Suicide is a term coined long after William Shakespeare pend the infamous tale of Hamlet and his life’s questions. The word sends fear and anxiety among everyone who hears it. If you haven’t been touched by its heartbreaking affects, you may have thought about it, or known a home destroyed by the aftermath. Before the word suicide was used people often referred to it as self- murder. Throughout history suicide has haunted mankind.
This easy way out of life holds stigma that can’t be undone. Religious feelings and doctrine teach the treachery of such an act. How could shaking off this moral coil have such an impact and what journey lay beyond? Hamlet asked himself these things, and the answers may never be known. In Hamlet the theme of suicide was mentioned or used all through the story. Even before Hamlet’s father is murdered, Hamlet begins to question his own mortality. (Percival, 2010)
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"Hamlet and the Eternal Question of Suicide".
To be or not to be is perhaps one of the most infamous speeches in literary history. In it Shakespeare set the theme that everyone asks themselves, what dreams may come? He realizes with a Christian perspective , that this choice is wrong, and he must not proceed, or he may never be one with God, least of all in The Lord’s presence. After his father’s death Hamlet is faced with death. He becomes increasingly depressed, and begins to fall into a downward spiral of melancholy. (Rosenburg, 1992)
Hamlet is plagued with so many moral questions he becomes confused. He leads everyone to believe he is mad, while all of the time investigating what is going on around him. His actions become so irate after his mother’s quick marriage to his uncle, Claudius, the idea of having him sent away arises. His sweet girlfriend has no idea that her father, and Hamlet’s uncle are conspiring against him to have this carried out. Polonius believes right up until the end, that it is hamlet’s love for his daughter Ophelia, that is the cause of his suicidal illness. (Smith, 2003) It is this treachery that in turns sparks the first intentional suicide in the story, and leads to the accidental suicide of Hamlet’s mother.
Before Hamlet leaves, he murders Polonius, (Ophelia’s father) thinking it was Claudius. When the body of Polonius is discovered, Claudius convinces hamlet to flee. While he is gone, Ophelia is so gift stricken over the loss of her father, and the abandonment of Hamlet she literally goes mad. After finally returning home, Hamlet discovers Ophelia’s brother Laertes had vowed to avenge his father’s death. Together Laertes and Claudius concoct a plan to murder Hamlet. Fencing is a sport that can have deadly circumstances. They decided this contest would end in Hamlet’s demise.(Cannolie 2013)
They poison a tip of a sword, and a cup of drink. The theme of suicide quickly climaxes, and death quickly surrounds the royal family of the story. Unknowingly Hamlet’s mother drinks the poison. It is then discovered Ophelia has drowned herself. During this attack, Hamlet is struck by the poisoned tip. When Laertes discovers his sister’s death he too committed suicide and threw himself into Ophelia’s grave. These events in thew story occur rather quickly. Even the gravediggers question if Ophelia should have a Christian burial since she took her own life. Hamlet’s servant also wanted to kill himself, but, Hamlet wouldn’t let him so he could tell the truth of everything that had happened.
Suicide, it is an act of betrayal in many cases, it is an act of grief, what caused the characters in Shakespearean story to end their lives so tragically? Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother it is believed drank the wine unwittingly, and that she didn’t shame her family, rather she became a victim. Or did she foolishly drink, fully aware of what was going on? Did she realize that her son was crazy, her first husband murdered, and her new husband the murderer. Gender roles in that era were very different, and it is thought that she gave up, because a man could no longer care for her.
What about Ophelia? Why would she choose to humiliate her family so badly, especially during a time when suicides were often hidden and the rich would pay off those in charge to hide it? It has been theorized it was the culmination of gender inequality and grief over the loss of her father that Ophelia gave up this life. Whatever the circumstance that led Ophelia to this tragic end, it helped summarize the thematic climax of the women in that era. Women were seen as helpless, and without a man they were less likely to survive this cruel world. (Kirkland, 1999)
Laertes, stricken by the death of his sister in the end had made the choice not out of mental instability, but, sorrow, and discovery of truth. Even though Ophelia loved her father to death, her demise could have been prevented, if conspiracies didn’t work against her love for Hamlet. This essence hit Laertes with such grief life no longer seemed sweet. His time was cut short, and Hamlet just watched as he took the final plunge into the grave.
By the end of the play Hamlet learns the answers to all of his questions. He finally stares death down, but, it wasn’t by his own hand. The theme of suicide permeates from the beginning. There is no way to read this story not to understand that suicide has been a plague for generations, and has always been in the back of minds of people worldwide. Not only does Shakespeare remind us of the religious damnation that may follow a suicide out side of this world, he shows us the loss of respect given by those left behind.
- Rosenburg, Mark, 1992: The Mask of Hamlet, Delaware Press
- Connole, J. (2013). Formatia Trans Sicre Educatorum. [Web Log Post]. Retrieved from http:/federalistpublicola.com
- Smith, Barbara. ” Neither Accident nor Intent: Contextualizing the Suicide of Ophelia.”South Atlantic Review 72.2 : 96-112. Web (2008).
- Vivian, Percival.A dictionary of literary terms. London: G. Routledge & sons. 1900.Shakespeare
- Kirkland, Larry R., MD. “To End Itself By Death: Suicide in Shakespeare’s Tragedies. Southern Medical Journal92.7 (1999): 660-666
