Heads or Tails?- Hamlet

Throughout the play of Hamlet, characters die and most importantly Hamlet tries to decide the death of his father, King Claudius, and even himself. What is death? What does it hold? What does it mean? What does it result in? Hamlet claims it to be “a sleep to say we end” as well as a more transcendental view from King Claudius of “passing through nature to eternity”. Many wonder upon how much death hurts. Personally I’ve always had the mindset to die in my own sleep. A “painless sleep” so to say. However, Hamlet seems to stab down the fear of death’s pain (haha, get it? stab). What Hamlet seems the most frustrated with is the pain in life. He sees that the need for life ironically takes away the life within a person. When Hamlet “loses” his father’s life, it eats away him from inside out. An internal decay. He finds that living is the exact thing that is killing him. Strangely enough, it seems that he wants to stay alive for the sake of the love of his mother and revenge. Hamlet remains torn for both life and death. With views as polar as the sides of a coin, it’s no wonder that Hamlet has driven himself mad.