Essay Example on Hamlet: Mortality, Dreams, and Final Loneliness

Hamlet is a play that deals with some of the fundamental issues confronting human beings. One of the problems is human mortality, with the humans facing up the reality of Death. The experience of final loneliness in the face of Death limits human mortality.

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"To die, to sleep;

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause: there's the respect

That makes calamity of such a long life."

(Act III, Scene I, Line 77)"

Shakespeare reiterated that there is the respect that makes calamity of the long life. The Hamlet revealed the concept of committing suicide. It is based on the idea of dreaming if one is dead. Sleep comes with dreaming and makes one know he or she is going to dream through sounds, images as well as colors, although one cannot know that dreams exist.

"To weep is to make less the depth of grief." (Act II, Scene I, Line 86)

The silent and uncontrolled infinity of reality is always present as mystery and makes man open to the mystery, thus becoming conscious of himself as a person and as a subject. The mystery of what lies beyond the confines of human sensory experiences the mortality of Death (Shakespeare, 1992). Such transcendent human presence is the source of strength when faced with insurmountable obstacles.

Shakespeare captures the mysterious transcendent human presence with eloquence in Hamlet's soliloquy. When a human person gazes toward the mystery of eternal life and recognizes that eternal life is precisely what each person is created for, then they have come to realize the truth of their identity.

"We cannot hold mortality's strong hand." (Act IV, Scene II, Line 84)

Mortality is a capricious as well as inevitable reality throughout the play. The conception by Shakespeare shape the culture in which Death was an ever-present force. Shakespeare in Hamlet encapsulates this culture-wide unease as he unravels death mysteries before landing upon Death's less sinister identity.

"Did these bones cost no more the breeding but to play at loggets with them? Mine ache to think about it." (Act V, Scene I, Line 84)

The influence of mortality lies in Shakespeare's reflection on Death as the ultimate equalizer. It gives a simple and powerful image of a living human holding another's skull. Hamlet represents the inevitable and capricious nature of Death.

"Death lies on her like an untimely frost upon the sweetest flower of all the field."(Act IV, Scene V, Line 33)

Hamlet comments base on the status, breeding as well as the worth in life. Death reduces everyone to old bones. Hamlet takes the skulls and sates directly into its eye socket, which shows him symbolically staring directly in the eyes of Death itself and contemplates its connotations.

References

Shakespeare, W. (1992). The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark ASCII text placed in the public domain by Moby Lexical. XML Version by Jon Bosak, 1996–1999. https://www.w3.org/People/maxf/XSLideMaker/hamlet.pdf