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Death
Hamlet is one of the most famous Shakespearean composition. It has several adaptations due to its compelling story based on a Danish prince who is at war with his father’s brother and also king by the name Claudius (Jones,1948). It is a very tragic story, as suggested from its title and has a lot of deaths within it. Trifles by Susan Glaspell is based on the murder of Hossack who is Margret’s husband which tells of the tragedies likely to unveil in the play. The two plays despite having considerable disparities in terms of times of composition as well as their setting have one thing in common, demise. Both authors put a little bit more weight to bring out this as a theme as there are multiple deaths in both accounts.
In the Hamlet death is the most common phenomenal as it prevails all through the paly. Almost all the characters in the play succumb to death; thus, we can conclude it is the most prevalent of the themes. Before even the play begins, we are introduced to the end of King Hamlet, who was Hamlets dad and Claudius’s brother. The king was murdered by his brother while he was napping by pouring of poison into his ear. Another very astonishing and unexpected death that occurs in the play is that of Gertrude Hamlet’s mother she succumbs as a result of Claudius’s heinous act of poisoning others and is served with a similar fate as to that of her late husband the king. Shakespeare, in his work, also addressed suicide as shown in the death of Ophelia who drowned herself. In another scenario, Hamlet kills Polonius by stubbing him after confusing him for Claudius whom he thought was spying on him, act 3, scene 4. Through the prince, we learn of the death of Yorick, who was his caretaker. Before his end, King Hamlet had killed King Fortinbras senior in battle. Hamlet achieves his ultimate goal of revenge when he executes his uncle by using a poisonous sword which he later becomes a victim of when he is killed by Laertes, in the same confrontation Hamlet kills Laertes who also dies.
In the Trifle, the theme of death is not as prevalent as it is in the Hamlet, but it does contain death in it. To begin with, the first death that occurs in the play is that of the bird. Mr Wright kills the bird, which gives an insight into the first case of demise in the play. Despite the bird being classified as an animal, its’ killing also qualifies as death as it is an animate object that contains life (Russell, 1997). By doing, so Mr. wight puts his life at risk as his wife is very close to the bird and holds it dearly. When she learns of the bird’s death, she murders her husband, which introduces us to the second account of death. In another scenario that death is introduced though with the slightest of insights is during the flashback that Mrs Peters has of the boy who smacked her cat to death (Glaspell, 2010). Despite death not being as vivid as in Hamlet, there still exist a number of cases.
In both cases, death is very prevalent and is often driven by a course. In the case of Hamlet, revenge is the main drive to killing his uncle while in the Trifle, Mrs Whitney murders her husband because he killed her bird. Despite sharing on the theme of death, both accounts share in the idea of revenge too.
Work Cited
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Clarendon Press, 1912.
Glaspell, Susan. Trifles. Baker’s Plays, 2010.
Russell, Judith Kay. “Glaspell’s Trifles.” The Explicator 55.2 (1997): 88-90.
Jones, Ernest. “The death of Hamlet’s father.” International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 29 (1948): 174-176.