Is Life Worth it? A look at Hamlet.

To be or not to be truly is the question when it comes to hamlet, whether it is to be alive or to be dead or to be virtuous or maleficent, the themes of Hamlet, have and forever will be prevalent in the lives of man. The themes of Hamlet range from, revenge, justice, life and death, social status and position, all of which are still very relevant today. The time of Shakespeare was full of political conspiracy and friction between the royal and the working class of people. Hamlet touches on the topic of whether or not justice answers to the noble, or whether the noble answer to justice. Even the line of justice is blurry, is it more just for Claudius to die in order to avenge Hamlets father, or is it more just to submit to the “king” and accept his rule. I think that this raises the question of the source of justice, and is there and objective just decision. Which brings us to another of the main themes of hamlet, which is choice. How curious it is that by choice a man may cause such encompassing consequences such as death. In my opinion life is a series of choices and in Hamlet the consequences of choices is a topic of play. For example, the choice that Claudius made to kill Hamlets father led to positive consequences even though the choice is easily accepted as a “bad” choice, in opposition the consequences of hamlets choices, however noble or heroic they may be claimed to be, are more negative in nature. The eternalized soliloquy of to be or not to be touches on the topic of the gravity of such choices as life or death. I loved David Tennants version because you could really see the weary in his eyes and face, you could hear his utter exhaustion with the effort needed to sustain meaningful life. I think this range of emotions is a rarely allowed exposition in culture, to ponder on the worth of sustaining one’s own life is not culturally allowed and to question whether life itself is worthwhile is truly one of man’s greatest questions.