Death and the Undead

In both of our discussions on Hamlet, the motive of death was always present and it seems that it shapes the whole play from the beginning to the very end. The audience or the reader as well as the characters within the play are always confronted with mortality. It serves as a threat, as basis for public discussion as well as for solitary reflections; it is a source of power and it is able to provide political profits and tragic losses. Death is an everlasting mystery which is an important aspect within the fictional play as well as in reality.

Murder frames the storyline of Hamlet: The killing of old Hamlet, the protagonist’s father, opens the plot and several sub-plots even before the beginning of the first scene and thereby initiates Hamlets conflict of revenge. In the end, Claudius and most of the rest of the court are killed either by sword or by poison (which is also a quite popular while insidious way to kill in the play) – or both.

Besides descriptions of killing, death is considered mostly from Hamlets point of view, and he keeps asking himself whether or whether it is not legitimate to commit suicide, which could end his unbearably torment and his struggle. His famous expression “to be or not to be” could stand either for active or passive behavior or for questioning existence in general. He connects dying with various spiritual and ethnical aspects, including the aftermath in heaven, hell or in between, supernatural beings like the ghost or physical remainders of the dead like Yorick’s skull or Ophelia’s corpse. 

Discussions and examination of death seems to be popular in the 1600s as well as in the following centuries. As it is the very end (is it?) of our existence, it keeps being interesting through people’s desire to control it for themselves as well as for others. Its aftermath is a never-ending riddle for everyone and the fear of uncertainty and mortality keeps us thinking about it. 

Death and all those questions, connected to it seem to display mortality rates in the early 17^th century. Death was even more unpredictable than it is now, which could be a reason for its increased concerns. Its confrontation on stage could provide emotional provisions for people who had to experience it in their daily life.