Hamlet Quotes theme of death

“Doomed for a certain time to walk the night and the days confined to fast is fires”

“Doomed for a certain time to walk the night and the days confined to fast is fires”

• Ghost describing his experience of purgatory

• Has to be horrific to fuel the rage of revenge for Hamlet

• “doomed” “confined” create a theme of being trapped

• “fast in fires” horrifying image “fires” indicates the ghost starved himself, has connotation to jesus christ how he faster for 40 days and 40 nights

• Christianity was prevalent in the elizabethan era so murdering someone whilst they were not prepared for heave would have been very shameful towards the audience.

“O, that this too too sullied flesh would melt”

• Hamlet is suicidal, thinking deeply about death and suicide

• Image of flesh melting, depicts the frailty of biological life

• “sullied” shows how Hamlet thinks of himself as worn out, exhausted, emphasised by the repetition of “too”

• Historical context, as suicide was a sin, Hamlet is pleading to god to let him die

“That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once”

• Skull is personified

• Past tense of “had” “once” enhances the skulls lifelessness

• absence of the “tongue” that is normally wet and warm highlights the dry, cold, brittle nature of the skull

“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”

• Marcellus says

• “rotten” describes the constant death in the play by playing with connotations of putridity and decay after death

• “rot” can also be hidden like a good apple that is rotted inside, summing up the court, how everything looks fine on the outside by within there is corruption and deceit.

“Shakespeare’s tragedies provoke the questions about the cause of the pain and loss the plays so agonizingly portray”

Kastan talks about the tragedy in Shakespeare, how throughout the play the characters collectively go through immense suffering, which provoke the readers to understand the cause of this suffering.

“Tragic theatre suffering and death are perceived as a matter for grief and fear, after which it seems that grief and fear become in their turn matter for enjoyment”

Nuttal proclaims that a theatre audience enjoys watching the suffering and death of characters.

“an audience inwardly driven by envy were to delight in the fall of one greater than they”

Nuttal states how as the audience we enjoy watching someone of higher status then us fall and og through suffering, as it makes us feel better about ourselves. Would be similar in an elizabethan audience.