Hamlet Reading #5

“The undiscovered country from whose bourn No traveler returns, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have” (III. i. 88-89).

            Hamlet states that people choose to continue living, even if life is tortuous for them, because they are not sure what happens after life. He also comments on the fact that nobody returns after they die, it seems that he has forgotten that the ghost of his father did return, and he told Hamlet that he was in purgatory. Hamlet believes his father when he tells Hamlet that Claudius killed him, but he seems uncertain about the afterlife. Hamlet already believes that there was something going on with Claudius, and Hamlet could have been willing to believe the ghost about King Hamlet’s murder, because he already was suspicious of Claudius. Hamlet may not believe in the afterlife in the first place, and that is why he is forgetting why he knows about his father’s murder. If Hamlet did believe in purgatory, hell, and heaven before the ghost appeared he would have had more of shock that his beliefs were right, whereas Hamlet pushes the fact that the ghost is in purgatory away, and just looks at the fact that he saw a ghost who looked like his father, who confirmed his suspicions about Claudius.