Preview

William Shakespeare Was A Famous Play Write And Was Widely Known For His Sonnets

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
498 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
William Shakespeare Was A Famous Play Write And Was Widely Known For His Sonnets
William Shakespeare was a famous play write and was widely known for his sonnets, plays and was considered as the greatest writer in the English language. He wrote many tragic plays, one of which was Hamlet. In Hamlet, there are many themes; one of the most pertinent themes is death. Throughout this play, Hamlet encapsulates the theme of death. Death is represented in the play when the late King Hamlet dies, by the hands of the villainous Claudius, Hamlets uncle. Hamlet is obsessed with the idea of death, and over the course of the play he considers death from a great many perspectives. He contemplates both the spiritual aftermath of death, embodied in the ghost, and the physical remainders of the dead. Throughout, the idea of death is closely tied to the themes of truth, and the corruption that lies in the walls of Elsinore. And, since death is both the cause and the consequence of revenge, it is intimately tied to the theme of revenge and justice. Claudius’s murder of King Hamlet initiates Hamlet’s quest for revenge, but throughout the play, tragic spreads as Hamlet kills Polonius, and Ophelia commits suicide due to her grief and madness. It is then followed by Claudius’s death and our tragic hero dies. This essay will deal with the theme of death.
The question of his own death plagues Hamlet as well, as he repeatedly contemplates whether or not suicide is a morally legitimate action in an unbearably painful world. His famous line,
“To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer.” soliloquy 3
Hamlet’s grief and misery is such that he frequently longs for death to end his suffering, but he fears that if he commits suicide, he will be consigned to eternal suffering in hell because of the Christian religion’s prohibition of suicide. Furthermore, Hamlet philosophically concludes that no one would choose to endure the pain of life if he or she were not afraid of what will come after death, and that it is this fear which

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Ethics of Hamlet

    • 546 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In Hamlet's first soliloquy, "To be or not to be", Hamlet appears to be governed by reason as he debates whether or not it is one's right to end his or her life. Hamlet begins by weighing out the advantages and disadvantages of existence. In his words, "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?"(III.i.57-60). Hamlet is struggling. Living in Misery is a major issue for Hamlet as he copes with the death of his father. From this passage, we are led to believe that Hamlet favors suicide over life. Suicide is an act believed to be punishable by damnation. Similarly, the mystery of life after death presents Hamlet with a fear of the unknown. For these reasons, Hamlet is hesitant and forced to re-analyze the situation. Clearly, Hamlet is engaging in a philosophical dilemma where he uses intellect and logic to seek for an alternative solution to his misery. Hamlet's ethical nature is revealed by his thoughts. All in all, Hamlet is struggling with the knowledge of good and evil.…

    • 546 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Shakespeare’s soliloquy To Be, or Not to Be displays Hamlet’s inner thoughts, as he contemplates suicide. Keats predicted he would die young from tuberculosis, like his brother, and never experience his greatest desires- fame and “high romance”. In the end, Keats reconciled with his fear of death, and accepted his predicament “till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.” Hamlet’s monologue reveals his troubled mind, torn between revenge and morality. The uncertainty over what action to take drives Hamlet insane, and he debates with himself whether “to be, or not to be”. Hamlet describes life as a “sea of troubles”, filled with “heartache, and [a] thousand natural shocks”, making it sound miserable and worthless. He contrasts by comparing death to relieving sleep, but “to sleep – perchance to dream”, is the true reason for choosing life – “for in that sleep of death what dreams may come/…/ must give us pause.” Hamlet concludes that the key factor keeping humans from choosing death is fear of the unknown – “thus conscience does make cowards of us all”, and in this conclusion decides upon the cowardly option to live. While Keats’ sonnet expresses his own fear of death, and his inner desires, Hamlet is mentally unstable and debating whether life’s hardships or death’s mysteries are a more daunting…

    • 824 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hamlet Yorck S Skull

    • 434 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, the returning prince finds that his scene of sanity is gone in picking up the broken pieces of his life. He tries to coup with it all, facing the reality of his father being dead, dethroned by his uncle, and losing the love of his life Ophelia. What more could a man take in staring death in the face and questioning it. As human beings we all have a purpose on this earth, to find what we are destine to do. Hamlet reaches acceptance of his situation. Wondering if he will be known for being a great avenger, or the son who didn’t avenge his father’s death.…

    • 434 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a famous tragedy that follows the title character Hamlet’s wavering path of revenge. Early in the play, Hamlet encounters his father’s ghost, who tells Hamlet that his brother Claudius murdered him. Throughout the play, Hamlet is torn between his obligation to avenge his father and his uncertainty about this formidable task. Hamlet also experiences this indecisiveness when he contemplates suicide during several points in the play. Though he expresses disgust over Claudius’s inferiority to his father and his hasty marriage with Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, Hamlet more strongly detests his own procrastination in avenging his father. In order to conceal his insecurities, Hamlet decides to assume an “antic disposition”, which caused much confusion among other characters and led to a cascade of chaos. Hamlet’s indecisiveness, contrary to Laertes’ adamant desire for revenge, and his philosophy on suicide relate death and its uncertain nature to man’s irrationality.…

    • 1107 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Within Hamlet the themes of death, disease, and decay are spread throughout the entire play. All are mentioned by Hamlet, the apparition and Horatio. All are described in great detail. These motifs reflect many of the characters inner struggles and views on life.…

