Hamlet Theme of Mortality

Hamlet's musings on suicide, especially the "to be or not to be" speech, are legendary and continue to direct discussions of the value of life and the mystery of death. But Hamlet himself never commits suicide. It is Ophelia, who never mentions the possibility of taking her own life, who drowns, seemingly as a result of some combination of madness and despair. Death threads its way through the entirety of Hamlet, from the opening scene's confrontation with a dead man's ghost to the bloodbath of the final scene, which leaves almost every main character dead. Hamlet constantly contemplates death from many angles. He is both seduced and repelled by the idea of suicide, but, in the famous gravedigger scene, he is also fascinated by the physical reality of death. In a way, Hamlet can be viewed as extended dialogue between Hamlet and death.

1. Why does Hamlet wish his "too, too solid flesh would melt"? What's the cause of his suicidal tendencies?
2. Under what circumstances, and at which moments of the play, does Hamlet dwell on the possibility of ending his own life?
3. What counterarguments for suicide does Hamlet provide throughout the play? Do the arguments change or evolve in any way?
4. How does Ophelia's suicide parallel or contrast with Hamlet's discussions of suicide? In what forms does Hamlet encounter death in the play?
5. In what ways do people in Hamlet die? Would it be fair to call Hamlet a catalogue of murders?
6. What fascinates Hamlet about death? In what ways does he explain or evaluate death? What kinds of language does he use?
7. Do other characters put forth perspectives on death?
8. The premise of Hamlet is that the King has just died. What different attitudes or ways of dealing with death does the play include? Does the play suggest than any particular response to this death is more or less appropriate than others?

The fact that Hamlet is still talking about suicide even after he has sworn to avenge his father shows that the Prince's problems lie much deeper than simple grief over his father's murder.

Hamlet's anger against his mother is rooted in the fear that if someone's life can be so easily forgotten after death, life itself has no meaning. His crisis is therefore an existential one, not one of morality.