Hamlet

             Renowned for his unparalleled quality and quantity of work, William Shakespeare is not generally recognized as a great philosophical thinker. However it is seen in nearly all of his works that a great thinker is behind the words, which can be better appreciated by modern generations that value not only for his genius but his ability to explore concepts that were not fully examined until centuries after his death. In perhaps his most famous soliloquy taken from Hamlet, Shakespeare addresses not only the existential plight of man but inadvertently reveals the necessity of religion to mankind.
             This piece is based on Hamlet's view that existence is a struggle against the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" (line 3). His outlook is marked by the sorrows of life and it is his belief that there is no happiness in mans existence. He is cursed "to grunt and sweat under a weary life"(22). Born into the blight of existence it has become a struggle for him to live daily. He has seen the "oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, [felt] the pangs of despised love, the law's delay [and] the insolence of office" and feels that this are symptoms of an evil world in which he wants no part. He feels condemned to a world that he despises which is very essence of his anguish, the only escape he sees is that of death which presents its own dilemma, the infinite unknown. Hamlet asks, in lines fifteen through twenty-one why should a man not end his life and consequently end his suffering. He answers that man cannot because of the possibility that death is worse that life, so he commits to nothing and accordingly tells us that "conscience does make cowards of us all" speaking of his own failure to make a choice.
             It would be a misconception to believe that Hamlet offers no possibility of and alternative to his problem. He does dream of what might await him
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Hamlet. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 03:42, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/38660.html