Social Suicide

Suicide is an important motif in Hamlet. We encounter the contemplation of suicide, and even the act itself (maybe). What does this play say about suicide?

Throughout most of Hamlet, suicide is referred to quite a few times. Personally, I thought it was one of the most aggravating parts of the play- especially when it was coming from Hamlet himself. Now, I will admit that I found absolutely zero fun reading this novel. I may even say that I might be biased. However, the constant referring to suicide and even the act -whether it was a definite suicide or even if the facts were fuzzy- seemed to grate on my nerves throughout Hamlet. However, Shakespeare might have actually been trying to make his audience actually consider suicide and the effects; he could have even been trying to say that it was a reasonable way to die.

In the very first act, Hamlet considers suicide as an option but quickly dispells the thought after wishing “the Everlasting had not fixed / His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter” (I.ii.132-133). By stating this in only the second scene, Shakespeare reinforces the idea that suicide is something that is looked down upon and seen as cowardly. Hamlet battles with his lack of will to live after the death of his father and sudden remarriage of his mother to his uncle, and seems to wish that suicide wasn’t such a grave sin. After the ghost of Hamlet’s father appears and seemingly gives Hamlet a reason to live (revenge), Hamlet still considers “whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles” (III.i.58-60). Once again, the thought of suicide comes into his mind, yet once again the audience (or me, at least) becomes agitated by his inability to completely make a decision. He decides, again, on living. However, what is interesting about this time is that he does not mention sin once- instead, he doesn’t kill himself because “conscience does make cowards of us all…/ With this regard their currents turn awry,/ and lose the name of action” (III.i.84,88-89). For anyone who gets confused by Shakespeare’s lengthy use of English, Hamlet knows that people lose their will to commit suicide because they don’t know what comes after death and are terrified. It now seems that Shakespeare is making a point that it is less of the church’s influence on sin that makes people not commit suicide, but more on the influence of the inability to know what will happen to the person’s soul. Many people in Shakespeare’s era would be disgusted with Hamlet considering ending his life. What seems to happen though, is that instead of disgust the audience feels sympathetic and annoyed at the same time. It’s understandable; Hamlet’s uncle killed his father, married his mother, and to make matters worse his love refuses to talk to him. “He has a pretty bad life, so he might as well end it” comes to mind after the famous “to be or not to be” speech. Doesn’t that make you wonder if Shakespeare was actually against the so-called immoral act of killing yourself? He actually convinces people that it might be a reasonable option.

Shakespeare uses people other than Hamlet to illustrate his complex ideas for the time. One of the strangest characters in the play is Ophelia. Hamlet’s beautiful lover seems to follow the advice of men and seems extremely weak. Her suicide later in the play would usually portray the weakness. However, with the way Shakespeare portrays suicide in the beginning through Hamlet’s own struggles, Ophelia almost seems strong- even in the maddened state. After being proclaimed as insane, she still seems to have some comprehension of her actions. She gives fennel and columbines that “symbolize adulatory” to Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, and gives rue that “symbolizes repentance” to Hamlet’s uncle/father, Claudius (IV.v.footnotes 1 and 2). While supposedly being insane, she has a complete understanding of the world around her and the sins she is surrounded by. When paired with the heartbreak from the loss of her father, her suicide makes the audience mourn for her death. Though she most likely drowned herself, it’s hard to not pity Ophelia and become upset at the loss of the beautiful woman.

Another way Shakespeare creates this idea that suicide is something that is reasonable is by blurring the line between accidental death and suicide. In Hamlet, most of the main characters die within the very last act. Laeretes’s own poison dipped weapon is “The foul practice/ [that] hath turned itself on [him]” (IV.ii.319-320). His sinful act seems to come around to him and bite him in the butt; the way he almost asks to be killed by taking part of the scheme seems to bring the suspicion of suicide in the back of our minds. We don’t only see this with Laeretes’s death though- Claudius dies by being fed his own poison, which ironically also killed his wife (who partook in the same “sin” as him by marrying Claudius right after her husband’s death). Though many would cry that these deaths are accidental, it seems to me that there was no accident within them. During this scene -or most of the others- there seems to be no way the deaths could be avoided. In the sense to me, I find that these deaths are very much suicides; there was no other option but to die in order to get away from the sins of the mortal world.

Maybe Shakespeare just felt that suicides would make the play interesting, or maybe he was trying to get his opinions out to the world. To me, I can’t find just simple coincidence to be a good enough answer. The motif of suicide seems to scream out to the world that it was understandable and sometimes necessary- not just a cowardly, sinful, way out.