Saturday, November 22, 2014

Dreaming and Hamlet's Most Famous Soliloquy

In Hamlet's most famous soliloquy where he talks about whether to live or not to live, he talks about how if one were to kill oneself that we would enter the afterlife, the unknown. He talks about death would be like a kind of sleep where we would dream; however, Hamlet mentions that these dreams could be bad dreams. I love how Shakespeare makes Hamlet tie in dreaming with the afterlife.  Dreaming is always something that has fascinated and that is really strange when you think about it. I think it's really interesting how Hamlet describes the afterlife as dreaming in a way because the afterlife and dreams are both ideas or concepts that are unknown. When you dream, you could have a good or a bad dream. The afterlife could go either way also. I read some research about dreaming online, and I found it interesting how dreaming is a phenomenon that is still very mysterious and bizarre that scientists do not have a complete explanation for. The question of why we dream is unanswered by scientists today; therefore, why we dream is a phenomenon that is unexplainable just as how Shakespeare portrays the afterlife as something unknown also. It amazes me how dreaming and the afterlife are still ideas that people this day deal with and don't have answers for just as people also experienced during the Elizabethan time.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I like your point, Tiff. I think it's also interesting how Ms. King said that Heaven is almost like a state of mind. To me, i've always pictured Heaven is big golden gates, clouds, flowers, happiness, etc. Picturing Heaven as a state of mind was strange, because I've always imagined it a tangible place. Dreaming is also a state of mind. It's like you picture things in your sleep that aren't real. You just imagine people and places you know, but they aren't real. I think it's kinda interesting as well!

Unknown said...

I personally imagine Heaven as everything and Hell as total nothingness. To me, Heaven is a sort of amorphous blob that transforms into whatever you need most. I often think of dreams as a little glimpse into Heaven. The images I see in my head when I dream are no more or less real as the other things I experience. How do we know that our version of reality is the "real" one? Think Plato.