Hamlet Death Analysis

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,
Further in the play, Hamlet obsession with death becomes much more noticeable- particularly when he is in the graveyard with Horatio. He sees his old playmate and jester, Yorick, in his state of decay and eerily uses his skull to portray deaths omnipotence. What could have once been the vibrant head of a politician or king is now reduced to a simple, dirty skull: “Here hung those lips that I have kissed/I know not how oft.” (5.1. 194-195) Furthermore, Hamlet realizes the notion that death is the unalterable and permanent ending of all men. Hamlet now is fully aware of death, and knows what he must do to avenge his father, yet he is immobile and is too scared to act. He asks himself “Am I a coward? Is it not monstrous/that this player here, but not in fiction, in a dream of passion/could force his soul so to his own conceit…” (2.2. 575-580) Hamlet is angered by the fact that he is too scared to perform a deed that should be committed for all the right reasons. He thinks too much and that is his ultimate downfall. Although very noble, he struggles with the issue of avenging his father's death, and since Hamlet is more into philosophizing than action, he thinks about his intention to kill Claudius, lessening his ability to execute his plans. When the ghost informs him about Claudius' actions, Hamlet is prompt by replying: " Haste me to know ’t, that
In his most famous soliloquy, Hamlet becomes aware that “conscience does make cowards of us all; and thus the native hue of resolution is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought, with this regard their currents turn awry, and lose the name of action.” (3.1. 85-90) Hamlet initially wonders if it's better to put up with the bad things you know about in life than to die. His problem is that he doesn't want to keep on living when Denmark is in this tragic state of decay. In thinking about the unknown that death brings "make cowards of us all,” Hamlet begins to accept what needs to be done. In his final soliloquy, Hamlet addresses the action of young Fortinbras and his bold, seemingly pointless actions. He questions why these men are risking their lives for a rather unimportant piece of land, why he can’t even muster up the courage to do something that has a legitimate point. “What is a man if his chief good and/market of his time be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more” (4.4. 34-36) He ensues to claim that if men don’t act, but wait for what is desired to happen, they are no more than animals. “I see the imminent death of twenty thousand men, that, for a fantasy and trick of fame, go to their graves liked beds, fight for a plot…O, from this time forth, my thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth.” (4.4. 60-67) Hamlet, in the end, is finally able to