An analysis of hamlets philosophy of life and death in William Shakespeares Hamlet Essay

Dylan Thomas once wrote And decease sh in all have no dominion. William Shakespeargons tragedy, juncture, is a provocative play that portrays how a young prince struggles with his ism of career and destruction after the finish of his father. juncture, the prince, has move overcoming his fathers passing as he also has to deal with its aftermath. The first problem settlement has to deal with is his mother Gertrudes marriage to the newly appointed king, hamlets uncle Claudius. small town is revolt by this, seeing it as incestuous(Shakespeare 1. 2.162) and begins to contemplate suicide as an alternative to dealing with his problems. His backbreaking angst toward the newly weds grows blush more acute when small town is visited by his fathers refinement and be progresss sensitive that Claudius murdered his father. With this, he continues to struggle, asking himself which is easier, to be or non to be(3. 1. 64). after(prenominal) this, critical points outlook on disembo f all apartd spirit and expiration is continually changing due to a series of events until he comes to the shutting that nation should let be(5. 2. 238) be sculptl thithers a deity that shapes our ends(5. 2.11).Thus, through crossroads, Shakespeare presents the conception that there is a greater power shaping e preciseones lives and no function what brio throws at people, they must persevere and let events play out as assign is in control. small town has a very bleak outlook on life at the beginning of the play. He is very aflame intimately his fathers cobblers last and feels as though his mother and uncles marriage is slight(prenominal) than kind(1. 2. 67). Hamlet finds the death of his father very mortalal and is greatly bothered by the concomitant that everyone is faking their sadness instead of mourning properly.Furthermore, not only are others not mourning, Gertrude and Claudius have the audacity to secernate Hamlet to stop mourning as all that lives must die(1. 2. 74). This is the first issue that leads Hamlet to debate if suicide would resolve(1. 2. 134) the problems he is dealing with. He sees death as a focussing to relieve himself from his earthly problems, and views he pull up stakes be damned to hell if he commits suicide, as it is a mortal sin. Thus, Hamlet is discouraged by all the untimely events that seem to come near other the other and they seem to overwhelm hi.Hamlets pessimistic view on life is once more seen the night that he and his friend Horatio go to find the ghost of Hamlets father. As they are waiting, Hamlet tells Horatio how he believes everyone is born with a vicious mole of nature(1. 4. 27) that with oergrowth(1. 4. 30) causes people to be victims of compulsion. Even if a soul is genuinely pure(1. 4. 36), if their tragic flaw is unchecked, even the smallest amount of smirch the result cause them to lose their reason(1. 4. 31) and corrupt all their other virtues.This short, but rich departure again displ ays his pessimistic view on life, as he believes that a persons fate is unavoidable. Hamlets ideas on life and death appear to become less pessimistic after he encounters his fathers ghost. At first, Hamlet is troubled as to whether the ghost is Satan or actually his fathers spirit(1. 4. 44), but follows he the ghost anyways. He does this because he wants to believe it is his father(1. 4. 50) and does not think following will risk his life or cause any harm to his soul(1. 4. 74).Hamlet not wanting to risk his life displays how even though he wants to disappear, he relieve values his life. After Hamlet decides to follow(1. 4. 97) the ghost, the spirit reveals that he is the dead kind and he is in purgatory because Claudius murdered him. This means that Hamlet has to avenge his fathers death and so he makes an oath of vengeance, that he will pull down Claudius to right his fathers murder. This new goal gives Hamlet a reason to live, but because he believes he was born to align it r ight(1. 5. 211), he implies that after he does the deed, his life will be complete and he will die.Hamlets new philosophy is guided by the oath of vengeance, as it gives him a part in life, but a self-destructive one. Although Hamlet finds a new purpose in his life, Shakespeare continues to air how Hamlets outlook on life is far from positive. While talking to 2 octogenarian friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlet acknowledges that he feels like he is in prison(2. 2. 267). In the literal sense, Hamlet feels confine in his home with Claudius, being the murderer of his father, and his mother abandoning him for that adulterate beast(1.5. 53).On a deeper level, Hamlet is trapped within his own thoughts, as he is constantly struggling with suicidal thoughts and is also burthen with figuring out how to avenge his father. He continues to see the world as a foul(2. 2. 326) place and finds others a piece of work(2. 2. 327). This shows how Hamlets pessimistic view of the world is lighten overwhelming, in spite of his newfound reason to live. Hamlets fatalistic view on life develops even moreover as he disadvantageously contemplates suicide once again. The question(3. 1.64) he ponders is whether it is more noble to gather(3. 1. 65) through life or to end lifes hardships by sidesplitting oneself. He comes to the conclusion that he wants to die(3. 1. 72), but realizes that just like sleep(3. 1. 