Hamlet and Michel de Montaigne
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This study will compare Hamlet, in William Shakespeare's play, and Michel de Montaigne, in a number of his essays, focusing on their self-questioning and thoughts about death. Both recognize the deeply flawed nature of humanity, especially of themselves. However, the personalities of the two, as expressed in these works, are strikingly dissimilar. Hamlet is relentlessly serious in his thoughts of self and death because of his terrible circumstances: he must either murder his uncle or go mad from his own cowardice. Montaigne, on the other hand, is more inclined to both humor and an acceptance of the injustices and uncertainties which make up much of life. These differences are also evident in the styles of the two. Hamlet employs a formal style of speaking, reflecting his princely position and his intellectual severity, while Montaigne is determined to keep his writing down-to-earth. Hamlet knows almost immediately the killer of his father, and the bulk of the play involves his delays in taking revenge and his reflections on life which arise as a result of the suffering brought by his father's murder, his hatred of his mother and uncle, and his hatred of himself for delaying the acts of revenge. The doubts and thoughts on death which he entertains have also to do with the burden placed on an already introspective personality by his dire situation. The severity of Hamlet's brooding also flows in part from the fact that he confides in no other human being, but keeps his dar
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idleness of which Montaigne writes.
In "That our happiness must not be judged until after our death," Montaigne writes of the unpredictability of life's fortunes and the constant possibility that an individual's happiness could at any moment be dashed by circumstances: "Men, however fortune may smile on them, cannot be called happy until they have been seen to spend the last day of their lives, because of the uncertainty and variability of human affairs" (Montaigne 54). Hamlet can hardly be said to be a happy man in the play, but he certainly up to the murder of his father was smiled upon by fortune. The question, then, is whether his death brought some "glory" to his life. He himself seems to have accepted his own death because he has at last brought about the death of Claudius (as well as his mother and others). He also has hope that his death will lead to at least an understanding of what he has endured and what he has had to do: "Horatio, I am dead;/ Thou livest; report me and my cause aright/ To the unsatisfied" (Shakespeare 778). He has doubts that he will be redeemed by posterity, but at least he has overcome his fear of death and has taken the inevitable action.
In "Of the education of children," Montaigne addresses hi
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1656
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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