One reason that Shakespeare's writing is so brilliant and timeless is that he has a knack for subtly portraying the things that everyone can realize, without needing to have his characters voice them directly. He realizes that fear is the greatest motivator of humankind, and that fear of the unknown has always been prevalent. There is no greater unknown than death, because it is truly the final frontier, from which no one comes back. In Hamlet, he shows the human emotional and moral relationship with death in, for the most part, a manner reflected only through the actions of his characters. The revelation inherent in this writing is that death is the greatest motivator of people, no matter how close to or far from it they seem.
             In Hamlet, Shakespeare does let his main protagonist directly address the issue of his relationship with death. In the "To be or not to be" soliloquy, Hamlet debates whether or not suicide can be a good decision when life is so filled with pain and suffering that to die seems the easiest, most peaceful option. However, he is kept on the path of life by his fear of what lies beyond the grave – he wonders whether the Christian belief is right, and that by committing suicide he will damn himself to an eternity of suffering in Hell. He reinforces the specificity of the fears involved when he says that people would "rather bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of", showing that the known fears of this lifetime can't stack up to the unknown horrors that could lie beyond the grave (III.i). When Hamlet encounters Yorick's skull, he again directly addresses the issue. He speaks to it, saying "get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favor she must come" to show that although people may flee from the physical appearance of death, they must all soon end up looking as Yorick's skull does sooner or...