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The Existentialist Views of Hamlet Essay

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The Existentialist Views of Hamlet

Do we matter? Will anything we do endure? These are questions from existentialism. The dictionary defines existentialism as "the plight of the individual who must assume ultimate responsibility for his acts of free will without any certain knowledge of what is right or wrong or good or bad" (Merriam Webster). In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet struggles with the concept that nothing from our lives last and time grinds everything away. Hamlet's major conflict was his existentialist view of the world.

Does a prince of Denmark have any worth if "Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth into dust; the dust is earth; of earth we make loam; and why of that …show more content…

Even with this proof, Hamlet will not kill Claudius during prayer because he believes his decision will matter and he must choose wisely. In the graveyard, Hamlet saw people's skulls and wondered what the courier's compliments or the jester's tricks had brought them but another spot in the earth. Hamlet saw the acts of well respected men not protect them from the grave and anonymity when he said, "This fellow might be in's time a great buyer of land, with his statutes his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries: is this the fine of his fines, and the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine pate full of fine dirt? will his vouchers vouch him no more of his purchases, and double ones too, than the length and breadth of a pair of indentures? The very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in this box; and must the inheritor himself have no more" ( V. i. 98-103). Hamlet's inaction appeared in his relationship with Ophelia. He admitted at her grave that he loved her but he did not attempt to have more than a physical relationship. Hamlet's fear of action led to other problems.

Hamlet was so obsessed with his lack of action and the worthlessness of life that he contemplates suicide asking, "For who could bear the whips and scorns of time" ( III. i. 69-70). He believes he would be foolish to suffer through his life when he will simply be

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