Hamlet: Death + Mortality Flashcards
‘All that _____ must ____, passing through _________ to _________’
‘All that lives must die, passing through nature to eternity’
Gertrude (A1 S2)
- ‘Must’ = modal verb, inevitability of death
- ‘Passing’ = life on earth small component to the wider life
- ‘Eternity’ = afterlife
‘To ___, to ______; to _______, perchance to _______’
‘To die, to sleep; to sleep, perchance to dream’
Hamlet (A3 S1)
- Hamlet debating death, however fears that he will dream when dead, forcing him to face his earthly troubles
- Death is a temporary escapism, fear of the afterlife
‘______ the poor _____ from her _____________ lay to her _______ death’
‘Pull’d the poor wretch from her melodious lay to her muddy death’
Gertrude about Ophelia (A4 S7)
- ‘Pull’d’ = personifying her clothes, absorbed by nature
- Juxtaposition of ‘melodious lay’ and ‘muddy death’
‘There is _________ providence in the _____ of a ________’
‘There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow’
Hamlet (A5 S2)
- ‘Special providence’ = divinely ordained/special
- Each death has been planned/decided by God, and God is the ultimate authority
- Rejects the notion that the will of the Gods or fate can be avoided
- Everthing unfolds according to an immutable plan = acceptance of death
‘The ___________ is all’
‘The readiness is all’
Hamlet (A5 S2)
- Hamlet is no longer a coward of death, accepting death + its inevitability
- The time of death is insignificant, it only matter that you are prepares (die with honour, repentance)
‘Such a ______ as this ___________ the _____’
‘Such a sight as this becomes the field’
Fortinbras (A5 S2)
- The multitude of deaths/bodies does not befit the court, more suitable for a battlefield
- Creates morbid imagery of the number of deaths within Elsinore
- Naturallistic connotations of death (all who die are buried, returning to nature and becoming ‘field’)
‘The ______________, for that frame _________ a thousand ________’
‘The gallows-maker, for that frame outlives a thousand tenants’
Other (A5 S1)
‘Making _______ at the ________ event’
‘Making mouths at the invisible event’
Hamlet (A4 S5)
- Fortinbras undermining/mocking death
- Hamlet similarly wishes he could ‘make mouths’ at death
‘That ___________ in the play is about connecting with __________, so there’s no ________ involved’
‘That moment in the play is about connecting with mortality, so there’s no acting involved’
- Real skull in A5 S1 (Royal Shakespeare Company production)
- Meta-theatrical (reality of death penetrating the stage)
- Reality check to audience, acting as a reminder of death + that all will eventually return to dust
Final scene in RSC 2025 Luke Thallon production
A5 S2:
- Boat tilts +reaches its highest peak (reflects the play being at its climax)
- Gertrude, Laertes die/fall off the ship
- Hamlet stabs Claudius twice in the back with a sword
- Depiction of Hamlet’s death is christ-like with angelic music + a white spotlight, holds his arms out in a cross
- Once Hamlet dies the ship returns to its natural position (reflects a restoration of balance)
In 2017 Scott, how does Hamlet’s use of props highlight his reflections on mortality during the gravedigger scene?
- He picks up a handful of dirt and sprinkles it, (reference to phrase ‘dust to dust’ used in Christian burial rites)
- Highlights frailty of life and death
How does the costuming of the gravedigger in 2017 highlight the casualness of it?
- Shirtless
‘O that this too too _________ flesh would _________’
‘O that this too too sullied flesh would melt’
- Hamlet’d desire for his body to dissolve into nothingness
- Wishes to ‘melt’, in order to escape the pain/suffering of his existence
‘What is this ______________ of ______?’’
‘What is this quintessence of dust?’
- Hamlet reflects that despite the greatness of humanity, it ultimately renders to nothing more than dust
- Humans were fated/destined to decay
How is the ‘to be or not to be’ soliloquy depicted in the Laurence Olivier 1948 Production + what does it symbolise?
- Hamlet sitting at the edge of a cliff, overlooking the vast ocean
- Surrounded by fog = H’s disconnectedness/disillusionment, melancholic mood (pathetic fallacy)
- Boundary between land and sea = metaphor for distinction between security of land (life) + unpredictability of sea (death)
- Debating life or death
