How Is Hamlet Illustrating Death

Hamlet: Illustrating Death
In the theatrical play of Hamlet written by William Shakespeare, Hamlet the young prince of Demark is haunted by his father’s mysterious demise and his mother’s quick marriage to his uncle. This brings him to a point where he contemplates suicide and death. Throughout the play death is perceived as salvation. Hamlet, the young prince sees it as an escape from corruption within the castle; Ophelia, Hamlet’s love interest interprets it as a last resort, and the skull of Yorik, a forgotten friend of Hamlet illustrates death entirely.
Hamlet is driven by revenge. He seeks justice for his father’s death, King Hamlet. Claudius, Hamlets Uncle murdered his father, took the throne, and married his mother within months.
Yet, Hamlet’s fatal flaw causes him to overthink everything he does, including his own death. This pressure of avenging his father and pretending to be “mad” brings to a point where he doesn’t want that burden anymore. He wants to be saved. And so, suicide is a path he might take. After the wedding of Claudius and Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, everyone leaves except Hamlet. He explains, “O, that this is too sullied flesh would melt. Thaw and resolved itself into a dew, or that the everlasting had not fixed his canon’ gainst (self-slaughtered!) o God, God, How (weary) stale flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!”(I. II. 132- 138). Hamlet is appalled by his mother and uncles untimely marriage. He describes the marriage as incestuous and disgusting. Additionally, he hates the world that he is living in, he wants to escape, to leave somehow. But, he cannot, it is his destiny to resume the throne of Demark. The pressure is unbearable. Also, Hamlet is breaking down to a point where he is pushing people such as, Ophelia away who just want to help or to care for him. Therefore, He isolates himself by pretending that he is “mad” so that he alone will make the decision of committing suicide or not. He has to know for sure, without any outside influences. Hamlet believes that madness will cause people to turn away from him. It does the counter opposite, the castle is curious about the young man’s sanity. And so, when Hamlet questions himself, “To be or not to be- that is the question: whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of the outrageous fortune, Or to take against a sea of troubles And, by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep” (III.I.64-68). He proceeds to see himself as a weak man with no reason to live beside the vengeance of his father. But, he questions himself will that be enough? Will it make him the man is supposed to be? The King Demark deserves? And so, he cannot answer these questions because suicide always there, it is always an option. Hamlet wants to sleep forever, yet, he cannot because he has unfinished business in reality.
Ophelia, a gentile woman sees death as her only path. What lead her down that path was a series of events that drove her to her demise. Hamlet drives this young maiden over the edge. The relationship of Ophelia and Hamlet consisted of long handwritten love letters, late night visits, and maybe intercourse. Hamlet promises her marriage. But, strips her of that privilege when he decides that he is “mad” Ophelia tries to understand why he is doing such a thing, he shuts her out. Hamlet claims, “You should have not believed me, for virtue cannot so (inoculate) our old stock but we shall relish it. I love you not”(III.I.127-129). Ophelia is very distraught by this because she loves Hamlet with all of her soul. This brings Ophelia into a very melancholy state as she goes through her days at the castle seeing Hamlet, Hamlet teasing her. He broke her spirit more importantly she will never marry. Women have three choices, to get married, got to a nunnery, or to die. She can’t get married because of Hamlet, she cannot go to nunnery because she may not be a virgin, and lastly death may be her only option. In addition, Ophelia finally collapses, Hamlet mistakenly slaughters Polonius, Ophelia’s father. Hamlet shows no remorse for what he has done. He is sentence to death in England. Ophelia has chosen her path. The path of no return. Death. She wants to be put out of misery and insanity. Her last words, “I hope all will be well. We must be patient, but, I cannot choose but weep to think they would lay him I’th’ cold ground. My bother shall know of it. And so, I thank you for your good counsel. Come, my coach! Goodnight ladies, goodnight sweet ladies, goodnight, goodnight” (IV.V.73-78). Ophelia thinks of her father and his brother in her final words, the people who matter. She wishes them well in their endeavors and proceeds to say goodbye to only ladies, meanwhile the room had both sexes female and male. This demonstrates how Ophelia lost her trust in men because of Hamlet. Ophelia commits suicide because she felt like death is her only answer. Ophelia deserved to be rescued by a handsome prince and ride off into the sunset. This was not the case, Shakespeare, demonstrates the most heart wrenching death there is, the death of an innocent.
The skull of Yorick symbolizes something greater than just death.
Yorick was a part of the court, he was the King’s jester. Hamlet’s childhood friend and he always knew how to make people laugh. Hamlet grew up with this man, learned, laughed, and cried with him. Hamlet had forgotten all that he had done for him. Before the gravediggers dug up his skull. Hamlet holds the skull stating, “I knew him Horatio- a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy” (V. I.190-191). It is ironic how Hamlet uses the word “infinite” because nothing last forever, eventually all will be buried and all will pass on. Death is a strange thing, one’s soul is to never return. Moreover, Yorick was a person, and now he is just a skull. When Hamlet talks to the grave diggers he realizes something. When one decomposed in the ground and all that is left is a skull. At that point it does not matter where someone come from or their social status. Everyone ends up in the same place. There is no superiority in death. Hamlet gives an example, “ No, faith, not a jot. But to follow him thither with modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it, as thus: Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth to dust, the dust is earth, of earth we make loam—and why of that loam, whereto he was converted, might they not stop a beer barrel? Imperious Caesar, dead and turned to clay, Might stop a hole to keep the wind away. Oh, that that earth, which kept the world in awe, Should patch a wall t' expel the winter’s flaw! (V.I. 214-223) Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar are men that shaped society. Hamlet discussed that death no matter if one is the greatest mind in the world or the richest, everyone is buried in the same place and look the same when decomposed to the bone no matter what. Accomplishments do not matter after
death.
Thus, in the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, suicide is an ever-present resolution to difficulties in drama. Whether it is contemplating suicide, committing suicide, or death, they all revolve around the same theme, survival. Hamlet contemplates death because he is caught in his own dilemmas, in which he made for himself. Likewise, Ophelia commits suicide because she sees it as the only way out of her woes and misfortunes. Furthermore, death is also a way to equality and to not suffer. In this tragedy, the idea of death and salvation escorts the characters to their own destruction.