Death and Revenge Explored in Hamlet

Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet Prince of Denmark, presents various themes and issues ranging from the most obvious to the mere ambiguous. Two of the key issues that are explored in Hamlet are death and revenge. These two issues complement each other, providing Shakespeare with a means for exploring these issues. Through his artistic integrity, Shakespeare is able to communicate the meaning of these issues through numerous textual features, and with this, is able to further develop these meanings to communicate to his audience.

One of the first and foremost issues explored in Hamlet is the concept of death. Death is established early in the play, and appears throughout from the very beginning with the ghost of King Hamlet, right through to the epic last scene with the deaths of numerous, prominent characters. With this, death to a large extent is a significant role in the play. However, the concept of death does not only relate to the decayed body itself. It also relates to the notion of suicide and fear of the unknown afterlife. This is especially true for the character of Hamlet, where he contemplates suicide, yet, procrastinates due to his fear of the unknown afterlife. The concept of death is widely explored in Hamlets’ 4th soliloquy in Act 3 scene 1, where Hamlet attempts to reason whether death is any easier than life itself. “To be, or not to be, that is the question” utilizes an antithesis, which draws attention to the prominent issue of death. It allows the audience to further develop Hamlets’ complexity, and to understand his inquisitive attitude towards death; his fear of the unknown as well as his desire for suicide. Further into the soliloquy, Hamlet ponders over “the dread of something after death,/the undiscovered country from whose bourn/No traveller returns”. Shakespeare’s use of the metaphor, where death is compared to “the undiscovered country”, clearly illustrates Hamlets’ fear of the unknown afterlife. It allows us to further deepen our knowledge...