*Safwan Abdul *Rahim
“Texts continue to be responded to because they continue to explore universal issues. How your prescribed text might be considered as having enduring values. In your response you will need to refer to 2 or 3 from in your prescribed texts showing how it might be continued to be valued.”
"Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune *
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, *
And by opposing end them"
From the following sequence, we interpret that the reason Hamlet holds back from committing a suicide is the fear of death and uncertainty that waits for him after it. Vainness and confusion are two words which can characterize all his life. Even when he decides to revenge for his father’s death and kill Claudius, he hesitates when given his chance. perchance
“And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep -
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks”
If he were to choose death, all his sufferings will disappear and the thought of revenge against Claudius won’t be necessary to take difficult decision. Yet, Hamlet refrain from taking a decision to end his life as it becomes a difficult choice in which Hamlet is not ready to take. Despite all disappointments thrown at him, Hamlet cannot accept death. In contrast, Hamlet wonders whether death can be even be worse than life and bring him even more sufferings than life. What becomes frightening is that there is no way back and if he decides to end his life and accepts death, he will never be able to change anything and this assumption put Hamlet into further confusion:
*But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn *
No traveller returns, puzzles the will.
His thoughts about death are revealed as depressing. He is afraid of the uncertainty because death is always a mystery for people. This is why these universal issues are deemed to have...