Hamlet #1

In this section of the reading it becomes apparent that there is something unusual about the way the character are reacting to death. As the Hamlet, the king, and the queen are introduced, they are not in a situation of mourning. Only Hamlet seems to be preoccupied with sorrow over his father's death. His mother dismisses his concerns by simply stating, "Thou know'st 'tis common; all that lives must die" (I.ii) and Claudius says "to persever/ In obstinate condolement is a course/ Of impious stubbornness" (I.ii). They disregard the death of a loved one with a disturbingly nonchalant attitude. However, outside the castle the very opposite is true, a ghost, perhaps the very embodiment of lingering death has troubled the minds of the living. Thus in this section two unnatural and disturbing, yet completely opposite, ideas of death present themselves.