The Importance Of Sleeping And Dreaming In Hamlet

Sleep is habitually restricted, if not neglected entirely, to a limited spectrum of interpretations in literature; dreams suffer a comparable fate as the act of dreaming is discounted while the substance of the dream receives the majority of concentration. Contrarily, Shakespeare invests greatly in the significance of the performance of sleeping and dreaming through his numerous literary works. Recognizing the vital importance that the two actions play in life, Shakespeare constructs several significant connections to the actions of sleeping and dreaming, prominently the entanglement of the actions with morality, befitting the essential functions. William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark presents the strong relationship
Initially, Hamlet solely suffers from moralistic bewilderment resulting from the appearance of an apparition claiming to be his murdered father and its attempt to convince Hamlet to take revenge on its hypothetical killer, Claudius. Hamlet has reservations towards the apparition, questioning its genuine identity and intentions and proclaiming, “The spirit that I have seen/ May be the devil: and the devil hath power/ To assume a pleasing shape” (Ham. 2. 2. 627-629). Hence, one of the essential decisions is Hamlet’s judgment of the apparition and its information. Mark Caldwell argues that the evidence appears to indicate the legitimacy of the apparition; however, Hamlet lacks the same conviction regarding the apparition and its intentions which begins his journey down the path of uncertainty that plagues him (144). Moreover, Hamlet struggles to accept any truthfulness behind the apparition’s acquisition as it would incriminate his uncle and further destroy his family, and the jeopardy of verification of Claudius’ guilt prompts Hamlet to ponder the loss of virtue associated with revenge. The copious number of troubling thoughts ware on Hamlet as he attempts to wade through the deceit and discover the truth; hence, Hamlet is struggling to receive respite for his
The death of Hamlet’s father in his sleep and the apparition’s expressions of unrest and horrendous fate in death, “confin’d to fast in fires” and worse insinuated, instill within Hamlet an immense apprehension towards the slumber resulting from a lack of security (Ham. 1.5.11). The appearance of the apparition provides strong evidence to Hamlet of the existence some form of an afterlife. Through conversing with the apparition, Hamlet has the dark and tortuous piece of this afterlife confirmed; since whether the apparition is truly his father serving out his pentene or a demon coming to deceive him, the apparition originates from a malevolent, otherworldly source. This is the foundation of Hamlet’s ultimate distress as Hamlet broodingly draws the parallel between the afterlife following death as dreams follow