NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
The speaker of this statement is Hamlet. It appears in a conversation with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern who visited Hamlet by Claudius's order to spy on him. In this statement Hamlet is saying that because "good or bad" (relativism) depends on how people think, there is no mutual concept of "good or bad." To Hamlet whether the world is to be seen as a full of confines and lies or not, it all depends on what people think about the world they are living. To Hamlet consequence of contemplation about what is right or wrong, or good or bad seems to be more important than the action itself.
Action without the sense of morality is undesirable. Toward the end of the play Hamlet stop thinking about the validity of his motivation toward his action, and decide to let things go so much as "let God do the thinking" idea. Hamlet relates his action with relativism (being or seeming) in "To be, or not to be: that is the question: whether 'tis nobler in the mind of suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms and arrows of outrageous fortune, and by opposing end them" (3. 1. 57). Here he is posing two choices of action; the action based on Stoic philosophy, constrain his passion so that the action will be healthy and upright will, or based on his public obligation to remove the rottenness in Denmark. Later in this scene he considers a third possible solution to his problem - suicide.
But his thinking of what would happen after death puzzles his will of suicide. The statement is "But that the dread of something after death, the un discover'd country from whose born no traveller returns, puzzles the will" (3. 1. 78). Hamlet contemplates endlessly what would be the proper and most effective way to solve his problem. By doing too much thinking he won't be able to take an action, and he is well aware of it as in "thus conscience does make cowards of us all and thus the native hue of resolution is sickle o'er with the pale cast of thought, and enterprises of great pith and moment with this regard their currents turn awry, and lose the name of action. " (3. 1. 83). Here he refers to conscience as a function of determines the moral quality of action. To Hamlet an action without concern for morality is not desirable.
Above statements clearly shows that Hamlet is incapable of executing his revenge. Toward the end of the play Hamlet seems to have resolved all doubts and concern about what action to take. He seems to learn to go beyond the idea of relativism. The statement is "since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is't to leave betimes? Let be" (5. 2. 196). He is no longer fear death or what may await him after death, and no longer restrained by conscience.
In my opinion Hamlet's idea of relativism (no mutual concept of relativism) seems extreme and unbalanced. There should be some common ground that all human being can agree to whatever the issue is; right or wrong, or good or bad. Without the mutual concept of relativism we wouldn't be able to relate to someone, and there wouldn't be any control mechanisms (Government, Law, etc) in our society. What Hamlet had been through in his life made him lose faith in human, and the world surrounding him. Thus, the mutual concept of what's good or bad doesn't have much importance to him, or he just ignored the fact of it as in "and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me asterisk promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'enhancing firmament, this majestic al roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors. What a piece of work is a man!
How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?
Man delights not me" (2. 2. 280). It seems to me that the tragedy events made him see what humans are capable of, ignoring the reason and persuade whatever their passion lead them to do even the action is totally immoral; to kill his own brother and marry his bother's wife, so he became unable to trust human as well as the reason of human action. What is tragic about his life is that he had to live in this dark world full of agony, untruthfulness and doubt without being able to get out or have someone to accept him. Naturally the mutual concept of relativism doesn't have much meaning to him. Bibliography:
Free research essays on topics related to: good or bad, mutual, relativism, play hamlet, end of the play
Research essay sample on Good Or Bad End Of The Play
