Hamlet: Death + Mortality Flashcards
(15 cards)
‘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
Importance of skull used in the Tennant RSC 2009 production
‘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 Scott 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
