The Grief of Hamlet and Samuel Johnson
In Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Hamlet’s murder of his father, the King of Denmark, spun him into bitter grief and he became weary of the world, which seemed to him as an “unweeded garden, where all the wholesome flowers were choked up, and nothing but weeds could survive” (Lamb & Lamb, 2010, p. 321). Comparably, Samuel Johnson grieved the death of his wife, Tetty and eighteen year later, his sadness is as intense as the day she perished, as Johnson wrote, “When I recollect the time in which we lived together, my grief for her departure is not abated” (Johnson, S. p. 27). Samuel Johnson and Shakespeare’s Hamlet, suffered depression, doubt and harassment, and yet, the sustaining power in their response is vastly different, whereas, Johnson establishes protective power with God, Hamlet chooses to muster power in himself at the expense of others, including himself.
Samuel Johnson lived during, “ The Age of Johnson,” named because of his many marvelously literary works in England in the mist of England’s mid 1700s. Johnson offered his grief in Prayers and Meditations as a humble servant …show more content…
If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody. Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,” says God. “I’ll take care of it”” (Romans 12:17-19, The Message). And John Milton in Paradise Lost writes, "So bent he seems On desperate revenge that shall redound Upon his own rebellious head" (Milton, J. 1791, para3.84). Hamlet’s plans for revenge are not from God, and Hamlet is without God’s protection, in contrast, Johnson knows that the Lord sees trouble and grief, He helps the fatherless and hears their cry, “O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it to take it in hand” (Psalm 10:14, New King James
In Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Hamlet’s murder of his father, the King of Denmark, spun him into bitter grief and he became weary of the world, which seemed to him as an “unweeded garden, where all the wholesome flowers were choked up, and nothing but weeds could survive” (Lamb & Lamb, 2010, p. 321). Comparably, Samuel Johnson grieved the death of his wife, Tetty and eighteen year later, his sadness is as intense as the day she perished, as Johnson wrote, “When I recollect the time in which we lived together, my grief for her departure is not abated” (Johnson, S. p. 27). Samuel Johnson and Shakespeare’s Hamlet, suffered depression, doubt and harassment, and yet, the sustaining power in their response is vastly different, whereas, Johnson establishes protective power with God, Hamlet chooses to muster power in himself at the expense of others, including himself.
Samuel Johnson lived during, “ The Age of Johnson,” named because of his many marvelously literary works in England in the mist of England’s mid 1700s. Johnson offered his grief in Prayers and Meditations as a humble servant …show more content…
If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody. Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,” says God. “I’ll take care of it”” (Romans 12:17-19, The Message). And John Milton in Paradise Lost writes, "So bent he seems On desperate revenge that shall redound Upon his own rebellious head" (Milton, J. 1791, para3.84). Hamlet’s plans for revenge are not from God, and Hamlet is without God’s protection, in contrast, Johnson knows that the Lord sees trouble and grief, He helps the fatherless and hears their cry, “O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it to take it in hand” (Psalm 10:14, New King James