Throughout the play, Hamlet has considered the benefits of death, contemplated suicide, insisted that he should be buried with Ophelia in her grave, and realized death is the great equalizer. Hamlet never actually attempts to take his own life, however; something always stops him whenever he ponders it. Nearing the end of the play, Claudius has bet on Hamlet in a duel with Laertes, and Hamlet has a kind of premonition that his involvement could be tragic. He says, "It is but foolery, but it is such a kind of gain-giving / as would perhaps trouble a woman" (5.2.202-203). He means that he has this foreboding, intuitive feeling, and his best friend, Laertes, suggests he trust it and call off the duel. However, Hamlet has developed a new, somewhat healthier perspective on death (and life) than any he's had before. He says,
There’s a special
providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis
not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it
be not now, yet it will come—the readiness is all.
Since no man of aught he leaves knows, what is ’t
to leave betimes? Let be. (5.2.205-210)
In other words, Hamlet has developed a kind of faith (with this passage, he alludes to a passage from the Bible) that death comes when it is supposed to. He feels confident that if he is supposed to die now, then he will; if he's supposed to die later, then he will not die now. He believes there is no reason to try to leave life early, and all we can do is be ready for death. The implication is that we ought to develop a perspective that allows us to live fully, knowing we will eventually die whenever we are supposed to. This is certainly a more life-affirming perspective than Hamlet had at the beginning of the play.
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