Hamlet's Obsession With Death

A detailed Summary of Hamlet's Obsession With Death

Death. It usually plays a side role in our busy and complex lives, but when it hits you personally, things are forever changed. Death leaves behind a trail of sorrow, pain, and misery. Most people have a natural and healthy fear of death, but for some it is an obsession that fills their mind until there is nothing else they can think about. This is the case in William Shakespeare's Hamlet. Hamlet fills his mind with thoughts of revenge and suicide, hoping to right what is wrong and deliver justice to evildoers. Every minute of every hour of everyday is spent thinking about death and Hamlet's obsession with death effects everyone in the play

Polonius was the first to feel the wrath of Hamlet's obsession with death. Hamlet slays Polonius thinking that it was Claudius, but when he lifts the curtain to reveal Polonius, all he says is, "Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!" (Act III. Scene IV: line 32). Hamlet doesn't care that he has just killed an innocent man, in his own head Hamlet justifies it by making Polonius sound like he deserved to die for intruding. As a result of Hamlet killing Polonius, Ophelia went into a state of insanity. With Laertes gone and her father dead, she has no one to depend on. Her only hope was

Hamlet left a path of destruction wherever he went. All the people he cared about and loved were killed because of his overwhelming obsession with death. Hamlet gets his revenge on Claudius, but at what costs? The loss of his mother and lover, two innocents killed, and the loss of his own life. "But he goes with a cynical smile, and is no sooner gone than he is back again in their midst, meditating in graveyards, at home with Death. Not till it has slain all, is the demon that grips Hamlet satisfied" (http://hamlet.emulous.com/critics/essays.htm). If Hamlet did not have this obsession with death, many things would have turned out differently. Gertrude would have never seen her wrong doings and Claudius would still be King of Denmark. Polonius and Laertes would still be alive and possibly grown to like Hamlet. Ophelia and Hamlet would have been married and Hamlet could have found that one thing in life that made him happy. But in the end, "It is Hamlet who is right. What he says and thinks of them is true, and there is no fault in his logic." (http://hamlet.emulous.com/critics/essays.htm) Whether good or bad, right or wrong, Hamlet's obsession with death not only effected everyone in the play, and caused their eventual demise.

This obsession also effected the three members of the royal family, including Hamlet himself. Gertrude was a "frail woman" who did things out of fear and thus was easily influenced by Hamlet's words. When He screams at her for marrying Claudius, she sees all the wrong she has done and replies, "O, speak to m

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Approximate Word count = 1038
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English