Death in hamlet
Death in hamlet In William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, Hamlet makes many references to death in his famous “to be or not to be” speech. What Hamlet does not seem to realize is that death can exist on many levels and that he is already doomed in a way. Death can exist on physical, intellectual and spiritual levels. The characters of Hamlet, Gertrude and Hamlet’s father’s ghost demonstrate how it is possible to be dead on either one of these three levels without necessarily being dead in the other two. What must be kept in mind is that death does not necessarily imply physical death but it is possible to be intellectually and spiritually dead. Socrates once said to “be of good cheer about death and know this as a truth that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.” Basically what Socrates meant is that death should not be feared because any man who has been good in life cannot be exposed to evil even after they die. ... Hamlet knows that committing suicide is a sin which is why he decides not to kill himself to put an end to his sufferance; however Gertrude, fully aware of the fact that committing suicide would lead her to hell, does it anyways.