 The notion of death is a theme that runs throughout Hamlet. Indeed even the opening scene of the play starts with a ghost, okay? And of course we realize that this ghost that's been cited belongs to the dead spirit of Hamlet's own father, okay? So of course it's the idea of death and him dying an untimely death So he seems to be doomed to walk the earth until he is avenged by his son So he seems to be almost living in the state of Purgatory This introduces the theme of death from a very early stage within the play and of course we then realize The reason why the spirit is roaming around Elsinor and roaming around Denmark is because an unnatural killing Which is the killing by his brother Claudius of the king took place and this wrong has to be righted Okay, so balance needs to be restored. So death is used as a way to illustrate firstly just how temporary life is Okay, and of course even Hamlet reflects on this however, the notion of death is also used as a way to really reflect on just this fragile mortality that all of the characters have and Finally the notion of death is used almost as this great equalizer, okay? So we can see that death ultimately equalizes, you know, this imbalance that has been established because the wrongful king is in place But also the final death of the entire royal family then brings in the strongest person Which is for to bra who then decides we will we can guess at the end of the play. He's going to take over Okay, so this interesting preoccupation with death and Madness at some points also is a precursor to death. We're gonna see this with one of the grotations I've selected for a failure. Okay, so her madness kind of foreshadows the death that she eventually engages in of course She commits suicide and another element of death is this idea of as to whether we as humans being Powerless as to all of these things that happen around us Can we take control at least of our own destiny through the notion of suicide and suicide is contemplated by both Hamlet Right killing himself and Ophelia, but it's only Ophelia who goes through and successfully kills herself Hamlet does not. Okay, so this notion of death and this idea and this Fascination with death obviously runs throughout the play and we can see at some points the pressure becomes too much for Hamlet and he wonders whether death and Entering this internal country of the afterlife might be easier than this Torture of having to avenge his father's memory now This is tied to the first quotation because as you can see behind me I have selected the most relevant quotations you can use if you're writing about the theme of death in Hamlet And so as I mentioned the first quotation is tied to Hamlet directly and arguably this is probably Shakespeare's most famous quotation Okay, he states so this is Hamlet. He states to be or not to be that is the question Okay, so here Hamlet is contemplating whether he should carry on living this difficult existence living this difficult life Also carrying out this Overwhelming duty that's been put on his shoulders by the ghost of his father to kill the king so kill King Claudius or If this is all too much and if you should Consider suicide instead which will free him from all the difficulties of life. So he wonders should I be okay? So should I carry on living should I carry on existing or should I not be should I just commit suicide? Okay, now here, of course You want to focus on the repetition of the words to be and this illustrates how death Fascinates Hamlet. He wonders whether death in some to some degree is actually freeing for somebody, okay? However, he is too terrified at the prospect of what the afterlife represents and hence he decides to carry on living, okay? The second quotation closely tied to this and this is still part of his dramatic monologue when he's contemplating death And he's considering whether dying is easier than the difficulty of living is when he considers to die to sleep ellipsis The undiscovered country from who's born no traveler returns, okay? So he's wondering if he were to kill himself and to go into the afterlife. This is another place Nobody can ever tell him whether it will be a good decision or not because nobody has ever come back from the afterlife Okay, it's an undiscovered country. It's only discoverable once you die, but there's no way to reverse that process Okay, so again here we can see that Hamlet seems really preoccupied with the idea of death This idea that actually might death be freeing. We're not entirely sure Of course, if you look at it from the ghost perspective, it might not be that freeing because it's stuck in purgatory Now the one level as you can do here is firstly the verbs die and sleep, okay? So here there's this notion that death can actually give eternal rest this eternal sleep So Hamlet is wondering is death actually easier than this difficulty of life Also this notion of the afterlife being an undiscovered country. This is a metaphor, okay? So here again, there's this notion of maybe the excitement that the afterlife might Represent the difference. However, Hamlet decides to carry on living because he is too terrified of the prospect of what That are known might be in the afterlife, okay? The next petition could tie into the theme of death is when Gertrude so this is early on when Hamlet He's dressed in all black. He's so mourning. He's so sad and Gertrude tells him off Cast off the night. It looks stop being so sad. Stop mourning Death is a part of life again. Of course, this is before Hamlet finds out that his dad did not die natural death Okay, he was killed however Gertrude because she believes her husband died a natural death She's trying to console Hamlet and she says all lives must die passing through nature to eternity Okay, so here there's this acceptance of the necessity of death. Okay, so there's this acceptance She doesn't have a similar preoccupation with death as Hamlet however, she seems to have this almost passive stoic acceptance of death being a natural and Necessary process of life and this is illustrated through the juxtaposition of the words lives and die, okay? Now this is in contrast to Ophelia who foreshadows her own death Okay, so this is when she goes mad and she's singing and it's unclear who she's referring to when she sings and states He is dead and gone lady dead and gone. This is when she is singing to Queen Gertrude So one way you can interpret this is she's talking about the death of King Hamlet. Okay, so he is already dead and gone You could also interpret this as her talking about her own father who has been killed by this stage or This could foreshadow her thinking about Her eventual death when she herself too will also be dead and gone Okay, so we can see here that she is pre occupied in her madness with death And whether death would maybe be more freeing and liberating for Ophelia remember that she lived a very restricted life She was restricted in terms of who she could love she was restricted in terms of what she could do as a woman And hence she's wondering will death actually be more freeing for me and she does eventually commit suicide, okay? Now as I mentioned this quotation what you want to do in terms of word love analysis is focus on the repetition of the words dead and gone Okay, or you could say that this foreshadows the eventual suicide and death of Ophelia herself The next quotation is when Claudius he is in the church He is so wracked with guilt over killing his own brother and he's contemplating What can be done whether the death of his own brother at by his hands? Okay? Because he's on that killed his brother or the God can ever forgive him Okay, so he's trying to pray his trying is trying and he's wondering. Oh brothers murder ellipses Oh, what form of prayer can ellipses forgive my foul murder? Now this in terms of structures a rhetorical question. He's wondering can God ever forgive this murder that I did, okay? Can can you know is there any way of this death that of course can that can that be reconciled? But also the other word love analysis you want to focus on is the litteration of forgive and foul Okay, this idea of the death being unnatural because he killed a king Okay, so he killed King Hamlet and remember at the time it was seen as unnatural killing a king or a queen because of God's Representative on earth. So Claudius is wondering. Oh my gosh, you know King Hamlet has been killed. Can God forgive me? Okay, so he's contemplating the death of his own brother at his own hands and he's wondering is this a forgivable sin The next quotation relating to the theme of death is now this is to do with the ghost Okay, so when the ghost reveals himself to Hamlet, he states I am the father spirit doomed for a certain term to walk the night. Okay, this is what we call declarative sentence Remember declarative sentences a sentence that states a fact feeling a mood the fact that's being stated here is basically Hamlet's father spirit is in purgatory Trapped until the person who killed him is killed and then he's going to go off into heaven Again here we can see that this notion of death is being explored through his father spirit And this is illustrated especially through the adjective doomed this notion that his father is in purgatory He's trapped until the correct King is restored and this entails this, you know includes King Claudius being killed and of course as I mentioned This is a declarative sentence and you also want to focus on the verb walk This notion that he has to roam the earth until the correct King is reinstated in Elson or okay So again head this ties into the theme of death because we can see that the ghost He is kind of coming from the afterlife. He's God's messenger and he's showing that the wrong person is in power Okay Now in terms of key quotations or is remember that these are really really good quotations You can consider when you're writing about the theme of death and I would suggest of course Considering you know including the word love analysis as I've mentioned here. So thanks so much for listening