why did hamlet wanted to kill himself?
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thoughts about suicide are all contained in his famous soliloquy in Act 3, Scene 1, beginning with the words "To be, or not to be: that is the question." He does not seem to have any moral or religious objections to suicide. He tells himself that "Tis a consummation / Devoutly to be wished." (It is significant that he uses the word "devoutly," since this word has religious connotations.) Not only does he seem to be contemplating suicide, but, characteristically, he thinks about the matter in general terms as it applies to humanity as a whole. He speculates quite reasonably that a great many people would kill themselves "but that the dread of something after death" frightens them from doing what is in everyone's power to do. This soliloquy is famous because so many people have had similar thoughts and similar fears--at least at certain times. Death seems like an easy way to escape life's problems, except that nobody can know beforehand what death is actually like. It is an "undiscovered country from which no traveler returns" to describe it to the living. Hamlet's own father tells him in Act 1, Scene 5, that he is forbidden "To tell the secrets of my prison-house" but suggests that death is so horrible that a live person like Hamlet could not bear to hear the truth about it. Hamlet seems to have no other objection to suicide.
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JBECKER06443 eNotes educator| CERTIFIED EDUCATOR
Suicide comes up at other points in the play (Act 1, Act 4, Act 5). The first mention is in his soliloquy in Act 1, in which he notes that God forbids suicide. At that point, Hamlet is so sad he wishes God had not made such a rule.
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