Hamlet is a story of death in its origins and in its conclusions. Not only is the plot based around deaths and the reactions to them, but Shakespeare utilizes words related to mortality throughout the play to convey the overall mood of the infected state and its sickly rulers. Poison is used as the primary source of death and further as the subject of many metaphors. Maynard Mack describes, with the help of Miss Spurgeon, the importance of mortality in its specific instances and as a whole in the play.
Hamlet is unique in the sense that he was alone among Shakespeare’s tragic heroes in being the cause of his misfortunes. The dilemma which Hamlet is responsible for solving was not of his own creation. Like an infection to a sick man so is the sickness of Denmark to Hamlet, as can be extrapolated from the words of Miss Spurgeon. She goes on to say that this infection, or sickness, will nevertheless annihilate not only Hamlet, but many other innocent people. This is the ultimate result of Hamlet, but not necessarily Prince Hamlet’s own actions. In fact, the main character of the play is almost expendable in the nadir and final scene of the tragedy. Prince Hamlet’s lack of feasible connection to the end of his story is further evidence of his existence as a man of contemplation rather than action. Hamlet himself says in his famous soliloquy, ‘The native hue of resolution Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought.’ (Act 3, scene 1, lines 85-86) The native hue of resolution refers to the natural red colour of anger and the resolution to finish things. Hamlet sees this as being sicklied over by what he calls the pale cast of thought. What he means by this is that over contemplation leads to cowardice and lack of action. Hamlet recognises this in himself.
This contradicts Spurgeon’s opinion, which claims that Hamlet’s problem is not ‘of the will and reason, “of a mind too philosophical or a nature temperamentally unfitted to act quickly” nor even of an individual at all.’ She continues by explaining that Hamlet was born with the responsibility to ‘set it right’ and is therefore blameless in the ultimate result. While Hamlet did not choose to be a part of the situation, he became that regardless. Moreover as a chief component in the plot, albeit not of his own will, he had responsibility to resolve it. In his lack of action to kill Claudius, Hamlet became responsible in part for the deaths that ensued. Thus the theme of mortality here is not as prominent as Spurgeon makes it out to be, at least in the sense of Hamlet’s merits.
On the other hand, this scene is the epitomization of literal poison in the play. We see four of the total six main characters killed off by two forms of poison - in the so-called victory drink and the blade of Laertes’ sword. Of the physical embodiments of mortality, poison is the most commonly seen in Hamlet. Shakespeare uses it at the beginning and end of the story. The whole plot of the play was begun by Claudius when he poured poison in the ear of the elder King Hamlet, then in the final scene, wherein it was used to kill the remaining protagonists. In a figurative manner, poison is among the tools used to describe Denmark’s general sick state of being following the death of King Hamlet.
It seems to seep into every crevice of the country, into the hearts, minds and souls of its inhabitants, as Marcellus says in Act 1, scene 4, line 90, ‘Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.’ It is as if the poison that was poured by Claudius into old King Hamlet’s ear seeped through into the rest of Denmark. This is a symbol of his connection to his kingdom, his ‘body political’. He is generally portrayed as a king loved by his people. This would explain why there is such a profound national reaction to his death.
Sickness as a theme is first referenced by Francisco when he calls himself ‘sick at heart’ (Act 1, scene 1, line 10). Countless other quotes follow along with the theme. Mack references several occasions. Among these are the words of Prince Hamlet, Queen Gertrude, Laertes, and those of Claudius concerning the people of Denmark as a whole. Hamlet says that his ‘wit’s diseased’ (Act 3, scene 2, lines 349-50), admitting to madness. Queen Gertrude tells of her ‘sick soul’ (Act 4, scene 5, line 22), since sins were seen as sickness and she appears to be seeing the wrong in her relationship with Claudius. Laertes considers revenge a way to warm ‘the sickness in my heart’ (Act 4, scene 7, line 55), meaning grief and anguish over his father’s death. Claudius says that the population of his kingdom grows ‘muddied, Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts.’ (Act 4, scene 5, lines 81-82). Ophelia’s madness is also compared to poison, the poison of grief. Another example unmentioned by Mack is when the King calls rumours of Polonius’ death pestilent, meaning deadly and contagious, and says in the same speech that Laertes does not want these rumours to infect his ears.