72), death is not the end of all hardships. Hamlet is cognisant that suicide leads to damnation. It is this and the uncertainty of what comes after death(3. 1. 86) that scares Hamlet and makes him less enthusiastic more or less death. Furthermore, he observes that the more he thinks about death, the more cowardly he becomes and the less he wants to kill himself.Therefore, Hamlets desire to kill himself is not great enough for him to follow through with it, as the thoughts to what comes after death scares him too much. Even though Hamlet chooses life over death, he still does not find life pleasant and wishes he could just disappear. Hamlet started off with a very bleak look on life and a skeptical view on death, but when Hamlet is talking to Horatio, readers can see him start to change his outlook to be less pessimistic. He has seriously contemplated the worth of living twice and even though he has found new meaning to his life, he still wants to cease to exist.It is all of this that leads Hamlet to anticipate his death during a conversation he has with Horatio. It is here that Hamlet thanks Horatio from the bottom of his heart(3. 2. 78) for being so loyal to him. This moment between the two characters, shows that Hamlet is anticipating his own demise and wants to make sure he Horatio knows that he was appreciated by Hamlet. The item that Hamlet is expecting to die, shows readers that the implication Hamlet makes when taking the oath of vengeance is correct. He is convinced that his life will come to an end after he avenges his fathers mu rder.This shows how Hamlet is beginning to think about how people cannot control our lives, but that everyone has a certain fate. This theme is further developed through Hamlets actions later on in the play. Even though Hamlets view on life and death is still quite pessimistic, Shakespeare exposes Hamlet to the idea that humans whitethorn not be in control of their fate. Shakespeare does so through The Murder of Gonzago(2. 2. 564) the play Hamlet puts on, as Hamlet is aware that the purpose of playing(3. 2. 21) is to mirror reality. With this in mind, Hamlet adds some dozen or sixteen lines(2. 2.567-568) to defecate a mirror image of his fathers murder within the play.Hamlet does this to see if his uncle unfeignedly killed his father, and determines that he does do to his reaction. The play discusses how people live their lives determines oft we break(3. 2. 210). This idea connects back to Hamlets discussion with Horatio about peoples vicious mole of nature(1. 4. 27) causing them to be a victim of fate and builds upon that concept. The play also considers how, what someone wants to happen and what actually happens, are in all different people have no control over their lives.Thus, the play builds upon the concept that no matter what people do, their efforts will be overthrown, as they cannot control fate. This exposes Hamlet once again to this idea putt it in his sub-conscience to be seen further on in the play. Hamlet has now been receptive to the idea of fate controlling peoples lives, but has not come to realize this for himself yet. This is seen when Hamlet accidentally murders Polonius and still accepts responsibility for it even though Polonius was killed due to his tragic flaw, being nosy and arrogant.Polonius is killed after giving past his location while intruding(3. 4. 38) on Hamlet and Gertrude talking. Since this is how he is killed, it could be expected that Hamlet would settle to rationalize Poloniuss murder as it was his fate to die in tha t manner. Instead of doing this, Hamlets sense of responsibility for the death of Polonius is at odds with his cynical view that people are a victim of their fate. This reveals that Hamlet is just beginning to grasp the concept presented in the play.Rather than rationalizing Poloniuss death as something uncontrollable, he believes that he is an agent of divine retribution and it was his duty to kill Polonius. Thus, Hamlet distorted the words of the play and came to a different conclusion than what the play presented. Either way, Hamlets philosophy on life and death comes closer to his final conclusion as he is beginning to realize that people have no control over their lives. Hamlets philosophy on death is refined even further when he is confronted with the idea that death may not be as liberal a deal as he makes it seem.He is faced with this idea when he comes crosswise troops led by Fortinbras(4. 4. 15) going to Poland(4. 4. 16) to fight to gain a little patch of maroon(4. 4. 1 9) that is useless to the troops. This puzzles Hamlet because he sees it as illogical, as the men are fighting without a cause(4. 4. 29). He does not comprehend how so many people are willing to die for nothing, when for him decease is a very hard thing to come to impairment with. Shakespeare uses this scene to show Hamlet that death is not as significant as he makes it seem, but rather insignificant in the big scheme of things.Although he does not grasp this concept right away, it is important in shaping his general view on life and death at the end of the play. Thus, Hamlet is once again exposed to an outlook on life and death that demarcations his own and leads him to a new infrastanding about life and death. The outlook Hamlet has on life and death becomes more optimistic as he has eventually come to terms with death. Horatio has just fetched Hamlet from a pirate ship bringing him back from his travel to England and they are in a graveyard near the castle.They stumble upon a gravedigger and his friends and when the gravedigger digs up a skull(5. 