Hamlets inexplicable fascination with death - Essay Example

? 12 December Hamlet’s inexplicable fascination with death: Hamlet is the of a critically acclaimed tragedy written by William Shakespeare that is known as one of his very best works. This is because the male protagonist of the play, Prince Hamlet, is a character full of passionate energy and vengeance. After the death of his father, he also develops a weird obsession with death which influences the story of the play very much in many significant ways. The groundbreaking portrayal of human emotions is clearly the hallmark of Hamlet and this portrayal is flawless in reference to the anguished prince also. It is due to his narcissistic love for death that he is even considered by critics to be anti-hero instead of being considered a hero. An in-depth analysis of Hamlet’s character speaks of the fact that pathological obsession with death is one of many complex patterns of Hamlet’s psyche. This pattern will be scrutinized at-length in the following discussion to prove this argument that Hamlet’s relationship with and his attitudes towards death throughout the play an important role in destroying his reputation as a person of high social standing. If Hamlet’ action is explored in relation to death, many important aspects of the play get unraveled. This subject is very intense and open to multiple interpretations on a perceptual level due to which it is selected for this essay to be analyzed. It is worth-mentioning here that one of the most conspicuous themes of this Shakespearean tragedy is death which is evident in the way this theme interestingly influences the leading male character, the prince of Denmark. His relationship with death since the beginning of the play is very out of the ordinary and exceptionally odd. As the story progresses, this relationship starts bordering on insanity which is why critics describe the way Hamlet reacts to death a rare experience which people do not get to witness commonly in the real world. It is claimed that “the most extraordinary of Hamlet’s universal aspects is his relationship to death” (Bloom 6). He is described as extraordinary not only because right after the news of his father’s death reaches him, he becomes filled with emotions of rage and revenge. Rather, the aspect of his personality which compels one to raise one’s eyebrows and question the equanimity of this hero is the way he becomes hopelessly interested in death on many other levels. He becomes passionate about ghosts too and develops an urge to know what happens after a person dies, how the bodies decay once buried etc. Despite being a person of high social standing and required to stay levelheaded to be an example to his people, he instead he becomes literally obsessed with the idea of death. This obsession is born first when the death of his beloved father is revealed to him by his friend Horatio. Before killing Claudius, Hamlet attempts to familiarize himself with ghosts, which speaks of his fascination for the subject of death. Instead of developing interest in other tasks to be identified as a good leader, he instead sets on finding about the reality of ghosts to know if they really live in the world after death of a person or not. He contemplates the idea of death from many perspectives which demonstrates the gradual and worrisome development of a pathological behavior which turns out to have enormous repercussions as the story unfolds. Hamlet ponders about death from a spiritual perspective when he becomes captivated by the idea of ghosts and explores it. Instead of acknowledging the concerned advances of other people who are true to him like Gertrude, he perceives them as potential antagonists preferring instead to look on to death as a definite solution to all his emotional and psychological problems. Little does he know that death is not the solution, but actually the driver of his gradual psychological downfall. When interpreting the enthralling idea of death on multiple levels, he is singularly most affected by the notion of suicide. It is owing to Hamlet’s negative exuberance that suicide is idealized and believed to be an effective deterrent to the emotional ordeal. The deep and intense longing for death becomes penetratingly prominent when he says, “O that this too too solid flesh would melt, / Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!” (I.ii.129-30). This is a very important dialogue because here Hamlet expresses his desire for death. There is a reference to death in almost every scene of the play in which Hamlet is present. But, in this dialogue the interest in death reaches its climax because the longing for suicide is exposed for the first time. He wishes his flesh would just melt and transform into dew after thawing itself because he does not want to live and is intrigued what will happen after death like if he will transform into a ghost and reunite with his father’s ghost. After making it clear that he wants to die, it is also suggested how badly he wishes suicide was not a moral crime. When he says, “Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d / His canon ’gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God!” (I.ii.131-32), he desperately wishes his interest in death had a religious support for then, he will not have waited a second to commit suicide. This dialogue also makes Hamlet’s negative exuberance in reference to death quite emphatic. He cannot wait to experience how death tastes, but also has a lingering fear of eternal punishment. This drags him to a paradoxical situation and extreme dissonance envelops him consequently. In a state of acute distress, he concludes that no one will wish to continue living if one is not afraid of what awaits after death. When he says, “To die,—to sleep,— / No more; and by a sleep to say we end / The heartache,” (III.i.62-64), it is suggested that he has developed such unnatural tolerance for the subject of death that he begins comparing it to sleep. He thinks of it as a fascinating end to all pain and suffering. It is due to continued vengeance which is powered by the wish to die and kill others that his mental health begins to suffer. It is due to this morbid fascination and acceptance of death that he loses all skills of rationality. He reads too deep into things and his mind turns into a battlefield where myriad conflicts clash into each other. He willingly overwhelms himself with an inexplicable and unreasonable interest in death due to which even her mother, with all her good s intentions, fails to penetrate the icy exterior of her son. Even the decaying process of a human body intrigues Hamlet. When he says, “Not where he eats, but where he is eaten. / A certain convocation of political worms a e'en at him” (IV,iii,20-21), he tells Claudius that Polonius is not at dinner where he eats. Rather, he is a dinner himself for an army of worms who are now happily feasting on his dead corpse. The way he goes on to explicate the results of death and body decomposition identifies the extent of his madness and pathological fascination with death. He calmly examines a skull in the graveyard and the tone he uses when describing it has no tint of morbidity, but there is definitely “wry and affectionate humor” (Prosser 221). Later when Hamlet exclaims, “Alexander died, Alexander was buried, / Alexander returneth into dust; the dust is earth;” (V.i.209-210), it is suggested how Hamlet views death in its full glory. Unreasonably intense interest in death mutilates Hamlet psychologically to such an extent that following the act of stabbing Polonius to death mistakenly, he shows no remorse or regret of any kind. This is because he has an acceptance for death which takes his conscious away from him. Also, in every scene, somehow, he manages to inject the idea of death using it as a reference or as an example when making his point. It becomes second nature for him to mention death one way or another whenever he makes a conversation. This is evident in the way he says, “repair thou / to me with as much speed as thou wouldest fly / death” (IV.vi.21-22). Here, he is seen telling Horatio that he should pay him a visit as soon and with as much speed as he would use when running from death. In conclusion, the above discussion proves how Hamlet’s morbid fascination with death negatively interferes with his reputation as a person of high social status, who actually should be sane and strong. It is the idea of death which influences Hamlet in every scene that compels some to think of him as more of an anti-hero than a hero. It is this extraordinary obsession with death which serves as a catalyst to further the story of the play. It also serves as a catalyst to lead him to real madness from feigned madness. He is definitely charged with passions of death and revenge, but nothing excites or impresses him as much as the notion of death. This pathological amazement at death and detachment from rationality is the reason why Hamlet makes such poor decisions over the course of the play. Works cited: Bloom, Harold. William Shakespeare. USA: Infobase Publishing, 2010. Print. Prosser, Eleanor. Hamlet and Revenge. 2nd ed. USA: Stanford University Press, 1971. Print. Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Classic Books Company, 2001. Print. Read More