current life situation it is better to exist or to not have existed at all. Another message Shakespeare wishes to get across is that proper mourning takes a substantial amount of time, this is something Claudius and his mother do not understand. In a scene with Claudius and Hamlet they say, “ How is it that the clouds still hang on you? / Not so, my lord. I am too much i' the sun.”(1.2.66-67). Claudius wonders why Hamlet has not moved on yet, but based on the reader’s knowledge how would the king know what it is like to lose someone he’s lost? He does not understand the struggle of overcoming death and the amount of time it takes. This arguably could be an insight into the real life of

“This performance draws upon both ‘traditional and contemporary arts and cultural practice. The integration of… contemporary performance art and modern theatrics to form of cultural hybridity.”

Hamlet’s inability to act upon his emotions begins in the wake of his father’s death and his mother’s instantaneous/hasty marriage to Claudius. Criticized for his prolonged mourning of his late father and insistence from his mother to move on, Hamlet must momentarily seize publicly grieving for his father and in a lengthy expression of torment, contemplates suicide as he agonizes over the dreads of life and the reality that “[he] must hold [his] tongue,” in regards to his mourning (1.2.164). For the sake of his mother’s request, Hamlet anguishes over having to refrain from speaking of his grief, only to deliver a prolonged speech of his woes of mourning. While everyone in the kingdom of Denmark embraces the new king,

Hamlet is undeniably an epic among all plays. Shakespeare’s command of storytelling and the meticulously sculpted layers of the play add to the sheer grandeur of the life of Hamlet and the multitude of forces acting against him. The complex dialogue, the magnificent story arches, and the archetypal themes are all essential to the understanding and enjoyment of Hamlet, but there is one particular subject matter that The Bard placed at the center of all the conflict and emotion of the play: grief. The Prince of Denmark’s burdened life after his father’s death is completely coerced by the tearing force of grief throughout his mental and emotional state of being. His purpose, his insanity, and ultimately his downfall stemmed from this encumbrance.

Wolterstorff, N. (1987). Lament of a Son. In Lament for a son. Michigan, 49505, Grand Rapids: Wm. B Eearmans Publishing 2140 Oak Industrial Drive, N.E.

It’s ironic that Elizabeth Kubler-Ross theory, of the five stages of grief is present in the story “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare after so many centuries later. Hamlet is believed to be the most dramatic play in history, and comes with many personal conflicts that people still today will struggle with. In “Hamlet”, the main character, Hamlet goes through the 5 stages of grief throughout the story. Elizabeth Kubler- Ross developed a theory based on how she believed to be the stages of acceptance of death. “The 5 stages of grief and loss are: 1. Denial and isolation; 2. Anger; 3. Bargaining; 4. Depression; 5. Acceptance. People who are grieving do not necessarily go through the stages in the same order or experience all of them.” (Axelrod, 2016) Even though, Hamlet repeats some of these stages, and is involved in multiple stages at the same time, he does in fact experience through all these stages. Hamlet the Danish prince, son of Gertrude, grieve for the death of his father. The unexpected passing of his father causes Hamlet to experience a roller coaster of emotions. The death of his father is not the only thing he struggles with, but the marriage between his mother and uncle troubles him also. He feels as if his mother has betrayed him, and did not give him the proper time to grief over the fatality of his father. Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle, not only replaced his father, but he also inherited the throne that was supposed to be passed down to Hamlet. When Horatio and

Certain events and choices in life have a huge impact on the future. In A Walk to Remember, directed by Adam Shankman, the viewer is taken on a trip with Jamie Sullivan and Landon Carter. Jamie is a sheltered pastor’s daughter, while Landon is popular at their school; a very unlikely couple. They go to the same high school, but the way the two meet is a bit unusual. Landon had gotten involved with a bad crowd, who peer pressured one of their classmates to jump off a bridge. He ends up in the hospital with injuries. Since Landon was involved in the accident he was made to volunteer in their school play and help tutor younger children. That’s where he gets to know Jamie. Landon has the lead in the play, and spends a lot of time with Jamie going over lines. He ends up falling in love with her, and defending her against bullies at their school. Later she reveals to him that she is sick with leukemia, and has no chance of recovering.

Throughout Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, the characters clearly describe the grief they are experiencing through their poetic lines. Using the Kubler-Ross model, the audience can dissect the grief process to better understand Hamlet’s intentions. In the play, Hamlet experiences strong emotions concerning grief, including his examples of depression, anger, and finally, acceptance. The play shows that while the model was created in 1969, the

Losing a loved one can be difficult, hard, and can even drive a person insane. In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet death takes its toll on the entire royal family. When King Hamlet died, it caused Claudius to take the thrown and the hand of queen Gertrude. As soon as the King and Queen hear about how mad Hamlet has gone they discuss the idea of death and wonder if the thought of death or not mourning the made him go crazy. Claudius quotes, “When sorrows come, they come not single spies. But in battalions” (3.4.52-53). This quote symbolizes that death brings sorrow and how this is a view on death. Although mourning is common between characters in the beginning of the play, views on death become different and apparent among

Significant life events (SLE) can be any episode that may be positive or negative, impacting on an individual life, or reflecting as good and bad practice. For example, it may include underage pregnancy, coping with a staffing crisis, complaints or compliments received from workplace, breaches of confidentiality, a sudden unexpected death or hospitalisation. (Patient.co.uk, 2014) example of SLE:

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.