Delaney Sheridan

Mrs. Jewell
ERWC P.6
3/17/21

The Tragic Stages of Grief

Grief is something that everyone has gone through at least once. Most of us know the stages of

grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Shakespeare's play, “Hamlet”, really

expresses these stages of grief through our main character, young Hamlet. What makes Hamlets

stages of grief so wild and out of place is the tragedy that he was put through. Hamlet's soliloquy

from Act 1 Scene 2 starts by saying “O that this too, too sullied flesh would melt”, sets into

motion his madness and helps the audience understand the story and his character better. Taking

this soliloquy out would cause confusion within the audience, degrade Hamlet’s madness and

wouldn't be able to see the tragedy that starts to take place and plague his mind.

At the start of this soliloquy we see Hamlet enter the stage of denial. He is pleading to God and

asking why did this tragedy have to happen to him. He feels like he is not able to live out his

fathers legacy due to his uncle, Cladius, taking over the throne. Shakespeare writes, “O God,

God! How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world!

Fie on ’t, ah fie! 'Tis an unweeded garden That grows to seed. Things rank and gross in nature”

(1.2 135). Later we see that this plea to God was him asking if Cladius was the perpetrator of

these horrible events and reassuring that it wasn't his fault. Without Hamlet's statement of

denial, the audience wouldn’t be able to see how he is diving into his grief and letting the

madness take over. It's a little start to the bigger picture, seeing the small hints of his insanity

starting to possess him is a huge part of understanding his character.

Following his Fathers death, Hamlet has been betrayed by his family, mostly his mother and

uncle. To take the throne away from him, Cladius, marries his mother two months after his

fathers death. This is like a punch in the face to Hamlet, and what really sparks his emotional
Delaney Sheridan
Mrs. Jewell
ERWC P.6
3/17/21
downspire. “It is not nor it cannot come to good, But break, my heart, for I must hold my

tongue.” (1.2 158-159). Hamlet speaks about how his mother is breaking his heart and destroying

his trust but he can't act on those emotions as people would look down on him for being

insensitive towards his mother. Later we see how he has reacted towards this betrayal by

accusing his mother of never loving his father and just wanting power.

Hamlet is throwing himself into a spiraling staircase of hysteria and he is falling fast. By the first

act, we see his depressive state start to take over and bring him suicidal thoughts. Throughout the

play, these thoughts increase, but it's good to know where they started at. He states, “Oh, that this

too, too sullied flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew, Or that the Everlasting had

not fixed His canon 'gainst self-slaughter!” (1.2 130). We still are in the plea to God stage, but is

asking why its a sin to kill yourself, that its his own choice and not hurting God. In reality, he

just wants the pain to stop. He wants his mind to stop overthinking about the evil around him, to

second guess everyone he has ever known and continues to hide within himself as that seems like

the safest place at the moment.

In terms of how the audience would perceive the play if this soliloquy were taken out would

leave them confused and wanting more of the earlier events that provoked Hamlet's violent

actions later in the story, knowing that it just wasn't his fathers death that strayed him this far.

With this speech, we see his hatred forming toward Cladius and see how he compares his uncle

to his father, “But two months dead—nay, not so much, not two.So excellent a king, that was to

this Hyperion to a satyr.” (1.2 140) He is comparing his father to God, and his uncle to a beast.

This also gives foreshadowing towards who committed the crime of the death of old Hamlet. The

somewhat beast killing God to overrule his judgment. To take over the throne and his wife at the

same time, and throw away the heir of the throne and treat him like he's nothing. Still, Cladius'
Delaney Sheridan
Mrs. Jewell
ERWC P.6
3/17/21
plan will not go as planned as the more he pushes Hamlet towards the edge to fall off, the more

Hamlet pushes back and incases Cladius in the same madness.

Without this soliloquy we wouldn’t see this overpiling stack of emotions on the edge of tipping

over. Hamlet's character is complex, fighting the good and bad side of the people around him and

himself. He's always debating which side to choose; should he follow his violent tendencies or

just accept the events that have happened to him. If this speech were to be taken out the audience

wouldn’t have all the information to put the plot together and to piece Hamlet’s character

together. This would leave them in a state of confusion and wanting more, therefore degrading

Shakespeare's work and not conveying the play on how he wanted it.

Works Cited:

Shakespeare, William, et al. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Simon &

Schuster Paperbacks, 2012.