Hamlet Philosophy Essay

Shakespeares play, village, is an Elizabethan tragedy. critical point, a young Prince of Denmark, suffers a dilemma between the unrelenting ambition of revenge and clashing moral standards. This is real much a play well-nigh revenge, only when the reason that it continues to grip literary and theatrical audiences for al near 400 years, is because of the underlying philosophic meanings. Hamlet is more a philosophical play than it is a play round revenge. Throughout the play, Hamlet analyzes the uncertainty that goal brings, points the net arbiter in judgement and defies societys belief in the great string of being.Hamlet is surrounded by death. However, he is the only character that confronts death philosophically. Despite the revenge he is planning, Hamlet considers taking his ingest life. He strives to extract revenge upon Claudius, but the more guidance he seeks, the more lost and indecisive he becomes. Hamlet seriously questions if life is worth(predicate) living fr om his life crisis. This is seen in Hamlets virtually noted soliloquy, that is said at the kingdom of Elsinore, before being spied upon by Claudius and Polonius. To be, or not to be?That is the question / Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of fearful fortune, / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, / And, by opposing, suppress them? To die, to sleep / No moreand by a sleep to severalise we end / The heartache and the thousand natural shocks / That flesh is heir totis a consummation/ Devoutly to be wished To die, to sleep. / To sleep, perchance to dreamay, theres the rub, / For in that sleep of death what dreams whitethorn come / When we nonplus shuffled wrap up this mortal coil, / Must give us pause. in that respects the regard / That puffs calamity of so long life./ For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, / Th oppressors wrong, the lofty mans contumely, / The pangs of despised love, the laws delay, / The insolence of office, an d the spurns /That diligent merit of th unworthy takes, / When he himself might his quietus make / With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear, / To grunt and sweat under a weary life, / But that the dread of something after death, / The undiscovered country from whose marge / No traveler returns, puzzles the will / And makes us rather bear those ills we withdraw / Than fly to others that we accredit not of?/ Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, / And thus the native hue of resolution / Is sicklied oer with the nauseated cast of thought, / And enterprises of great pith and moment / With this regard their currents turn awry, / And flake out the name of action. (3. 1. 57-89) In this soliloquy, Hamlet speculates if suicide is preferable but it soon occurs to him that death is not a way out, because it is not possible to know what fate comes after death. Hamlet contemplates that the journey to death whitethorn blow over to an eternal sleep, but it may not the next life ma y in fact be worse that the life we are aware(predicate) of.It is the uncertainty death brings that inhibits people from ending their lives. Furthermore, Hamlet also questions the last-place arbiter in judgement. This is seen when Hamlet discovers the treachery of Rosencrantz and Guildensterns visit, and reveals his depression . Why, then, tis no(prenominal) to you for there is nothing / either good or bad but thinking makes it so to me it is a prison. (2. 2. 249-251) Hamlet is referring to how there is no final arbiter in judgement, but that people with differing morals and ethics judge to believe in desired opinions that correspond to their beliefs.This observation that Hamlet makes stinkpot be compared to the philosophy of existentialism, which holds that The starting point of philosophical thinking essential be the experience of the individual. (Existentialism) Hamlet is referring to how there is no definitive virtue but only subjective truth, and societys accepted dete rmine will favour one kind of truth, no matter how flaw it may be. Lastly, Hamlets fascination with death leads him to draw his own conclusions on the moral beliefs of society.Hamlet challenges the great chain of being the spiritual hierarchal structure of all matter and life on earth. Upon his irresistible impulse with death, Hamlet asks Horatio for guidance on his perceived speculations at the cemetery about horse parsley the Great. No, faith, not a jot. But to follow him thither with / taciturnity enough, and likelihood to lead it, as thus / Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander / returned into dust the dust is earth of earth we make / loam and why of that loam, whereto he was converted, / might they not stop a beer barrel?/ Imperious Caesar, dead(p) and turnd to clay, / Might stop a hole to prevail the wind away / Oh, that that earth which kept the world in awe, / Should scrap a wall to expel the winters flaw (5. 1. 201-210) Hamlet realizes that death is the inev itable fate of everyman that the fate of everyman is a journey into dust. remainder eliminates the differences between all people, regardless of how distinguished or insignificant they may be. Hamlet concludes that the great chain of being is false and everything in it, in the end crumbles into dust, just like the bones in the cemetery.Hamlet is more a play about philosophical ideas and speculations, than it is a play about vengeance. There have been an exorbitant amount of tragedies produced, but Hamlet remains the most produced and analyzed Shakespearean play of all time because of all of the philosophical meanings and interpretations. Hamlet philosophies over death, judgement and the great chain of being. The most big philosophical idea in Hamlet is the mysteriousness of death. Interestingly, in Hamlets soliloquy To be, or not to beThat is the question (3. 1.57-89), it is addressed as the question, not a question. This can be interpreted as the most important question a perso n may ever have to face in life. Indeed, Hamlet is Shakespeares philosopher. Perhaps Shakespeare was attempting to philosophically question societys motives in life, similar to Maslows hierarchy of needs, a theory of successive human motivation. References Existentialism. n. d. Wikipedia. 06 December 2012. . Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Toronto Harcourt Canada Ltd. , n. d.