1. 77) Hamlet reveals he is now amused by death, rather than scare of it. He jests about what the skull may be and reveals he now grasps that life is a fine revolution(5. 1. 92). This shows how Hamlet has come to terms with the fact that everyone dies and are all reduced to just bones(5. 1. 93). Instead of being bothered by this and constantly fighting death, Hamlet has become allies with it, a kind of fatalism.Despite this, Hamlet is not fully unaffected by death, as he is still emotionally touched by it when it is personal. This is seen when the skull of Yorick(5. 1. 191), the venerable jester, is dug up. After seeing this, Hamlet beings again to conceptualize how everyone is equal in death as even Alexander(5. 1. 216) and Imperious Caesar(5. 1. 220) returneth to dust(5. 1. 217). Although Hamlet tries to rationalize Yoricks death, when he finds out that the grave being dug is for Ophelia, he cannot control his emotions any longer.Once again death affects Hamlet and he is overcome by sorrow(5. 1. 268) and grief(5. 1. 267). Thus, Hamlet has a new fatalism about him, but death still moves him when it is personal, which is continually seen through to the end of the play. Hamlets once pessimistic view on life and death takes a final turn when he takes everything that has happened and comes to believe that providence(5. 2. 234) controls life and death. After the graveyard, Hamlet tells Horatio how he escaped the ship taking him to England(5. 2. 44) to be killed, by authority of Claudius.The ship was under attack by pirates and before jumping ship he wrote letters to have Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who were taking him to England, killed instead of him. This huge escape, along with all the events prior enable Hamlet to realize how insignificant everyone is in life. Hamlet now believes that regardless of what a person does, it will not matter because there is a divinity that shapes our end s(5. 2. 11). This is seen when Hamlet admits that the deaths of Guildenstern and Rosencrantz(5. 2. 63) are not near his conscience(5. 2. 65).He rationalizes their deaths because they died in the process of ingratiating themselves to the queen regnant(5. 2. 43), their tragic flaw, and since providence is always in control, their deaths are out of Hamlets hands. This contrasts Poloniuss death when even though he died due to his vicious mole of nature(1. 4. 27), Hamlet still felt up responsible since he did not yet believe fate controls everything. Furthermore, Hamlet answers his own question to be or not to be(3. 1. 64) with let be(5. 2. 238).He recognizes that people cannot live their lives scared of death because providence(5. 2.234) has a hand in the smallest of things. This philosophical look on life and death reveals that Hamlet has accepted his fate and is now ready to die. Hamlets philosophical look on life continues until his dying moments. Since he has accepted his fate, h e stops thinking about his actions and lives with the readiness(5. 2. 237) to die. He goes into a fencing match with Laertes who is there to avenge Poloniuss death, knowing he may lose(5. 2. 223) but does so anyways. Little does he know, Claudius and Laertes have made a plan to poison him with the sword or with a poisoned chalice(4.7. 183).Hamlet is struck by the poisoned sword and is told that he only has half an arcminutes life(5. 2. 346). It is with this that readers see Hamlets philosophical outlook prevail again. After killing Claudius, the leader of this plan, he acknowledges that he only has a few moments to live and takes control. He is not scared but rather calm and tells Horatio to let it be(5. 2. 370) and to live his life and tell his story(5. 2. 384). Lastly, Hamlet passes on the kingdom to Fortinbras(5. 2. 393) and recognizes that the rest is silence(5.2. 395)Hamlets life is over. Thus, Hamlets philosophical look on life and death goes hand in hand with his death, as h e does not fight it and he is well aware that he is dying and stays calm. This is a major contrast to how the play starts off when Hamlet is terrified to die, as he is scared of damnation. Now, Hamlet is ready to die and is okay with dying now(5. 2. 236). Thus, Hamlets philosophy on life and death has come full circle, as he started off very pessimistic and ended up with a brooding view on life and death.Shakespeare presents the concept that life and death are out of peoples control and are shaped by providence(5. 2. 324) through the character of Hamlet. Hamlet believes that life cannot be controlled by people but rather, it is controlled by God and fate. He realizes that he should not live his life in fear of death and many events lead him to be convinced that no matter what people do, the way they die will still be controlled by a divinity(5. 2. 11). Although God plays some part in everyones lives, people cannot depend solely on him to shape their lives.How a person lives does de termine(3. 2. 210) how they die, but only that person can shape their own future. Every new generation is told that the future is in their hands and this is very true. Everyone can make their life what they want it to be and no-one has to soften to fate, but anyone can choose that path. People need to be aware that even though fate and destiny may be considered real, everyone has the power to shape their own life.Bibliography Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Eds. B. A. Mowat, P. Werstine. New York Folger Shakespeare Library, 1992.