The Theme of Death in William Shakespeares Hamlet Essay -- GCSE Englis

The Theme of Death in William Shakespeare's Hamlet In the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, the protagonist, Hamlet is obsessed with the idea of death, and during the course of the play he contemplates death from numerous perspectives. He ponders the physical aspects of death, as seen with Yoricks's skull, his father's ghost, as well as the dead bodies in the cemetery. Hamlet also contemplates the spiritual aspects of the afterlife with his various soliloquies. Emotionally Hamlet is attached to death with the passing of his father and his lover Ophelia. Death surrounds Hamlet, and forces him to consider death from various points of view. In the first scene of Act 5, Hamlet discovers Yorick's skull in the graveyard. While Hamlet is speaking to Yorick, his father's jester's skull, as well as about him, Hamlet focuses in on the physical deterioration of the human body. He also touches on the inevitability of death as everyone's fate. He orders the skull to "get to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favor she must come"(5.1. 178-179), which means no one can avoid death. Hamlet also imagines the jester's features still existing on the skull, consequently showing his enthrallment with the physical outcome of death on the body. This concept is a very prominent motif throughout the play. Hamlet repeatedly makes observations alluding to every man's physical decomposition. "A man may fish with the worm that have eat of the king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of the worm," a symbol in which he states, " how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar" (4.3. 26-31). The ghost of the elder Hamlet is described as a very genuine looking ghost. The spectators ... ...s that he has slain Polonius the father of his "love" Ophelia. He comments, saying "I'll lug the guts into the neighbor room. / Mother, good night indeed. This counselor/ Is now most still, most secret, and most grave, / Who was in life a foolish prating knave. -/ Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you." (3.4. 235-9). Death is approached through many facets in the play Hamlet. Shakespeare has used a great deal of imagery and symbols in order to portray death as a major theme in this play. The play is seeped with literal death as well as figurative death. By Hamlet approaching death in physical, spiritual, and emotional terms forces death to become a major theme in the play. Sources Consulted Fagan, Garrett G. Death in Hamlet. 24 July 1998. Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Four Great Tragedies. Sylvan Barnett, ed. New York: Signet 1998.