The ending of Hamlet : a reconciliation with life ?

Résumé du document

Act I to Act III in the famous play ?Hamlet' goes on to describe the compromised mental state of Hamlet where he contemplates committing suicide because his life has become unbearable. The last act, however, brings a resolution to the play that leaves the audience wondering if Hamlet is still in the same state of mind or whether he has changed. Firstly, Act V can be considered as a description of the reconciliation of Hamlet with the ?general meaning of life and death' and then goes on to depict a certain reconciliation of Hamlet with himself.

Extraits

[...] The ending of Hamlet : a reconciliation with life ? Introduction From act I to act III, Hamlet is merely considering the possibility of committing suicide because he has the feeling that life is unbearable. In the last act, which is supposed to bring a resolution to the play, we can wonder whether he is still in the same state of mind or whether he has changed. First we can consider how act V shows us the reconciliation of Hamlet with the general meaning of life and death and then we can also observe a certain reconciliation of Hamlet with himself. [...]

[...] The reasons of his change are not really obvious but we can underline the fact that this determination springs from the moment he has to face his own death planned in England by Claudius. He knows that there is no more time to question, no time to lose. If he wants to act, he has to do it now and that's what he does. The fact that his reconciliation with life takes place in death can seem quite paradoxical but is it coherent with his personality and also with the entire play. [...]

[...] This brings a special tension to the scene. When Hamlet realizes the identity of the dead person he exclaims the fair Ophelia and then he jumps into the tomb after Laertes and says loved Ophelia. Forty thousands brothers / Could not with all their quantity of love / Make up my sum”. This sentence is also a change in his general attitude. We never see him as a lover on the stage except through images told by Ophelia or Polonius and in the theatre scene but we know he is there pretending to observe Claudius. [...]

[...] The reconciliation with life through action First, the scene of the burial of Ophelia brings an exclamation which can seem anodyne but which Harold Jenkins considers as a fundamental one. Indeed, Hamlet claims “This is I / Hamlet the Dane” lines 253-254) and this means that he accepts both his geographical origin and his title of Prince. Whereas Denmark was a “prison ( ) and one o'th'worst” (II lines 243-246), it now recovers its status of a kingdom, which Hamlet claims his own. But the total reconciliation of Hamlet with life lies in the resolution of his delay. [...]

[...] In this situation, Hamlet is somehow forced to face the reality of death. He can no longer speculate and deliver long speeches because he finds himself in front of men who have acquired a familiarity with the process of death, as Horatio says : “Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness” line 68) The scene is both dark and ironic because the gravedigger sings and throws up skulls as if it were vegetables and Hamlet is first quite horrified by the decomposition of corpses, and particularly of Yorick's, with whom he used to play as a child. [...]