    • 508 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hamlet thinks for the first time about suicide (desiring his flesh to “melt,” and wishing that God had not made “self-slaughter” a sin), saying that the world is “weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable.” In other words, suicide seems like a desirable alternative to life in a painful world, but Hamlet feels that the option of suicide is closed to him because it is forbidden by religion.…

    • 529 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hamlet Flaws

    • 966 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Although Hamlet and his thoughts might seem like the thoughts of sad teenager contemplating suicide, from his logical standpoint on to suicide to his ideas of human beings in death, Hamlet gives an interesting perspective on the physical idea of death and the logical part of suicide.…

    • 966 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Hamlet first decides against suicide for religious reasons. He discusses with himself the difficulties and pains that accompany life and notes how easy it would be to commit suicide to avoid dealing with them. He wishes “that this too too sullied flesh would melt, thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!” (1.2. 129-30). Immediately after, Hamlet brushes off suicide as an option saying “Or that the Everlasting had not fixed his canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! Oh, God, God” (1.2. 131-2). Hamlet, showing disdain for life’s trials, founds his decision to continue his life on religious grounds. The “canon ‘gainst self-slaughter” is obeyed by Hamlet because of his piety and respect for this code of behavior. Hamlet entertains the possibility of suicide again after planning the play to goad Claudius into guilt. Hamlet complains “Who would fardels bear, to grunt and sweat under a weary life, but that the dread of something after death… And makes us rather bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of?” (3.1.77-9). Again Hamlet shows his dislike for “fardels” and “a weary…

    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Hamlet is obsessed with the idea of death, and during the course of the play he contemplates death from many different perspectives. He ponders the physical aspects of death, as seen with Yoricks's skull, his father's ghost, as well as the dead bodies in the cemetery. He says one of the most famous lines, "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; No more; and by a sleep to say we end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to, `tis consummation devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep." (III.1.58-64). Hamlet also contemplates the spiritual aspects of the afterlife with his various soliloquies. Emotionally Hamlet is attached to death with the passing of his father and his lover Ophelia. The madness that Hamlet portrays is understandable but he cannot…

    • 2616 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In his famous soliloquy, Hamlet reasons himself out of committing suicide, in which he first acknowledges how a copious amount of complications and predicaments in life can potentially lure an individual into a tempting and appealing idea of death. Throughout his soliloquy, Hamlet appears to be in a constant conflict with himself, proving his insanity and inability to compile the right suitable decisions. He struggles to figure out whether to commit suicide to avoid this dilemma or to assassinate the murderer of Hamlet’s father, which both deeds prove to be worthy of damnation. Hamlet’s indecisive speech and nature influences the rest of his actions in the play due to his constant contemplations that results in poor decisions, that ignites…

    • 1830 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Hamlet strips away the veneers and smoke screens that trap our minds, forcing us to confront the raw human condition in all its pain and glory. For this reason, Hamlet has never ceased to enthral audiences since its conception, and has been critically scrutinized for centuries. Shakespeare explores ideas that are universally understood: the human need for vengeance, human glory as well as human failings, and the unavoidable presence of death. Collectively, these ideas compose a deep probing of the human condition. On a personal level, Hamlet has been worthy of my interpretive study because it has provoked me to engage with my surroundings more critically, questioning established values, norms and codes of behaviour that had previously held my conviction.…

    • 1307 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    hamlet

    • 438 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the first nine lines of Hamlet’s soliloquy, Hamlet expresses his inward and innermost thoughts, believing that the only key to his end his agony and misery is by suicide. He wishes “that this too solid flesh would melt, thaw and resolve itself into a dew!” indicating he sees no point in his existence. He wishes that God “or that the Everlasting had not fix’d, his canon ‘gainst self-slaughter”. Hamlet saw the qualities of life as “weary, stale, flat and unprofitable”, ultimately useless to live in. He also compared the whole world to an unweeded garden, that grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature”, astonished and skeptic upon what it has become.…

    • 438 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hamlet

    • 615 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Act 3 Scene 1: Hamlet debates the question of whether suicide is an effective solution to the pain he is experiencing: the difficulty is that we do not know what to expect in an afterlife.…

    • 615 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Hamlet And Suicide Essay

    • 1473 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The topic of death and suicide in Hamlet is one that readers analyze throughout the play. Critics often analyze Hamlet’s thoughts on suicide and question if Hamlet and Ophelia’s deaths are accidental or self-inflicted. With the situations that occur in the play, Shakespeare aims to analyze society’s views on suicide and the reasons why people chose to commit or not commit suicide. Essentially, the play follows Hamlet’s mental battle against his suicidal thoughts and Ophelia’s turning to suicide as a last resort for all of her problems. Furthermore, Shakespeare critically discusses society’s negative views on suicide due to Christian beliefs and the social repercussions of suicidal acts.…

    • 1473 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hamlet Death Analysis

    • 1258 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Throughout Hamlet, William Shakespeare’s eloquence and use of thematic imagery helps convey Hamlet’s state of mind as troubled and ambiguous, establishing him as a tragic hero whose feelings of death are nothing short of an enigma. From the opening scene with the ominous apparition to the brutality of the final scene, death is seemingly portrayed further than that of its simplistic physical nature. Hamlet’s thought provoking and introspective nature causes him to analyze death on different levels, ways that are much more profound. Hamlet’s acceptance of death is gradual but very much evident in the play, as his idle nature transitions to one of cowardice and eventually determination and resolve. As the reader is introduced to Hamlet,…

    • 1258 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays