Shakespeare’s Eternal Work “Hamlet”, Book Review Example

Shakespeare’s eternal work “Hamlet” has become a classical writing for which the author became famous and remembered as a canonical playwright and dramatist of the Middle Ages who made an incomparable contribution to the world literature and the English language development. The drama play “Hamlet” reasonably occupies an outstanding place in the scope of Shakespeare’s works, which distinguishes the work from many others, though they surely cannot be considered lesser in meaning.

Hamlet is the central image of the play, so he requires separate attention in the context of the present analysis. The collective character created by William Shakespeare astounds the reader by richness of emotions, depth of thought and wisdom of considerations. He is a personality pushed to extremes, suffering from injustice and, lies and violence that indisputably surround the crown and the court. Upon realizing the cruel murder of his father and plotting, hatred and envy that have taken steady, freaky forms, Hamlet, due to his naivety and pureness of his mind, finds himself in a desperate situation that he cannot overcome.

Pushed to extremes with each tragedy that hits him, Hamlet feels that he is unable to put up with such state of affairs and needs a savior from horror that court life conceals for him. The way to get the moral release from dark thoughts torturing him is seen by Hamlet in fair punishment of the villains who killed his father, but still, as a deeply moral and conscious person, needs additional justification for his deeds that can be interpreted in different ways – as the fair revenge, or as another atrocity committed at court of his dead father.

Hamlet needs to make sure that he does the right thing, so there are many monologues throughout the work that let the reader understand the whole range of Hamlet’s moral sufferings, doubts and hesitations. One of such dialogues is the famous “To Be or Not To Be…” in which Hamlet raises many eternal, substantial questions in which one may trace the topics dominating the whole course of the play: injustice, death, suicide, revenge and the fear of the mysterious and unknown. However, it is highly necessary to make a more detailed, in-depth analysis thereof.

The first idea that appears evident while reading the monologue is too much thinking about death that occupies Hamlet’s mind. He apparently shows his interest in death in many lines of the monologue, which certainly testifies his wish to die. The first indicator of this wish is the repetition of the words “To die: to sleep” in the 59^th and the 63^rd line of the chapter (3, 1, 59-60). This repetition signifies, first of all, the association that Hamlet has with death – it is sleep.

He does not have any negative emotions about death, so from the very beginning one may feel that Hamlet is willing to die. It is also possible to suppose that sleep is applied in the sense of rest here – it is a common fact that those who are tired of anything, be it a hard working day or a stressful situation, try to go to sleep in order to relax and get new forces to overcome future troubles and hardships. Hence, one can see that Hamlet is tired of the flow of tragedies, dramas and trials life has in store for him, so he thinks about death as salvation and possible relaxation.

Other lines that suggest much emphasis made by Hamlet on death are: “No more; and by a sleep to say we end/ To heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks” (3, 1, 60-61) that clearly shows that Hamlet perceives life as an unbearable burden, a series of shocks that ruin his inner self, that prevent him from living a normal life and finding harmony with himself. The words ‘no more’ are very expressive about the despair and willingness to bring his life to an end, the verge at which Hamlet has come and cannot find strength to go on.

Hamlet reasonably hates and despises his life – he does not see any joy or sense in it, which he clearly stresses by his explanation of all the life can bring – “To grunt and sweat under a weary life” (3, 1, 76). By these words Hamlet underlines that life for him is ‘weary’, which tiring, unpleasant and demanding much useless effort. This particular phrase suggests that Hamlet does not appreciate his life and does not see anything good in perspective, so his disenchantment is evident. He does not long to anything and has nothing to strive to – the life he leads is too complicated for a person he is, so Hamlet is truly broken saying these bitter words.

Looking at the despair, bitter disappointment and disenchantment Hamlet expresses in his speech, it is reasonable to find the roots of such personal drama and volunteer striving to die – surely, father’s death and the dirty court disorder that he witnessed could have added to his depression. But together with that there should be something more serious, more general to make a person refuse from the gift of living and to start looking at the edge by which so many people are terrified. The following words of Hamlet may reveal the mystery of his pessimism and suicidal thoughts:

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

Th’ oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely

The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of th’ unworthy takes

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? (3, 1, 69-75).

One can see from these lines that Hamlet is deeply stressed by his observations of injustice, of the cruelty and inequality that people experience in the political system of his days when the guilty are prospering and enjoying their lives and the innocent are tortured and put to jail, or even killed. An interesting detail of this part is that Hamlet puts the sorrows of non-reciprocal love in one line with the law injustice that has been designed especially to fit the needs of the rich and to discriminate the poor. Hamlet in this point is clearly generalizing the whole range of sorrows and troubles that a person may have in his or her life, so that there is no difference in love, law or persecution.

Another major theme in the monologue if Hamlet that is felt throughout the play is the suicide he is thinking about, evaluating and considering as a possible alternative to the revenge for his father he has planned. After the evaluation of life that is not worth a dime Hamlet concludes that there would hardly be anyone who would not think about suicide under such conditions when he speaks about personally giving an end to his life (the words about making the quietus with a bodkin, which is a sharp object in the Middle English and can be compared with a blade or a knife in the present time). The main idea that sounding in his head is why he should bear this if he can stop this at any moment he wants, and these thoughts, as well as the firm, thought-over decision about suicide being the best solution to all problems that exist in his life, are really fascinating – they testify the measure of Hamlet’s depression that brings him to such conclusions.

Nonetheless, a bit later it becomes clear why the person who has become so sure in the fact that suicide is the best ending of his life still does not dare to commit suicide. Hamlet is afraid of what is waiting for a human after death, and doubts whether the destiny will bring salvation or will arrange some worse tortures for him because of the suicide:

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscovered country, from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of? (3, 1, 77-81)

These doubts have a strong religious basis due to the opinion that people who commit suicide get to hell while those who live a virtuous life and die with their own death are destined to get to heaven. Hamlet is clearly a deeply religious person, so even despite a strong wish to get rid of the trouble that he sees in his whole life he makes a decision to live. Besides, the passage signals all prejudice that has not even been overcome at the present moment of time, as indeed, nobody still returned from the world of the dead, and the minds of humankind have been possessed by thoughts about what happens after death. The fear of Hamlet is fully reasonable, so this fear overcomes his wish for relief and Hamlet makes a decision to get revenge for his father and punish the guilty.

Summing up everything that has been said on the subject, it is possible to conclude that on the example of the discussed monologue Hamlet really represents a deeply thinking, deeply conscious, noble and moral person, but at the same time he lacks decisiveness and strength. It is certainly hard to suppose how any other person would act under the same conditions, but here it comes to action and fair judgment. Hamlet is extremely confused person unable to come to one point in his ponderings. Hamlet surely possesses much skill in evaluating the situation, in distinguishing the right and the wrong, which was a true rarity for the Middle Ages.

During that period people did not think about such concepts as justice and equality because the truth was always on the side of the rich. But Hamlet was an extraordinary man who managed to initiate the thought-provoking struggle for truth, justice and equality. Surely, he had some drawbacks and did not correspond to an image of a really active man who possessed the qualities necessary to find the solution to the problem, but he did his best, and this is for what the eternal play of Shakespeare will be remembered by millions of thankful readers.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. London: Sampson Low, Son, and Co., 1860.