Let four captains

Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage,

[...] and, for his passage,

The soldiers' music and the rites of war

Speak loudly for him.

Take up the bodies: such a sight as this

Becomes the field (Shakespeare 5.2.400–407)

So says young Fortinbras, the ambitious, revengeful Prince of Norway, when he arrives in Denmark after Hamlet’s death at the end of William Shakespeare’s great tragedy Hamlet. The play ends with gunfire in honour of the Prince of Denmark and soldiers marching away bearing his body. Does this very last scene resonate with an ongoing event of our times? What could the “war”, the “field”, the “bodies” represent in relation to our circumstances today? 

Countless under the current coronavirus pandemic have been battling against indescribable pain, hopelessness, and devastating financial hardship. Many develop immense discontent, resenting repeated lockdowns and other health protocols. It seems utterly unfair suddenly becoming trapped physically and mentally while perhaps also witnessing a loved one die, all due to a single seemingly unstoppable virus. While some try to abate such intensifying resentment through endless protests that only escalate social turmoil, others choose to remain sane by praying, by searching for ways to forgive and move on. The most vulnerable group appears, however, to be individuals who remain struggling between these two extreme stances as they become ever-growingly lost, restless, eventually unable to find a clear purpose in life. 

How should we then really confront the unceasing pandemic, to not fall victim to it and live on? 

Here perhaps we could all learn something from young Hamlet’s journey. Very similarly, Hamlet continuously struggles innerly between polarising stances against a traumatising yet inalterable event: his uncle Claudius cunningly gains kingship and marries his mother after murdering his father with poison. Through a historical lens, Hamlet is read to be constantly struggling between pursuing the ethics of Classical Antiquity– defined by revenge, aggressiveness, and ambition– and the Christian ideal which embraces humility and forgiveness. 

Like those confined in their homes by the virus, Hamlet--seeing his country becoming controlled by the very murderer of the late King--states that “Denmark’s a prison”. Within this prison, he at times becomes infused with rage and desire to avenge his father. “My wit’s diseased”, expresses Hamlet. Determining to reveal Claudius’ guilt, he has him watch a play where a similar murder occurs, recalling a classical tale on the Trojan War involving Priam’s death to Achilles’ son Pyrrhus. Hamlet is “proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at his beck than [...] [he] has time to act them in”. However, at other times, he considers forgiveness and whether to endure sufferings for heavenly rewards in the afterlife. “For in that sleep of death what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil,/ Must give us pause–there’s the respect/ That makes calamity of so long life”, says Hamlet. It is through such conflicting thoughts that he appears increasingly more vulnerable, restless, creating the ultimate tragedy. 

Hamlet is unable to escape the prison, returning to Denmark midway to England. Approaching the ultimate tragedy, he appears increasingly bold, aggressive, alluding to classical figures like Hercules. However, not long before his death, Hamlet also marks the futility of pursuing the intractable, ambitious classical ideal: 

Alexander died, Alexander was buried,

Alexander returneth into dust; the dust is earth; of

earth we make loam; and why of that loam, whereto he

was converted, might they not stop a beer-barrel?

Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay,

Might stop a hole to keep the wind away. (Shakespeare 5.1.201–207)

Even the portrayal of the most formidable, heroic figures will vanish eventually after their death. Note that Hamlet indeed does not plot anyone's deaths throughout the play, only killing certain characters by accident or using their own plot against them. Hence, he hints here perhaps at a need for more forgiveness, more meekness rather than boundless ambition and revenge. Too late to change himself, young Hamlet’s tragic death thus demonstrates the repercussions of ceaselessly attempting to strike a balance between vengeance and forgiveness. Through his death, Hamlet tries to convey that one should learn to dismiss resentments, frustrations and turn more towards forgiveness, tolerance upon confronting unfavourable yet inevitable situations. Attempting to synthesise the two would only lead to further unrest, turmoil, ultimately endangering oneself.

Perhaps if more of us under the pandemic could learn this subtle fact from Hamlet and reorientate ourselves based on more forbearance and forgiveness, we would attain a more tranquil life, enabling us to find a meaningful cause that will assist us, not only to live through covid but also to eventually discover a better purpose in life thereafter. 

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. The Arden Shakespeare, edited by Harold Jenkins, 4th ed., Routledge, 1982, pp. 161-419.