The Relationship of Death and Man’s Irrationality in Hamlet

Hamlet exhibits his insecurity toward death when he lingers on the phrase ' no traveler returns' from death. He is afraid of leaving his earthly life, showing his indecision towards what lies in the afterlife. This indecision carries over into his actions when trying to go through with Claudius' murder.  Hesitant to kill Claudius, Hamlets settles on making sure the ghost was correct in his accusation. By employing the players to dramatize the murder of King Hamlet Sr., Hamlet hides behind the façade of the play in order to accuse Claudius. By using the players as his medium for accusation, Hamlet again shows how timid he is to approach the subject of death and confront it face to face. It is seen by Claudius that Hamlet's 'madness' is a direct threat to his security, and Hamlet is shipped off to England. While traveling to his execution, Hamlet again slips out of deaths way before having to directly challenge it. Prior to Hamlet's 'kidnapping', he changes the letter to have it be his escorts execution. This is only appropriate, since Hamlet never is present to see their reaction to facing death, or is there is witness the ending of their lives. Again, Hamlet is able to allude death, by escaping the ship set sail for his execution.

This all sets the stage for Hamlet’s mental state prior to learning that he was killed by somebody in his family. These themes of death and betrayal lead into the end of the first act when Hamlet is tasked by the ghost of his father to seek revenge against Claudius for what he did. Hamlet believes that he was “born to set it right” (1.5.190). The extremes of this line reveal that Hamlet believes that the whole reason for his existence is to avenge his father. This need for revenge drives Hamlet for the rest of the play. He wants justice for his father, but he also wants to punish Claudius for his murder and marrying his mother. He gives in to human nature when he starts striving to avenge his father’s death.

Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a tragic play about murder, betrayal, revenge, madness, and moral corruption. It touches upon philosophical ideas such as existentialism and relativism. Prince Hamlet frequently questions the meaning of life and the degrading of morals as he agonizes over his father’s murder, his mother’s incestuous infidelity, and what he should or shouldn’t do about it. At first, he is just depressed; still mourning the loss of his father as his mother marries his uncle. After he learns about the treachery of his uncle and the adultery of his mother, his already negative countenance declines further. He struggles with the task of killing Claudius, feeling burdened about having been asked to find a solution to a situation that was

The gravedigger scene in act 5 scene 1 shows the most about how Hamlet feels about death. Hamlet refers to the skulls he finds belonging to other people and their past lives.

Hamlet is considered to be Shakespeare's most famous play. The play is about Prince Hamlet and his struggles with the new marriage of his mother, Gertrude, and his uncle and now stepfather, King Claudius about only two months after his father’s death. Hamlet has an encounter with his father, Old King Hamlet, in ghost form. His father accuses Claudius of killing him and tells Hamlet to avenge his death. Hamlet is infuriated by this news and then begins his thoughts on what to do to get revenge. Hamlet and Claudius are contrasting characters. They do share similarities, however, their profound differences are what divides them.Hamlet was portrayed as troubled, inactive, and impulsive at times. Hamlet is troubled by many things, but the main source of his problems come from the the death of his father. “Oh, 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” (Act 1, Scene 2). In this scene, Hamlet is contemplating suicide, which is caused by the death of his father and the new marriage of Gertrude and King Claudius. This scene shows the extent of how troubled Hamlet is. Even though Hamlet’s father asked him to avenge his death, Hamlet is very slow to act on this throughout the play. “Now might I do it pat. Now he is a-praying. And now I’ll do ’t. And so he goes to heaven. And so am I revenged.—That would be scanned. A villain kills my father, and, for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven” (Act 3, Scene 3). This scene shows King Claudius praying, while Hamlet is behind him drawing his sword but decides not to kill

Hamlet is as much a story of emotional conflict, paranoia, and self-doubt as it is one of revenge and tragedy. The protagonist, Prince Hamlet of Denmark, is instructed by his slain father’s ghost to enact vengeance upon his uncle Claudius, whose treacherous murder of Hamlet’s father gave way to his rise to power. Overcome by anguish and obligation to avenge his father’s death, Hamlet ultimately commits a number of killings throughout the story. However, we are not to view the character Hamlet as a sick individual, but rather one who has been victimized by his own circumstances.

When Hamlet’s father, the late king of Denmark, comes to him as a ghost and reveals he died at the hands of his brother, Claudius, he demands Hamlet “revenge his foul and most unnatural murder” (1.4.23-25). Without hesitation, Hamlet agrees to avenge his father’s death, saying, “Haste me to know’t, that I with wings as swift / as meditation or the thoughts of love, / May sweep to my revenge” (1.5.29-31). He decides the proper form of justice is to kill Claudius, just as the king killed his own brother, though he has his own motives. Hamlet loathes Claudius for marrying his mother, and learning King Hamlet died at the hands of Claudius only provokes Hamlet more. As the play continues, Hamlet plots his revenge, and he deceives everyone with his apparent insanity. Hamlet eventually succeeds in his search for vengeance and justice, though it kills him as well. He

