Month: November 2015

‘The Dread of something after death’ is one of the lines from Hamlet’s soliloquy ‘to be or not to be.’ The phrase is about Hamlet’s fear of death and what comes after it. Just before this line, Hamlet was talking about how death would be a relief, which means now he is contradicting himself. This section is mainly about how Hamlet would welcome death, but he also fears it. He goes onto say that people’s own minds make them cowards. This is contradicting Hamlet himself as he is brave in body and mind, apart from when he lets his thoughts wonder to things such as death and destruction. Hamlet doesn’t seem to be able to decide how he feels about certain things which makes people think that he is insane.

It will happen or it won’t happen. That is the enquiry. It is nobler in the head to struggle the hardships and dangers of luck or to go to war against all of your troubles and then by fighting them you defeat them. To lay to rest, to always sleep, and if we sleep we end the suffering and all of the torturous things that the flesh is exposed to. It is something that is constantly wished. To die, to have an endless sleep to even possibly dream, yes, there’s the feeling, for when we die the dreams may come when we are no longer mortal and they must give us rest. That is the respect that makes suffering in life so long. Those who can bare the pain and torture of time, when you are oppressed by a proud man and the struggle of love that is despised, when the law is not dealt properly and the rudeness of the office and the denied requests, the patients of failing, when he might finally die with a bare knife? Who would bear his collection, to suffer and sweet under a tiresome life, but then dread the thought of death, the undiscovered place from which no one returns from, it puzzles the mind, it makes us want to bear all the pain and suffering that we have than get rid of them and go to others that we don’t know of? Our minds make us all cowards and makes us only see what we want to see, it makes us sick if we think about anything else, and we only focus on this moment and we disregard everything else and we lose our will power. You are so soft Ophelia! Beautiful, in prayer, Let all my sins be remembered.

This is the very last scene in Hamlet. This is the scene in which almost everyone dies. The scene starts with a messenger (Osric) telling Hamlet and Horatio that Claudius has put a bet on a fencing match between Hamlet and Laertes. Hamlet agrees to the match and it begins. Hamlet gets two hits on Laertes at which point Claudius puts a pearl of poison in a goblet of wine just in case Hamlet wins. The tide then turns and Laertes strikes Hamlet with his sword (his sword has poison on the tip of it) and then they get into a scuffle. During this Hamlet picks up Laertes sword and strikes Laertes. On the side, Gertrude has just picked up the goblet of wine with poison in it and drinks it (she doesn’t realise it has poison in it). Gertrude then collapses and tells them that the drink is poisonous, she then dies. Hamlet then forces Claudius to drink the poisonous wine and then Claudius dies. Laertes then apologies to Hamlet for poisoning him and then he dies. Horatio picks up whats left of the wine and is about to drink it when Hamlet stops him. Hamlet tells Horatio not to kill himself so that he can tell Hamlet’s story. Hamlet then dies (Horatio doesn’t drink the wine). Then Fortinbars enters and looks around in shock. He tells Horatio that the orders have been carried out (Hamlet forged the letter to the English king. He put in it that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern should be killed at once, which they were). Fortinbars then orders four captains to carry Hamlet’s body outside while simultaneously cannons are being fired. The scene then ends and that is how Hamlet concludes.

This scene is the scene in which Ophelia is buried. It starts off by a gravedigger digging a grave and singing while he is doing it. Hamlet and Horatio enter and Hamlet basically starts telling the gravedigger to stop singing. The gravedigger refuses to tell Hamlet and Horatio who’s grave he is digging when suddenly Gertrude, Claudius, Laertes, a Priest and a few others enter along with a coffin. Hamlet and Horatio step aside so they can’t be seen and they listen to the congregation. Hamlet realises that Ophelia is in the coffin and appears just as Laertes jumps into the grave to say one last goodbye. Hamlet then also jumps in and Laertes starts to fight Hamlet. Once they brake apart Hamlet starts telling everyone that he loved Ophelia more than anyone has ever loved someone before. Horatio and Hamlet then exit. Claudius then tells Laertes to calm down and wait for the right moment for him to kill Hamlet. They then all exit.

During this scene, Claudius and Laertes discuss how they are going to kill Hamlet. They have just received a letter from Hamlet telling them that he’ll be home soon as he has cancelled his trip to England. Claudius tells Laertes that he has heard great things about how good Laertes is at fencing. Laertes says that he will put a dab of deadly poison on the tip of his sword so that when he marks Hamlet with the sword, it will kill him. They then make a back up plan which involves Hamlet drinking a poisonous drink. Gertrude then enters telling Claudius and Laertes that Ophelia (Laertes sister) has drowned in a brook. Laertes exits to mourn the death of his sister but he says that once he has done that, they will start making the plan together. They then all exit.