How does death dominate in Shakespeare's "Hamlet"?

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How does death dominate in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”?

Shakespeare has dealt with the subject death and its connection with life in many of his writings. But none of them is so much concerned with the subject as in Hamlet. In fact the whole play is darkened by the shadows of “death” and “life after death”. In the opening scene we see a dead’s man spirit appearing on the stage; the very first time we see Hamlet, we see him in black-mourning for his dead father; whenever he is left alone by himself all he ponders on is either his own death, or revengeful murder, or dealt in general. In fact, the whole play consists of a “series of murders” and suicide, and ends with the major characters death.

In the opening scene an aspartic appears on the stage which resembles the visage of the late King of Denmark. This ghost bridges the world of life and the world of death. It disturbs the normal calmness of the night; it seems to bring some kind of message from the region existing beyond this world. Later on in the fourth scene of act I, the ghost communicate with Hamlet and tells him that it is the ghost of his father and commands him to avenge his death. We also come to learn how the late king was murdered by his own brother who “now wears his crown”. The episode of the ghost remind us of Kyd’s “The Spanish Tragedy”, where the ghost of the murdered Andrea, along with the spirit called Revenge appear from the underworld and roam around on earth to witness the process of vengeance. But they do not communicate with the living. The ghost of Hamlet however, comes with a mission for the murder. It advises Hamlet “Taint not thy mind” which suggests that the ghost does not consider the matter of revenge too difficult a task and is anxious that Hamlet should not become too disturbed about it. To the ghost the challenge is probably like that which as the Danish King he accepted all those years ago when he agreed to face old Fortinbras of Norway in a single combat and had killed him. The ghost also tells Hamlet a little about the existence after death and the domain of death. The dead King burns in hellfire for dying without repenting for the sins he had committed during his lifetime and also includes that it is necessary to burn in order to attain salvation. Though the ghost instructs Hamlet to take revenge on Claudius, he forbids him to do any harm to the queen: “Leave her to heaven” he says, and suggest her earthly punishment should be the pangs of her conscience:

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                           “those thorns that in her bosom lodge

                             To prick and sting her.”

The ghost’s commands indicate not only the pursuit of personal satisfaction but the existence of a world beyond  the human world responsible for justice in the human world. It therefore can be considered as an “ambassador of Death.”[G. Wilson Knight].

Hamlet vows to “remember’ the ghost “whiles memory holds a seat/ in this distracted globe”, that is to say, as ...

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