The proper subject of tragedy is very hard to decide, but invariably being a tragedy means having to do something with the darker side of life. The sorrowful, the dreadful, the fearful and the gory thus find their legitimate place in tragedy. Hamlet is said to be the most intriguing of all Shakespeare’s tragedies. Othello is about the delicateness of love and faith and the grotesque malignancy of Iago and through him Othello, Macbeth looms large as the cruel,ambitious villain. King Lear is the senile king, whose delicate, smug world is cruelly trampled upon by heartless kin. Hamlet is about an all too idealistic Prince who cannot fulfil the burden placed on him by the Ghost,his father. Many people are dying in Hamlet. There are different kinds of deaths in different situations ranging from the most villainous to the most lyrical, from the totally callous to the totally undeserving. In fact when the play ends there are four corpses to be taken away: those of Hamlet, Laertes, Claudius and Gertrude.
The imagery of death too (apart from death itself which is predominant in the play) is evident and ringing throughout the play. The very first lines are echoes of fear or bravado – which is forced out of the horrifying vision seen a few days ago, the pale, sickly form of King Hamlet, dead and now parading the palace corridors. Thus it starts. In fact the whole play centers on an incident or a death which has already taken place by the time the play starts. Claudius has done away with the King Hamlet, and now reigns with comfortable authority. The play within the play or the Murder of Gonzago, re-enacts the murder and death of King Hamlet for Hamlet’s confirmation.
The spectrum of death ranges through various extremes in the play in the form of the cold blooded murder of King Hamlet by Claudius, the lyrical almost sacrificial death by drowning of Ophelia, Polonius’s death is no less striking. It’s a mousy, accidental death and of course Rosencrantz and Guildenstern who are killed by the simple changing of words. Death is not only a physical manifestation in Hamlet but also a deep, inerasable psychological affliction. It is a state of trauma. In Hamlet especially who wishes to vanish away
“Cursed O spite
That ever I was born to set things right”
Or
Even his cruel, careless wish of melting away
“Oh that this too, too solid flesh would melt
And thaw and resolve itself into dew”
Or
‘Not a whit we defy augury
There’s special providence in the fall of a sparrow
If it be now it is not to come, if it is not to come it will be now
If it be not now, yet it will come; the readiness is all.’
In Claudius it is a constant thought. He is either worried about his own death or bringing about others’ death. Morbidity, a preoccupation with disease is there in every character in the play, perhaps with the exception of Horatio. Marcello first suggests something foul.
‘Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.’
The immoral disease has crept into the psyche of the echelons and also into the local populace who have become corrupt and unconcerned, wallowing in drink and other vulgar habits conveniently promoted by Claudius. It is in this corrupt world that Hamlet cannot fit. Disease is everywhere, in the incestuous relation between Claudius and Gertrude, in the sickened imagination of Polonius who dares to suggest cheap reasons for Hamlet’s love towards Ophelia, in Ophelia who cannot distinguish between the strong, vital love of Hamlet and her father’s admonitions as a result of which she is confused, in Laertes who is consumed by jealousy and insinuation and above all in Claudius himself, who exercises a vicious, degenerate selfishness. Hamlet too is struck by the disease of indecision. Images of corpses, death and disease abound in the play.
The Grave Diggers scene is the consummation of preoccupation with death and disease and Shakespeare allows Hamlet to philosophize on the nuances of language as the grave diggers teach him a brutal lesson when he asks them a question “Whose skull is it?” When he is asked to correct himself as Was it, he says “One must speak by the card or equivocation will undo us.” As the play nears to an end Hamlet’s suffering is evident as he says
“If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,
Absent thee from felicity awhile
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my story.
As it is said of all the heroes of Shakespeare, Hamlet is the most eloquent and articulate and the words echo the suffering and pain of this tragic hero.