Hamlets fascination with death reflects his desire to understand the world.

Hamlet begins his journey despondent and nihilistic, following the death of his father, and contemplating suicide in his soliloquy, wishing that this too too solid flesh would melt, but for the canon gainst selfslaughter. As a result of this Hamlet is often portrayed by such critics as Wilson Knight as a figure of nihilism and death poisoned by his grief, however this contrasts the contemplative approach Hamlet takes towards his evolving understanding of death. He is fascinated by the line of existential questioning that leads him to believe that a fear of death is merely a fear of the unknown, that so many grunt and sweat under a weary life but for the dread of something after death and a belief that is underpinned by the deeply religious European context of Shakespeares time. His growing maturity is reflected in the growth of his understanding of death, which he comes to view as the great leveller of men, conveyed symbolically by the cycle of life Hamlet depicts where a man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king and eat of the fish that that hath fed of the worm. Hamlets final step is a meditative acceptance of death as a natural process. In an allusion to Alexander the Great, he accepts that even Alexander is now merely an indiscriminate part of the Earth, that Alexander returneth to dust; the dust is Earth. Hamlets task of cleansing the court of Denmark necessitates the compromise of his moral righteousness. Seeking truth in a stained world, Hamlet is forced to confront human corruption and deception. Through natural imagery, tis an unweeed garden that grows to seed things rank and gross in nature. Possess it merely, Shakespeare emphasises Hamlets distaste for the unbridled corruption within the court and its extent which demands drastic action. A prominent view of such critics as Maynard Mack is that the act required [cleansing the state of corruption and deception] involves the doer in the general guilt. Hamlets inability to find a quick solution to his quandary lies in his unwillingness to sacrifice his moral integrity. His frustration builds as Claudius ability to evade blame through his apparent duplicity prevents Hamlet from taking action. This is emphasised by the repetition in his exclamation that one may smile and smile and be a villain. Hamlet is only able to unveil the corruption within the court by creating his own deception, adopting an antic disposition. The impossibility of cleansing the court without Hamlets sacrifice of his moral integrity is conveyed by rhyming couplet, the plays the thing wherein Ill catch the conscience of the king, at the turning point of the play at which Claudius guilt is revealed and Hamlets path becomes clear. Hamlets sensitive nature, a virtue in itself, prevents him from achieving revenge and fulfilling his duty. His task and duty settles as a burden upon his shoulders from the outset, evident in the contrast in his exclamation of How all occasions do inform against me, And spur my dull revenge!. Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, among other critics, believed that Hamlets most moral nature sinks beneath a burden which it can neither bear nor throw off and further that this is because of the inadequacy and impotence of sensitivity in the face of the stern demands of action. Hamlet becomes a creature of procrastination attempting to escape the burden he carries. His chastising, exclamative cry O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I! captures this vacillating motivation and his frustration at finding himself unable to settle on a course of action. Laertes serves as a foil to Hamlet who notes that Rightly to be great is not to stir without great argument, But greatly to find quarrel in a straw, juxtaposing his former understanding with the realities of glory hunters. His repeated attempts to resolve himself to a course of action; his exclamation that Oh from this time forth, my thoughts be bloody or nothing worth, lead to a building sense of anguish within Hamlet as he is transformed into the impulsive and bloodthirsty creature that the task necessitates, emphasised by the short, hungry statement that now could I drink hot blood.