Death In Hamlet Research Paper

Hamlet, by Shakespeare is a play about a young man, Hamlet, mourning the murder of his father by his uncle. The word “dead” is used constantly throughout the novel, as death was always on Hamlet’s mind. Though many of the quotes with “dead” were seemingly inconsequential, the context in which they were used proved “dead” to be very important, in fact. For as the play developed, it became evident that “dead” was being used to refer to mental, spiritual, and physical death, as well as, the middle of the night. Death is not always finite in this play, as when King Hamlet is killed, he shows up as a ghost to talk to Hamlet anyway. But as the play develops, death becomes more concrete, as when Polonius is stabbed, it is stated that he is “dead and gone” (4.5 33-36). He consequently does not turn up as a ghost but rather is buried and that was the end of him. Also, Hamlet is constantly either talking about or considering death, whether it is death for his murderous uncle, or for himself, as he considers committing suicide to escape the pain. This relentless thinking, I believe, showed that Hamlet was, in fact, dying throughout the whole play. He was losing his faith in God, his faith in himself, and his faith in his family and friends. He consequently began to crave death and desire the peaceful serenity that it would give to him, though he was also fearing the anonymity that death would provide. This was shown when he exclaimed that “Imperious Caesar, dead and turned to clay” is now nothing more than a way to plug holes (5.1 205-206). As the play developed though, Hamlet did mature, especially on the subject of death. In Act 3, he was speaking about the joys that death would provide, but then when he …show more content…
Dead is used to refer to King Hamlet’s solely physical death, Polonius's both physical and spiritual death, Ophelia’s suicide, and Hamlet’s slow mental