The Themes of Grief and Revenge in "Hamlet" and "Lovely Bones"

Emotions are like waves. You cannot stop them from coming but you can decide which ones to surf'. As described in this quote, we cannot delete our emotions but if we learn to surf the waves of our emotions and manage our thoughts and feel our feelings, we will be able to deal better with the difficult situations in life. Grief is the conflicting and strong emotion caused by the end of or change in a familiar pattern of behaviour. Each individual deals with grief in very different ways. In Alice Sebold's 'The Lovely Bones' and William Shakespeare's 'Hamlet', the main theme and emotion portrayed throughout the two works is grief with the intent of revenge. In Alice Sebold's 'The Lovely Bones', the Salmon family find it difficult to grieve the murder of their daughter and sister Susie Salmon and hope to bring justice for her death. In William Shakespeare's 'Hamlet', the protagonist Hamlet is in the process of grieving the death of his father and is planning a revenge plot against the person who murdered his father to avenge his death. In 'The Lovely Bones' and 'Hamlet', both works show similarities in how the characters deal with the emotions of grief and seeking revenge throughout the journey of their lives.

“My name is Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered' (Sebold.1.5). Alice Sebold's thrilling novel is about the murder of fourteen year old Susie Salmon who is adjusting to life in heaven. Throughout the novel, the theme of grief is evident in both the story line and characters. Susie Salmon has a hard time understanding that she is dead and she grieves because she is not part of the world anymore. She watches over people talking about her murder, her murderer hiding from police and her family grieving her sudden death. In the end, Susie realizes that life on earth continues even though she is dead and cannot live anymore . The theme of grief is portrayed in different ways throughout the book by the Salmon family as they mourn the loss of Susie. The Salmon family are in the grieving process while they search for answers and try to figure out who is Susie's murderer. The Salmon parents find it difficult to go on with life without their daughter and find it challenging to accept their loss coping with grief differently. Jack Salmon, Susie's father, is so preoccupied with feeling guilty and helpless that he forgets to love his living children, Lindsey and Buckley. Jack's focus was to avenge Susie's death by finding her killer. Abigail Salmon, Susie's mother, deals with grief by denial and not wanting to face Susie's death. She pulls away from her family and leaves them. Another character that finds it difficult to accept Susie's death is Lindsey Salmon. Lindsey is Susie's younger sister. Lindsey was very distraught to hear that her sister had been murdered. She did not speak to anyone for a while and found it hard to grieve for her sister because she felt that her sister's death wasn't real. Throughout the book, Lindsey gained her strength back and wanted to bring justice for her sister's death by trying to find the murderer. Lindsey was convinced that their next door neighbour Mr. Harvey was the one who murdered Susie. She spoke to her parents and police about her feelings but they disregarded her accusations for lack of evidence. To prove this, Lindsey broke into Mr. Harvey's house to look for any evidence to convict him of the crime. While searching through his belongings Lindsey found a book with photos of past women and girls he murdered and Susie's photo was in the book with a piece of her hair.

Lindsey showed her parents the book and gave the evidence to the police. After this, Mr. Harvey disappeared and later we find out that he had died by slipping off a cliff after a falling icicle hits him. Earlier in the novel Susie foreshadowed this event by stating 'In heaven, 'How to Commit the Perfect Murder' was an old game. I always chose the icicle: the weapon melts away'. (Sebold.139). The Salmon family felt a sigh of relieve when Mr. Harvey was killed because his death brought justice and avenged the death of their daughter and sister. As well, Susie was relieved with his death because she was able to rest in peace and not be haunted by the nightmares of her murderer.

The death of a family member is a hard time for people and grief affects everyone in different ways. In William Shakespeare's tragedy 'Hamlet', grief is a common theme felt by the characters from the beginning of the play and each character reacts differently to it. The play, 'Hamlet' is the journey of Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, who returns home after hearing that his father had been murdered.

