Value of Life
Considering the value of our own or someone else’s life is a difficult topic to talk about considering the fact that every one views it differently. Some view life as a priceless gift that we as people should cherish, while others can only see the value of someone’s life in dollar signs. Every life is valuable no matter what you come from, every life has value. Hamlet has pessimistic view on life, which he consistently shows in his speech To Be or Not to Be. Throughout his speech, he goes back and forth between the appeal of life and the peace he thinks he will find in death. “To grunt and sweat under a weary life” explains the pain he is feeling going about his everyday life (Line 22). He realizes after the death of Ophelia
…show more content…
Roger Ebert was a well-known and respected movie critic, who passed away in 2013 from salivary and thyroid cancer. In June of 2006, Ebert had to have his jaw removed due to cancerous tissue. He lost the ability to eat, drink, and talk, his sole form of communication was through his writing. Although he was going through all of these struggles, he still managed to see the beauty in life. He remained positive and some would even say he was always smiling. “What I am grateful for is the gift of intelligence, and for life, love, wonder, and laughter” (p. 32). Ebert always valued his life even through his hardships. He showed gratitude for the wonderful life he lived and the people around him who supported and stood by him throughout his life. Amanda Ripley, author of “What Is a Life Worth?” brings to light the value of someone’s life in terms of big business corporations and even the federal government. After 9/11 the families of the victims received compensation for the death of their loved ones. But everyone received a different amount depending on what the government thought the value of the victim’s life was worth. If one man only made $22,000 a year he received a smaller compensation than someone who
R1: The author states in the article that no matter the financial circumstance of each victim, they should all be compensated equally. “The law required I give more money to the stockbroker, the bond trader, and the banker than to the waiter, the policemen, the fireman, and the soldier at the pentagon” (Feinberg 84). It is stated in the law that all lives should be treated equal, but how can a live be treated equal when one person is paid one dollar
The value of life. GONE. He feels that he has no reason to stay alive. For Elie Wiesel and the other victims of the Holocaust, they assigned absolutely no value to human life, because in retrospect, they were dehumanized. Also, in Hamlet’s Soliloquy, he is struggling internally whether or not he should be alive or dies.
At this point in the play, I am sure Hamlet would be able to put a price on life. He is so distraught emotionally he is not sane. In certain scenarios like this, one would be able to place a value on life, but I don’t believe any sane person would truly be able to add a monetary value to
"To be or not to be, that is the question". This is probably one of the most famous soliloquies. You could say that Hamlet sounds like a broken record with the whole suicide thing. However, he just might be moving on here. After all, instead of obsessing about whether or not to kill himself, he is exploring the reason why people in general don't commit suicide. When it comes down to it, he is talking about you, us and everyone else out there. Life is worth because we are experience every single moment. And there are some special moment that define who we are.
This issue all comes down to morality and how the topic should be handled. In the article “WTC Victims: What's A Life Worth?” by Amanda Ripley, the article explains how family members should be compensated. Not everyone is worth the same amount of money but if someone is worth a lot of money but the family members are not in need of that compensation money then they should
The author hen emphasizes on how applauding this is and begins to discuss how money can corrupt the mind when it is put into a situation similar to this one. Life is not meant to out up against a dollar value and should not be treated like or compared to sellable objects such as property. Instead, it should be enjoyed by all and lived like everyday was one’s last, similar to how Roger Ebert lived his
’s course on it’s own without trying to change it. This moment is when Hamlet first started to understand the meaning that life and why we should value and appreciate our lives. At this scene, Hamlet’s conscious then decides to understand the mistakes that he has made and face the consequences, but not be afraid because that’s how his fate ended up to be. Secondly, Hamlet understands the value that life gives because he told Horatio not to kill himself.
Hamlet has a lot of values and issues that he is trying to face and find the answers. He also has many ideas that has been thinking about. He ask several questions to many people and is looking for the questions to be answered. Hamlet faces a lot of obstacles and seems to not be able to find out if he should be alive or not. “ To be, or not to be?
To put things into perspective, he analyzes what life offers you when at the end of the day, humans all die no matter what harm they inflict to each other, who did it and
Not only this, but Hamlet makes it clear that he would willingly give up his life at that point. This reinforces the idea that the Prince considers death a release; the solution to all of his troubles. At this point, it is clear to the audience that Hamlet regards death in a positive, almost welcoming manner. In his eyes, it will restore the natural order of things to their predetermined equilibrium. One of the most famous lines of the play, and probably in all of English literature, is from Hamlet’s third soliloquy. "To be, or not to be: that is the question,” Hamlet asks himself, before launching into a full-blown internal clash over life and death. He considers suicide; it would offer him release from everything wrong in his life. However, he is finally scared of death. He doesn’t know whether God will accept him, or even what awaits him in the world beyond his own. Despite the fear of death displayed by many characters in this play, Hamlet still provides a calmly accepting, even welcoming view of death.
The true meaning of life is unknown. There are many different ideas on what the meaning of life is. Moreover, In the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare there are multiple ways the meaning of life is portrayed in three major characters; Hamlet, Claudius, and Polonius. Hamlet’s meaning of life is shown in a belief in justice, that morphs into a craving for revenge. Claudius’ meaning of life is strictly on power. Without power, one's life is meaningless. Finally, Polonius’ meaning of life is all about reputation. Without a reputation, no one will show respect, nor will anyone want to respect anyone. Unfortunately, all of these perspectives of the meaning of life will lead to the characters in Hamlet to breathe one last breath. Although, the meaning of life differs from Hamlet, Claudius, and Polonius. Polonius has the most practical understanding of the meaning of life in today’s world. Without having a good reputation one will amount to nothing. Polonius’ death was the only death that can not be entirely based on his meaning of life because it was not his reputation that got him killed, it was his love for the King that got him killed.
Recently in my English class, we have been reading and discussing the play by William Shakespeare, Hamlet. In this play the Prince of Denmark, Hamlet, has just lost his father to death and he is overcome with depression and emits a melancholic atmosphere. In several of his soliloquies throughout the play, he expresses his desire to commit suicide and shows the audience his bleak view on life. In reference to Hamlet’s opinion of life, a discussion was sparked among my peers concerning this with questions such as, what does it mean to be alive? How to we assign value to life?
In act 3 scene 1 of William Shakespeare “Hamlet” the main protagonist, Hamlet, recites a soliloquy “To be, or not to be.” Throughout his lines Hamlet explains the concept of suicide and why people choose to live long lives instead of ending their suffering. The main point he speaks on is the mystery of one’s afterlife, they never know for sure what happens when they die. For this reason, his speech does a good job highlighting the plays underlying themes of pervasiveness of death, and tragic dilemma, and tragic flaws.
The Value of Life Speaking about the value of life can be really hard for me because if I knew the real meaning of life I probably wouldn’t be writing an essay for a high school class right now. Today I might say the value of life is whatever we make of it through our own experiences, but if you asked me tomorrow I would probably change my answer. But ultimately, the value of life is something we each choose to decide for ourselves. We can choose to value it, or not. But any choice that we make is ours alone.
The topic of Hamlet’s soliloquy is his consideration of committing suicide. Throughout the speech, it is obvious that Hamlet is over thinking and wavering between two different extremes: life and death. "Whether 'tis nobler in the