Despite the power of infection and of poison, Mack argues, and is correct in saying, that the most sincere and affecting form of mortality is that of loss. More than both of the previous examples is loss essential to the plot. Even vengeance, which seems to be the main theme of Hamlet, is dependant on the loss that the characters suffer. Each vengeful person has become so because of a loss that have undergone. This holds true for most other plays and stories in the same vein. In this particular play the losses are all of fathers and the focus on the results that these losses have on the remaining children. Young Fortinbras has lost his father by the hand of old King Hamlet and wishes to avenge his death by invading Denmark. Laertes has lost his father, Polonius, and as Hamlet, Polonius’ killer, is still alive, Laertes wishes to kill him, thereby avenging his father. The same applies to Prince Hamlet in his preliminary quest to kill Claudius for the murder of old King Hamlet. The play is a cycle of loss, pain, and then the attempt to avenge.
When we first see Hamlet he is in deep mourning for his father at his mother’s funeral. His mother complains to him and says, ‘Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off, And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. Do not forever with thy vailèd lids Seek for thy noble father in the dust. Thou know’st ’tis common. All that lives must die, Passing through nature to eternity.’ (Act 1, scene 2, line 68). This is the introduction of not only Hamlet’s grief but also his distaste for Claudius. He responds most dejectedly and with the greatest air of resentment for her comment, ‘'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother, Nor customary suits of solemn black, Nor windy suspiration of forced breath, No, nor the fruitful river in the eye, Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage, Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief, That can denote me truly. These indeed “seem,” For they are actions that a man might play. But I have that within which passeth show, These but the trappings and the suits of woe.’ It is only here that Hamlet’s anguish over his father’s death is aptly represented.
Loss can refer not only to death, but also to the more figurative loss of someone loved. Old King Hamlet describes the pain of his falling off with his inferior brother and then so soon after his death, his wife, so faithful and virtuous in marriage, ending her grief and joining said brother in new marriage. Ophelia experiences a similar sort of loss when young Hamlet denounces not only love for her, but love and women in general.
Mack’s arguments are solid in concept but sometimes lacking in substance. While it is undeniable that mortality is not only important, but central to Hamlet, and Mack supports that sentiment consistently, he is not justified in doing so at all times. However, what Mack attempts to prove as a whole is true. Mortality is the essence of the play and is present both literally and figuratively. It is arguably the most important theme in the play. On a more general note, it is a primary theme in our own lives. We, like Hamlet, often wonder what comes after death. This can be clearly seen in religions both modern and ancient. Unfortunately, also like Hamlet, some of us will wonder at some point or another whether it is worth the risk to end our lives to put a stop to our own suffering. We obsess, as a culture, about mortality. This is the nature of Hamlet. Furthermore it is the nature of human existence.
Hamlet is unique in the sense that he was alone among Shakespeare’s tragic heroes in being the cause of his misfortunes. The dilemma which Hamlet is responsible for solving was not of his own creation. Like an infection to a sick man so is the sickness of Denmark to Hamlet, as can be extrapolated from the words of Miss Spurgeon. She goes on to say that this infection, or sickness, will nevertheless annihilate not only Hamlet, but many other innocent people. This is the ultimate result of Hamlet, but not necessarily Prince Hamlet’s own actions. In fact, the main character of the play is almost expendable in the nadir and final scene of the tragedy. Prince Hamlet’s lack of feasible connection to the end of his story is further evidence of his existence as a man of contemplation rather than action. Hamlet himself says in his famous soliloquy, ‘The native hue of resolution Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought.’ (Act 3, scene 1, lines 85-86) The native hue of resolution refers to the natural red colour of anger and the resolution to finish things. Hamlet sees this as being sicklied over by what he calls the pale cast of thought. What he means by this is that over contemplation leads to cowardice and lack of action. Hamlet recognises this in himself.
This contradicts Spurgeon’s opinion, which claims that Hamlet’s problem is not ‘of the will and reason, “of a mind too philosophical or a nature temperamentally unfitted to act quickly” nor even of an individual at all.’ She continues by explaining that Hamlet was born with the responsibility to ‘set it right’ and is therefore blameless in the ultimate result. While Hamlet did not choose to be a part of the situation, he became that regardless. Moreover as a chief component in the plot, albeit not of his own will, he had responsibility to resolve it. In his lack of action to kill Claudius, Hamlet became responsible in part for the deaths that ensued. Thus the theme of mortality here is not as prominent as Spurgeon makes it out to be, at least in the sense of Hamlet’s merits.
On the other hand, this scene is the epitomization of literal poison in the play. We see four of the total six main characters killed off by two forms of poison - in the so-called victory drink and the blade of Laertes’ sword. Of the physical embodiments of mortality, poison is the most commonly seen in Hamlet. Shakespeare uses it at the beginning and end of the story. The whole plot of the play was begun by Claudius when he poured poison in the ear of the elder King Hamlet, then in the final scene, wherein it was used to kill the remaining protagonists. In a figurative manner, poison is among the tools used to describe Denmark’s general sick state of being following the death of King Hamlet.