Since the death of his father, King Hamlet, Hamlet his son is eluded between his thoughts and his emotions. The real struggle begins when a ghost, namely the ghost of King Hamlet, his father, accuses Hamlet’s uncle Claudius for his murder. When the ghost tells Hamlet about the reason for the murder Hamlet expresses his thoughts and feelings with passion, “The serpent that sting thy father’s life/Now wears his crown” (Shakespeare). The passion from his anger is also evident at the end of the soliloquy when he calls his uncle “damned villain” (Shakespeare). Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude is also accused by the ghost of King Hamlet for being sexually involved with Claudius and hamlet passionately with rage and anger calls his mother “O most precious women” (Shakespeare) at the end of his soliloquy. This situation put Hamlet in a sensitive and fierce battle between what’s truth and what’s right. His thoughts do not run in parallel with his emotions, Hamlet being caught up in this internal confusion keeps on delaying his actions. Furthermore Hamlet’s reason to kill Claudius comes from his passion, but his intelligence gives him reasons not to kill his uncle Claudius. He keeps

In Hamlet, William Shakespeare presents the main character Hamlet as a man who is fixated on death. Shakespeare uses this obsession to explore both Hamlet's desire for revenge and his need for assurance. In the process, Shakespeare directs Hamlet to reflect on basic principles such as justice and truth by offering many examples of Hamlet's compulsive behavior; as thoughts of death are never far from his mind. It is apparent that Hamlet is haunted by his father's death. When Hamlet encounters the ghost of his father, their conversation raises all kinds of unthinkable questions, for example murder by a brother, unfaithful mother, that triggers Hamlet's obsession. He feels compelled to determine the reliability

William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet relays Hamlet’s quest to avenge the murder of his father, the king of Denmark. The late King Hamlet was murdered by his brother, Claudius, who took the throne and Hamlet’s mother Gertrude for himself. Hamlet is beseeched by the ghost of his father to take vengeance upon Claudius; while he swears to do so, the prince inexplicably delays killing Claudius for months on end. Hamlet’s feeble attempt to first confirm his uncle’s guilt with a play that recounts the murder and his botched excuses for not killing Claudius when the opportunity arises serve as testimony to Hamlet’s true self. Hamlet is riddled with doubt towards the validity of the ghost and his own ability to carry out the act necessary to

The play ‘Hamlet’ written by William Shakespeare had many aspects of betrayal, a lack of loyalty, and tragic deaths. The storyline begins as a ghost appears and he resembles the late king of Denmark ‘Hamlet’. King Hamlet was Hamlets father, after his ghost appears Hamlet conversates with the figure and asks him why he is here, and the ghost states that his brother Claudius poisoned him by pouring poison in his ear while he was asleep, married his wife and finally took the power of the throne. Already in a confused state of mind Hamlet questions the ghost and decides to act delusional and put on a play to decide whether he will get revenge on Claudius. Consequently, one can tell how selfish both brothers Claudius and Hamlet are, how much do you have to hate your own family to commit such hatred. Ultimately blood is not thicker than water.

In the soliloquy “To be, or not to be: that is the question” spoken by Hamlet, he discusses his views on death (III.i.56). In this scene he is contemplating his thoughts on suicide, death, life, and the afterlife as he awaits his meeting with Claudius. He reflects on whether the afterlife will have the same problems as his current life. He also shares his thoughts on death in another scene where he is a graveyard. Hamlet basically says you die and become food for the worms and then you are nothing in these lines “Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returned into dust; the dust is earth; of earth we make loam” (5.i.209-211). He gives so many details on life and death, yet he is the one causing so many of the deaths that occur within the play. If it were not for him seeking revenge for his father’s death then so many of the events that

Hamlet is Shakespeare’s most famous work of tragedy. Throughout the play the title character, Hamlet, tends to seek revenge for his father’s death. Shakespeare achieved his work in Hamlet through his brilliant depiction of the hero’s struggle with two opposing forces that hunt Hamlet throughout the play: moral integrity and the need to avenge his father’s murder. When Hamlet sets his mind to revenge his fathers’ death, he is faced with many challenges that delay him from committing murder to his uncle Claudius, who killed Hamlets’ father, the former king. During this delay, he harms others with his actions by acting irrationally, threatening Gertrude, his mother, and by killing Polonius which led into the madness and death of Ophelia.

In the play, Hamlet, William Shakespeare plants the plot of revenge into Hamlet's head. In Denmark, Hamlet's father is murdered by Claudius. Claudius is the new king and Hamlet's uncle. Hamlet does not like Claudius because he marries Gertrude, his mother, and because Hamlet's father dies. The ghost of Hamlet's father appears to Hamlet to tell him to seek revenge on his murderer. The ghost then tells Hamlet Claudius has murdered him by pouring poison into his ear. Hamlet loves his father and believes he needs to kill Claudius. The opportunity to kill Claudius appears when Claudius is in his room. Hamlet walks in on Claudius praying and is about to kill him. Hamlet refuses to murder Claudius in that moment. In Hamlet, Hamlet does not kill Claudius when he is given the opportunity because Claudius is praying, Hamlet is not ready to kill, and Hamlet is insane.

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.