He laments that “the Everlasting”, which is symbolic for the eternal God, has deemed it immoral to commit suicide, for he would rather commit suicide than endure pain. However, it is because committing suicide goes against the bible, that he continues his struggle through life, unlike Ophelia who upon losing her sanity, also loses her faith. This is the first time we see Hamlet contemplating death, which remains a very compelling idea in his mind. For example, in his “to be, or not to be (73)”, soliloquy, Hamlet is again contemplating whether it is a more noble task to bear all of life’s burdens or to escape it though death. However because there is much uncertainty in death, as no one knows what comes after, Hamlet declares himself too cowardly to commit suicide.
“To be or not to be—that is the question,” to exist or not to exist is the question Hamlet faces as a series of unfortunate events weigh down his soul (3.1.64). Hamlet wants to end the pain by bringing death to himself, but thought leaves him with out action—“thus conscience does make cowards of us all,/ and thus the native hue of resolution/ is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought…/ with regard their currents turn awry/ and loose their name of action” (3.1.91-96). Death to him, he sees, is inevitable but he can’t seem to accept the thought of going into an unknown and endless sleep in which “no traveler returns” (3.1.88). Realization that death is inevitable no matter what life you’ve lived faces Hamlet once more as he gazes upon Yorick’s skull, remembering that “he hath bore me (Hamlet) on his back a thousand times” and now the only thing left of him is not his jokes or the laughter but a mere skull that too will soon become part of the earth, like Alexander the Great who, no matter how ‘great’ he was, he no longer is. Shakespeare then captures the essence of life’s cycle when
The strange thing is, for a story that's as morbid as can be, it ends with life. Of course, we realize that the narrator obviously has to live in order for him to tell us how he almost died. Thus, in giving his character life, Poe is able to make us ponder death. Very cool. BUT can a story in which no one dies really be about death?
Hamlet also expresses the possibilities that the ghost could have been the devil. Although hamlet gets upset with himself he believes that the play he arranged would display Claudius’ guilt and then he will know for sure he killed his father. This reveals to the audience that Hamlet is a procrastinator and he is a coward. In Hamlet’s fifth soliloquy he contemplates the idea of suicide, he suggests that maybe the only reason we choose life is because we know so little about death other than it Is final. After contemplation Hamlet decides not to take his own life.
Of course not because it is impossible. All one can actually do is guess what happens. Most people are scared to death about death. Indeed, the subject is a very morbid topic to talk about of. However, Mark Twain chose to make fun of the subject; “The fear of death follows from the fear of life.
Shakespeare incorporated the theme of madness to serve a motive for Hamlet in order to deceive others. Hamlet planned everything from what he was doing to what he was going to do. Hamlet did in fact pretend to be mad, just so he could follow through on his plan to avenge his father’s death. He acted like he was mad because he did not want to directly kill Claudius, because he wanted to make him suffer. Hamlet also knew that he could not tell anyone that Claudius has murdered his father or that he had seen the ghost of his father because no one would believe him.
He waits quietly for the old man to sleep so that he can kill him, however the old man’s eye is always closed, so there is no ill feeling towards him. “But I found the eye was always closed; and so it was impossible to do the work; for it was not the old man that vexed me, but his Evil Eye.” (Poe 413) Critic Charles E. May has an interesting take on the situation with why the narrator hates his eye so much “The eye is interpreted not as an organ of vision but as the homonym “I.” Thus, what the narrator ultimately wants to destroy is the self, and he succumbs to this urge when he could no longer contain his overwhelming sense of guilt. The narrator has completely
Hamlet himself says, "That I essentially am not in madness, but mad in craft." He thought about everything he was doing, and everything he was going to do. Hamlet did in fact act like he was mad, just so he could follow through on his plan to avenge his father's death. Hamlet acted like he was mad because he did not want to outright kill Claudius, because he would probably go to heaven, and Hamlet wanted to make him suffer like Claudius had made his father suffer. Hamlet also knew that he could not go around telling people that Claudius killed his father just because a ghost told him so.
Bradbury has chosen these final words for Beatty to show the readers that by using literature, Beatty dares Montag to end his life. There is a sense of irony in the cause of Beatty’s death because what drives Captain Beatty to die is the shame of discovering that he had been lying to himself about his feelings for books. Captain Beatty was not worried about any threats because he already “wanted to die,”(122) he didn’t fear death, on the contrary, he looked forward to it. In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, the Caesar believes he’s God and that he has so much power that he needs to be reminded that he is mortal. The fire chief is telling Montag, through literature, that he doesn’t care about anything Montag says because he believes in his ideas and he doesn’t respect Montag’s believes.
• “Hanging Colby was doubtless against the law, and if the authorities learned in advance what the plan was they would very likely come in and try to mess everything up.” • “Colby said he thought drinks would be nice but was worried about the expense. We told him kindly that the expense didn't matter, that we were after all his dear friends and if a group of his dear friends couldn't get together and do the thing with a little bit of éclat, why, what was the world coming to?” • “…because if the hanging was being rained on he thought it would look kind of dismal.” • Find three other examples of irony on your own and explain why they’re ironic. 3. Define “euphemism.” Identify one example of a euphemism in the story. 4.