A CHRISTIAN VIEW OF DEATH IN HAMLET

What is death? Death is the cessation of all biological functions that sustain

an organism.1 Death is the major concern of human beings. It is part of human’s life. Death is

also a common theme in many works of literature. In William Shakespeare’s famous play,

Hamlet, he displays an idea which is similar to Christian concerning of death. Shakespeare

lived in the 16th century when people had very short life spans, and many young children

would die before they reached fifteen because of the spread of disease and undeveloped

medical treatment. Protestantism (a form of Christianity) played a major role in people’s

perspective in Elizabeth age, which also influenced Shakespeare’s literature creation. By the

time he finished Hamlet, Shakespeare had lost his father and his son. The grief of his father’s

and son’s death stroke Shakespeare and caused his ponder of death. Under the circumstances,

Hamlet was finished and published. In Hamlet, Shakespeare displays death as peace and deep

sleep, inevitable nature of human and the consequence of sin.

Shakespeare specifies death as a peace and deep sleep in the play. According to

Christian theory, death is deep sleep. Such idea has appeared in many places in Bible, such as

“Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep in death”

(1 Corinthians 15:20). Similarly, in Hamlet, the famous soliloquy in Act 3, Scene 1 suggests that

death is sleep which “end[s] / The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks/ That flesh is

heir to – ‘tis a consummation” (III, I, 61-63). Hamlet’s insight of death is the end of struggling.

While he, like every ordinary people, is not sure what will happen after death in the

“undiscovered city” so he is afraid of death. But after Hamlet visits grave and finds out that

1
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, “Death”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death#Natural_selection
everyone would eventually become a dirty skull in the grave after death, his attitude toward

death has significant changes. He considers that death is “felicity” and life is harsh and draws

in pain. At the end of his life, Hamlet finds his way to “silence.” Horatio’s farewells to Hamlet

by saying “Good night sweet prince” (V, ii, 338) also advocates that death is sleep.

Moreover, Shakespeare demonstrates that death is inevitable human’s nature.

Christian considers the inevitability of death is everyone’s fate. After people are dead, their

spirits will return to the God; their soul will go to heaven; their body will go back to the dust

and “the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it”

(Ecclesiastes 12:7). It is firstly set forth at the beginning of the play. In order to console Hamlet

after his father died, Gertrude, his mother tells him: “Thou know’st ‘tis common, all that lives

must die / passing through nature of eternity” (I, ii, 72-73). It directly explains that death is the

nature of human being. Regarding as fair of death, after Hamlet kills Polonius, he uses

metaphor to describe that death is same to everyone no matter who the person is. A “fat king”

or a “lean beggar” would serve “to one table” to Death (IV, iii, 22-23), and even the Great

Alexander eventually “returneth to dust, the dust is earth, of earth we make loam” (V, i, 189-

191). No matter what a person was when he/she was alive, a lawyer, a great buyer, after they

die, they will eventually become the skull that might be played by gravediggers and turn to

clay. After Hamlet understands the same end of everyone in the graveyard, Hamlet finds the

peace in his heart and is fully prepared to accept his destiny like his words toward the fall of a

sparrow: “If it be now, ’tis not to/come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet

it will come” (V, ii, 193-195). So after he returns castle, he still decides to duel with Laertes

even though he knows it could be a trap.

 Besides, Shakespeare gives death to seven characters in Hamlet where he

demonstrates that death is the consequence of sin throughout the play. Christians believe that

humans are born with sin. The first human, Adam and Eva disobeyed God and ate the seed of

knowledge, so they lost their perfection of sinless and passed on sin and imperfection as

inherited defects to their children.2 “The soul who sins is the one who will die” (Ezekiel 18:4).

This idea is manifested in every death of characters. The first dead character is Old Hamlet,

who “cut[s] off even in the blossoms of [his] sin” (I, v, 76). His words directly show that he died

with sin. Another villain character, Claudius, is killed by Hamlet, whose “foul soul” “cannot be

[forgiven], since [he is] still possessed/of those effects for which [he] did the murder/ [his]

crown, [his] own ambition, and [his] queen” (III, iii, 52-53). And in the last act, his plan leads to

the death of Gertrude, Laertes and Hamlet. Those are all the sins he gets. Concerning of the

accidental death of Gertrude, whether her death is an accident or suicide, it is the punishment

of her sin which comes from her remarriage with her former husband’s brother. Apparently,

Laertes’ death results from his slain on Hamlet, and also Hamlet’s death is the consequence of

accidently killing Polonius. Ophelia’s suicide is considered as a sin in the Christianity. If she is

not a gentlewoman, according to Christian rule, she would be thrown “shards, flints and

pebbles” by people. But some people would argue that Polonius is killed by accident and his

death is not the consequence of sin. Indeed, he is a wise man and loyal counselor to the King,

but he is also a “wretched, rash, intruding fool” (III, iv, 31). The actual cause of his death is his

meddling garrulousness.3 He asks his servant to spy on his son and uses his daughter to find

2
Jehovah’s Witnesses, “What is sin?”, https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/questions/what-is-sin/#?
insight[search_id]=cd9a55f9-7956-4b0a-9269-b8d194c40aaa&insight[search_result_index]=3
3
Encyclopædia Britannica , "Polonius” , https://www.britannica.com/topic/Polonius
out the reason for Hamlet’s madness. His treacherous and impetuous intriguing directly cost

his life.

The play, Hamlet, has the similar concept of death to Christianity. They both have the

same idea of describing death as deep sleep, certain nature as human beings and the

aftereffect of sin. Different lines in the play suggest that death is a peaceful end. A view of

people who have died explores the concept of inevitable human nature. The knowledge of

those seven dead characters’ life suggests the death is the consequence of sin.
 Work Cited:

"What Is Sin?" Jehovah’s Witnesses. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2017. <http://www.bing.com/cr?
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Y9J7RdBVnu4mqCb0IHdnbUw2u2Ly9gcwo&v=1&r=http%3a%2f%2fwww.theworldnewsmedia.org%2ffile%2fview
%2f2012-10%2520October%2520-%2520Pages%2520Views%2520numbers.xls&p=DevEx,5031.1>.

The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Polonius." Encyclopædia Britannica . Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 18
Mar. 2011. Web. 16 Feb. 2017. <https://www.britannica.com/topic/Polonius>.

"Death." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 08 Feb. 2017. Web. 16 Feb. 2017.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death#Natural_selection>.

Shakespeare, William, and Richard Andrews. Hamlet. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2001. Print.

Shakespeare, William, Harold Jenkins, and Richard Proudfoot. Hamlet. London: Thomson Learning, 2001. Print.

New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures . USA: Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, 1990.
Print.