It seems to seep into every crevice of the country, into the hearts, minds and souls of its inhabitants, as Marcellus says in Act 1, scene 4, line 90, ‘Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.’ It is as if the poison that was poured by Claudius into old King Hamlet’s ear seeped through into the rest of Denmark. This is a symbol of his connection to his kingdom, his ‘body political’. He is generally portrayed as a king loved by his people. This would explain why there is such a profound national reaction to his death.
Sickness as a theme is first referenced by Francisco when he calls himself ‘sick at heart’ (Act 1, scene 1, line 10). Countless other quotes follow along with the theme. Mack references several occasions. Among these are the words of Prince Hamlet, Queen Gertrude, Laertes, and those of Claudius concerning the people of Denmark as a whole. Hamlet says that his ‘wit’s diseased’ (Act 3, scene 2, lines 349-50), admitting to madness. Queen Gertrude tells of her ‘sick soul’ (Act 4, scene 5, line 22), since sins were seen as sickness and she appears to be seeing the wrong in her relationship with Claudius. Laertes considers revenge a way to warm ‘the sickness in my heart’ (Act 4, scene 7, line 55), meaning grief and anguish over his father’s death. Claudius says that the population of his kingdom grows ‘muddied, Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts.’ (Act 4, scene 5, lines 81-82). Ophelia’s madness is also compared to poison, the poison of grief. Another example unmentioned by Mack is when the King calls rumours of Polonius’ death pestilent, meaning deadly and contagious, and says in the same speech that Laertes does not want these rumours to infect his ears.
Despite the power of infection and of poison, Mack argues, and is correct in saying, that the most sincere and affecting form of mortality is that of loss. More than both of the previous examples is loss essential to the plot. Even vengeance, which seems to be the main theme of Hamlet, is dependant on the loss that the characters suffer. Each vengeful person has become so because of a loss that have undergone. This holds true for most other plays and stories in the same vein. In this particular play the losses are all of fathers and the focus on the results that these losses have on the remaining children. Young Fortinbras has lost his father by the hand of old King Hamlet and wishes to avenge his death by invading Denmark. Laertes has lost his father, Polonius, and as Hamlet, Polonius’ killer, is still alive, Laertes wishes to kill him, thereby avenging his father. The same applies to Prince Hamlet in his preliminary quest to kill Claudius for the murder of old King Hamlet. The play is a cycle of loss, pain, and then the attempt to avenge.
When we first see Hamlet he is in deep mourning for his father at his mother’s funeral. His mother complains to him and says, ‘Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off, And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. Do not forever with thy vailèd lids Seek for thy noble father in the dust. Thou know’st ’tis common. All that lives must die, Passing through nature to eternity.’ (Act 1, scene 2, line 68). This is the introduction of not only Hamlet’s grief but also his distaste for Claudius. He responds most dejectedly and with the greatest air of resentment for her comment, ‘'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother, Nor customary suits of solemn black, Nor windy suspiration of forced breath, No, nor the fruitful river in the eye, Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage, Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief, That can denote me truly. These indeed “seem,” For they are actions that a man might play. But I have that within which passeth show, These but the trappings and the suits of woe.’ It is only here that Hamlet’s anguish over his father’s death is aptly represented.
Loss can refer not only to death, but also to the more figurative loss of someone loved. Old King Hamlet describes the pain of his falling off with his inferior brother and then so soon after his death, his wife, so faithful and virtuous in marriage, ending her grief and joining said brother in new marriage. Ophelia experiences a similar sort of loss when young Hamlet denounces not only love for her, but love and women in general.
Mack’s arguments are solid in concept but sometimes lacking in substance. While it is undeniable that mortality is not only important, but central to Hamlet, and Mack supports that sentiment consistently, he is not justified in doing so at all times. However, what Mack attempts to prove as a whole is true. Mortality is the essence of the play and is present both literally and figuratively. It is arguably the most important theme in the play. On a more general note, it is a primary theme in our own lives. We, like Hamlet, often wonder what comes after death. This can be clearly seen in religions both modern and ancient. Unfortunately, also like Hamlet, some of us will wonder at some point or another whether it is worth the risk to end our lives to put a stop to our own suffering. We obsess, as a culture, about mortality. This is the nature of Hamlet. Furthermore it is the nature of human existence.