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Theme Of Death And Suicide In Hamlet

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Theme Of Death And Suicide In Hamlet
Maria-Gloria Contrada
Introduction to Literature
Professor Obuch
23 November 2014
Death and Suicide in Hamlet Right from the opening scene, death permeates The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare, one of the most influential plays of the English language. With his deteriorating mental state after the murder of his father, the king, by his uncle and Claudius’s subsequent marriage to his mother in order to attain the throne, Hamlet is torn between seeking to escape the intolerable burden of existence and plotting vengeance. The play describes the deteriorating mental state and quest for vengeance by Prince Hamlet of Denmark after the murder of his father and the marriage to his mother by his uncle, Claudius, in order to acquire the throne. …show more content…
In the famous soliloquy, “To be or not to be” (Act III Scene I), Hamlet internally deliberates upon multiply questions as he contemplates suicide. Every logical or doubtful step from line to line better expresses the advantages and (cursed) disadvantages. Does the uncertainty of what happens in the afterlife warrant not committing suicide? Is it nobler to live a long life of intolerable existence or is it braver to take the final step into the abyss of the unknown on your own accord? What happens to your “immortal” soul when it leaves behind the earthly prison of mortal flesh? And if you knew what happens after life, would still go through all of life's humiliations? Death offers peace, but the dreaded unknown makes men too cowardly to kill themselves. He fears that if he commits the act, he will suffer eternal damnation in hell because of the Christian religion prohibits it and philosophically concludes that no person would choose to endure a miserable life if he or she were not afraid of what would happen. It is this fear, which causes complex ethical considerations to interfere with the capacity for
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