I went to see a production of Shakespeare's Hamlet last night. It was broadcast to my local Art Centre from the National Theatre, with Rory Kinnear playing the tragic Prince of Denmark. It was fantastic, even though there were times when I felt I was watching a foreign language film without the subtitles. Hamlet isn't a play I've studied, and, while it's not difficult to get the gerneal gist of what's going on, it would have added to my enjoyment if I'd understood everything that was being said! So I've added a Hamlet study guide to my (ever-expanding) Amazon wish list, in the hope that all will become clear.
Shakespeare wasn't kidding when he called this a 'tragedy'. By the end of the play I think there were at least nine deaths (not including poor Yorick), involving stabbings, suicide, poison, and duels. There are plenty of moving references to death - Hamlet's 'To be or not to be' soliloquy is stirring stuff, as is Ophelia's descent into madness and Gertrude's beautiful description of her death by drowning 'There is a willow grows aslant a brook...'.
For a prime literary example of the effects of grief, look no further. If only Elsinore had a branch of Cruse...
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