Act 3 Hamlet Analysis

There is a dark place people mentally go when they are sad or upset; a place full of the deepest and darkest thoughts that exist within us. Hamlet spends many days in this place. His father has just died a few months ago, and his mother remarried to an unwanted relative. This would be a situation to make anyone upset. Hamlet works through a part of his troubles by considering suicide in one of the most famous soliloquys of the play Hamlet. Shakespeare utilizes Hamlet’s woes to create a powerful speech about suicide without explicitly stating not to do it.

Shakespeare attacks the issue of suicide in different parts of the speech. In the first thirteen lines, he describes why suicide is an easy option. He used imagery such as “sea of troubles” and “mortal coil” which can provide a reference point thus making it clearer to a person attempting to understand the speech.  He also used soft language with a pleasant connotation as in the word dream which in turn can imply that suicide is an easy, pleasant experience.

The following twelve lines tackle the subject of who would commit suicide. This is shown by using rhetorical questions to prove a point. “Who would fardels bear…” No one wants to bear burdens during their lifetime but Shakespeare asks this to demonstrate the point. He also uses expletives in the questions: “a proud man’s contumately, the pangs of despised love…” These attributes detail possible attributes a person would have if they committed suicide.

The last eight lines touch on why we shouldn’t commit suicide. These lines discuss human nature. By calling humans cowardly, Shakespeare alludes to the idea that humans reject change. They would like to act, but think on it and think on it until what they had planned to do, becomes a distant memory.

The issue of suicide is still relevant today. People are taught at a young age not to commit suicide, and how to help others with it. This speech is effective because it not only has several themes and literary devices but it focused on a subject that was relevant to the time period, and is relevant in modern society. Suicide is a problem we faced yesterday, today and possibly tomorrow.