Hamlet is devastated that his father is gone and grieves his father's loss badly. He shows how much sorrow he feels inside by stating ' For they are the actions that a man might play, But I have that within which passes show, These but the trappings and the suits of woe.' (Hamlet 1.2.84-86). When Hamlet returned home, he was shocked to find out that his mother remarried his uncle Claudius, his father's brother. Hamlet was disgusted by his mother's decision to marry Claudius and thought the relationship between the two was incest. Throughout Hamlet's stay in Denmark, the ghost of his dead father appears to him and tells him that he was murdered by Claudius. This causes Hamlet to become crazy and behave irrationally. As Hamlet realizes all the events happening in his life he states 'O, that this too too sullied flesh would melt, Thaw and resolve itself into a dew, Or that the Everlasting had not fixed His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God, God, How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable. Seem to me all the uses of this world'(Hamlet 1.2 133-138). Hamlet uses his fake acting madness to distract people while he plans out a revenge plot against Claudius in order to avenge his father's death. Hamlet's grief started his plan for revenge and goal to kill Claudius hoping that this would help him get over his father's death. Hamlet also realizes that he is alone in his grief because he gets no comfort from his mother, Queen Gertrude. Queen Gertrude tells Hamlet that death is part of life and does not feel sorry with her son and tells him, 'Thou know'st 'tis common - all that lives must die ... (Hamlet 1.2.71). Queen Gertrude chose to deal with death and grief by not dealing with it and moved on by marrying Hamlet's uncle. This shows that she did not seem to care about her husband's death. In contrast, Ophelia feels grief for Hamlet because she thinks that Hamlet has become mad and completely lost his sanity after his father's death causing him to become distant from her. Ophelia believes that Hamlet has lost his sanity when he lashes out and states 'He took me by the wrist and held me hard. Then goes he to the length of all his arm, And, with his other hand thus o'er his brow, He falls to such perusal of my face As he would draw it. Long stayed he so. At last, a little shaking of mine arm, And thrice his head thus waving up and down'(Hamlet 2.1 87-94). Later in the play Ophelia goes crazy after her own father's death. She had to deal with her father's death and deal with the fact that her love, Hamlet, killed her father because he had also gone mad. In the end, Ophelia's grief took over her and also caused her death by her falling from a tree believed to have been suicide.

The theme of grief is evident between the two works 'Lovely Bones' and 'Hamlet'. Grief is a common theme in these two tragedies due to the constant sense of death throughout them. There are both similarities and differences in each work on how the characters react to grief in their life situations. The first similarity between the two works is that grief is the tragic result of a loss of a close family member through the violent act of murder. Both King Hamlet and Susie Salmon were killed. Secondly, some characters in both works react similarly to grief. This is seen through the way Jack Salmon, Abigail Salmon, Hamlet and Queen Gertrude react to death. Jack Salmon and Hamlet experienced anger and difficulty dealing with their loss. Both were devastated and showed emotional outbursts. Abigail Salmon and Queen Gertrude experienced denial and chose to not deal with grief. Abigail abandoned her family and Queen Gertrude moved on with her life marrying Claudius. Another similarity between the two works is that grief starts a mission of revenge. Jack Salmon and Hamlet wanted to avenge the death of their loved one by seeking revenge on their killers. They were obsessed with this mission and were committed to the same outcome. Aside from the similarities between the works, the main difference between the two works is the way that the murderers were killed. The grief felt by Jack and Hamlet impacted their actions throughout the story. Hamlet grieves throughout the play and takes action by dealing with three revenge plots to seek revenge for his father's death. Hamlet kills the murderer, Claudius, and two other characters Polonius, and Laertes. On the other hand, Jack was frustrated throughout the story because he knew the truth of his daughter's murderer and could not do anything. Jack believed that the police were not doing enough to find the murderer. Ironically, the murderer was killed by slipping off a cliff after a falling icicle hit him while trying to capture another victim.

In 'The Lovely Bones' and 'Hamlet', both works show similarities in how the characters deal with the emotions of grief and seek revenge throughout the journey of their lives. In Alice Sebold's, 'The Lovely Bones', the Salmon family wanted revenge and justice against the murderer who was their neighbour Mr. Harvey. At the end of the novel Mr. Harvey did die bringing the family closure. Also, the victim Susie Salmon was able to rest peacefully in heaven knowing that her murderer could no longer harm more innocent girls or haunt her nightmares. In William Shakespeare's, 'Hamlet', Hamlet wanted to avenge his father's death by killing Claudius who murdered his father. