Hamlet

A detailed Summary of Hamlet

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross developed a theory based on what she perceived to be the stages of acceptance of death. Her theory has been taken further by psychologists and therapists to explain the stages of grief in general. Kubler-Ross identified five stages: denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance, as happening in that order. In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, Hamlet exhibits all five stages of grief, we can assume in relation to the recent death of his father, but not necessarily in this order, and in fact the five seem to overlap in many parts of the play.

Instead of denial and isolation, which is the first stage according to Kubler-Ross, Hamlet dwells in a state of depression. The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Department of Psychiatry states "Depression occurs as a reaction to the changed way of life created by the loss. The bereaved person feels intensely sad, hopeless, drained and helpless" (www.uams.edu). Hamlet's depression is revealed in his fourth soliloquy. "Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer/ Or take arms against a sea of troubles,/ And by opposing them? To die, to sleep;" (Shakespeare III.i.57-60) Meditative and weary Hamlet gives up on any hope for the future. H

e contemplates suicide making obvious his profound state of despair. Hamlet's thoughts of suicide continue in this painful speech, "His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! Oh God! God!/ How weary, stale flat and unprofitable,/ Seem to me all the uses of this world!/ Fie on't! Ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden" (I.ii.132-135) Here are a sickness of life, and even a longing for death, that strengthens Hamlet's intense depression.

Before Hamlet is able to reach acceptance Hamlet goes through a stage of anger. Alicia Skinner Cook and Kevin Ann Oltjenbruns in Dying and Grieving state that "This stage involves feelings of anger, rage, envy, and resentment..." (Cook 9) Ophelia is one of the main causes of Hamlet's anger. Hamlet demonstrates his rage in Act III when he realizes that in his confrontation with Ophelia she is a decoy and he is being spied on. Hamlet breaks out into uncontrollable hatred and fury. He cries, "Go to, I'll no more on't; it hath make me mad" (Shakespeare III.i.155). His words at the end of this scene are wild and whirling. He loses control and gives "voice to the loathing that is in him, the cynicism that borders on madness" (Bloom 87). Hamlet in this scene is cruel to Ophelia: so too he is cruel to his mother later. He tortures both of them, because he once loved them. "They agonize him with the remembrance of what they once were to him, of what he himself is now" (87). This anger stage is what finally motivates Hamlet to act. We see the results of his anger in the final act when Hamlet avenges his father's death and kills Claudius. The murder of Claudius leads to his acceptance of his destiny.

In agreement to Kubler-Ross's theory, Hamlet's final stage of grief that he goes through is the stage of acceptance. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross characterizes this stage in Death and Dying as "a stage in which depression nor anger are seen about his "fate". He will have been able to express his previous feelings, his envy, and his anger...He will have mourned...and he will contemplate

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Approximate Word count = 1362
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English