Theme Of Suicide In Hamlet

One work that is studied by many students across the country is Hamlet, a play written by the great William Shakespeare in 1603 (“Sparknotes”). After spending the past month reading and watching Hamlet, it is very apparent that it has many parallels with life today. While it is many years ago in Denmark, the people then act very similar to the people in the present day United States. The characters all feel love, hate, anger, and jealous, as do all people in society today. While there are many themes that overlap between Hamlet and the world today, one that is very important is the issue of suicide; that act is as tragic now as it was then, and that will never change. In the play, suicide is a theme that directly affects Hamlet and Ophelia during the play. Hamlet contemplates his own suicide before deciding that it is not worth it to end his own life and not go to heaven. This is famous for the phrase “To be, or not to be? That is the question…” which Hamlet says while weighing live - to be - and death - not to be - before deciding to stay alive (Act III, Scene I). Ophelia, however, does more than ponder the idea, and apparently commits suicide by drowning. This suicide affects many other people, which is shown …show more content…
42,773 deaths by suicide were reported in 2014 in the U.S., which is a very upsetting number (“Suicide Facts”). This means that, along with those 42,773 individuals, there are also loved ones, like Hamlet and Laertes in Hamlet, who have to suffer through the pain of losing someone close to them. Ophelia kills herself because she has gone mad following her father’s death, while 90% of people committing suicide in the United States have some kind of psychiatric issue (“Suicide Facts”). The similarities between how people reacted to Ophelia’s death in Hamlet to how people act towards suicide today are both morose to think