Discuss Hamlet’s attitude to death and the afterlife Essay

juncture a product of Shakespearean times has a different view on death, the after(prenominal)life and the divinity of the monarchy to any person today. Every whiz in the Elizabethan and Jacobean era believed that there was an afterlife. Everyone believed in God, in witches, fairies and in pinchs. No one saw the dichotomy between their varied beliefs as we do today. Ham allow, as a result of the time in which he was raised, had a very complex military capability towards life and death. This was due to his religious beliefs and his basic morality. Although critical point has reasonably strong religious beliefs, he similarly lived life in the post- renaissance way.The Renaissance era said that there was, more to life than organized religion and although religion should not be discarded, other things should be considered. Hamlet is a typical post-renaissance drama, with several plots interlacing frequently, to produce a complex composition giving meaning through contrast rather t han unfold each event in a single sequence. All the plots involve typefaces having to kill other characters for one reason or another. For example Claudius plots to kill Hamlet, and Hamlet plots to kill Claudius.It is through Hamlets uproar well-nigh whether or not to kill Claudius that his views on religion and the supernatural step up. Although Hamlet essentials to kill Claudius, he is prevented from doing so by his religious belief that God gives you life, therefore you have no right to retain either your bear life of that of another. This is as well the reason why Hamlet cannot kill himself. When Hamlet bumps Claudius onerous to pray, he has a perfect opportunity to kill him but he does not, due once once more to the contemporary beliefs about death and the afterlife.He believes that if he kills Claudius whilst he is praying his soul pull up s shines go straight to Heaven even though he killed old Hamlet. Claudius prayers mean that he is in a responsibility of perfe ct grace, with all his sins forgiven, so therefore, he allow for go to Heaven. Hamlet obviously does not want this. His give is forced to remain in purgatory and to suffer the misery of wandering the earth night after night because Claudius killed him while he was sleeping and unable to seek redemption.It is not surprising therefore, that Hamlet does not want his step stimulate to have the happy ending his father never got. As John Russel Brown says 1Within Hamlet, Shakespeare has created a hero who is compelled instinctively to seek and exact revenge and yet lives in a world created by an all-seeing all powerful, and merciful God. When Hamlet kills Polonius, he sees himself as Heavens curse word and minister, as if his violent and instinctive chemical reaction had been in accordance with Gods will.Such references together with unlike calls upon God or Heavenly powers, remind an audience of secure moral judgements that call for abyance and pity or for punishment. They mark th e play as contemporary, not belonging to a pre-Christian Denmark, and ensure that Hamlets progress in revenge does not move him entirely from customary judgements even though he believes he could drink hot blood and envisions evil spreading throughout the world. Therefore here Hamlet is showing that although he is a good Christian follower, he seeks revenge for the murder of his father.Laertes, another character to lose his father and his sister, who are both related to Hamlet in one way or another, deals with his feelings for seeking revenge in a very different way to Hamlet. Although at first Laertes believes that Claudius killed his father, his reaction to his fathers death differs greatly. Laertes does not care about morals very much To hell, dedication Vows, to the blackest devil Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit He is prepared to go to Hell to get revenge for his fathers death. He then continues to say. I dare damnation.To this point I stand. That both the worlds give to negligence, let come what comes only Ill be revengd, Most throughly for my father. Laertes is saying that he does not care what the consequences are, he will seek revenge even if he has to damn his soul to get it. Laertes decides that he will murder Hamlet, by poisoning the dagger he will be fighting him with. This, he k this instants, will definitely lead to Hamlets death. Laertes makes a decision and sticks with it, unlike Hamlet who is considered insane around the time he is thinking about killing Claudius.Hamlet is even considering taking his own life therefore Laertes would appear to be the more stable of the two. However, much of Hamlets procrastination lies in the fact that he intellectualizes the moral issues involved in life and death, good and evil. Both characters end up with the same portion death. Laertes behaves like a typical hero of a revenge tragedy, rushing headlong into revenge and his own death without pausing to weigh the consequences of his actions. Wh en old Hamlet appears, Hamlet questions whether or not to believe it is his father.Hamlet is in a very emotional state, he is thinking of suicide due to his fathers death, and now he has appeared before him, it is little wonder that he is shaken up. Hamlets indecisiveness as to whether the ghost is really his father, is seen when he says Ill call thee Hamlet, King start, royal Dane, until he hears otherwise. He is cautious because it was believed at the time that ghosts brought evil and were not good however, because the ghost so resembles his father and because Hamlet mourns him, he is prepared to believe that it is an honest ghost.The ghost confirms his identity, to Hamlet by saying I am thy Fathers spirit, Doomd for a certain term to walk the night, And for the day confind to refrain in fires, Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature Are burnt and purgd away. Once again, the audience learns something about Jacobean religious views and beliefs. Old Hamlet is tell us that due his being murdered so quickly, he did not have time to repent his sins, and therefore he is stuck in purgatory the place between Heaven and Hell until God forgives them.However Hamlet and Horatio are both men with high academic achievements, and both scholars, therefore it would be unlikely they would retrieve such a thing. Both of them see the ghost on the battlement as do Barnado, Francisco and also Marcellus who sees its appearance as a sign that something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Although Gertrude never sees the Ghost, its validity and cosmos is proven by the fact that both Hamlet and Horatio have seen it.2 The fact that Gertrude has an inability to see the Ghost might suggest the fact that she had nothing to do with the murder of old Hamlet or that she is excessively insensitive to see it an idea born out by her insensitively speedy espousal to Claudius. This also appears to be the case in MACBETH another of Shakespeares plays, in the banquet scene, when the guilty Macbeth sees the ghost of Banquo but no one else does. As a result of the information Hamlet receives from his father about his death, and his mothers behavior, Hamlet feels that life in Denmark is worthless.He feels now with the death of his father, and the incestuous he feels relationship between his mother and Claudius, that his life is also meaningless and worthless thus he discusses committing suicide. O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, thaw, and resolve itself into a dew. He then describes how distraught he is that his father was only dead a month when his mother got married to Claudius, and how he must hold his expression. In spite of this he cannot kill himself because God gave him his life, therefore he has no right to take it. The Everlasting has fixed / His canon gainst self-slaughter.