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Death In Hamlet Essay

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Imminent Death
(An analysis of the theme of death in the fifth act of Hamlet)

Death, no one likes to hear the word, but none of us can escape it. The death of someone or even ourselves is all a part of the life that we live. It is impossible to avoid death when the time has come. In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet¬ there is much death throughout the play. The play itself starts out with the knowing of the death of the King, Hamlet’s father. Throughout the play more and more characters die in their own way. In act five of Hamlet death appears in three different ways: through suicide, through accidents, and through revenge. Initially, the first way death appears in act five is suicide. In the beginning of the fifth act the two grave-diggers are digging the grave of the once love of Hamlet, Ophelia. They are talking whether or not she is being buried in the right place or not. “Is she to be buried in …show more content…
Due to the actions of Hamlet, Laertes has returned to avenge the death of his father and sister. Unknowingly Hamlet has just returned from England where he was sentenced to be killed, but turned it around so that the two that were courting him were killed upon arrival. Hamlet is then talked into a fencing match with Laertes. Here Claudius has a cup of poisoned wine that he hopes Hamlet himself will drink. “He’s fat and scant of breath. Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows. The Queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet.” This is spoken by the Gertrud in lines 291-293 of Act 5 Scene 2. Gertrude unknowingly picks up the cup of poisoned wine and drinks it for her son. Soon after the Queen dies because of the poison that she has drank, but before she does so she says that the drink is poison. Gertrude’s death was one of that, but pure accident. The suicide of Ophelia and accidental death of Gertrude, lead the revenge of Laertes against Hamlet, and that of Hamlet against

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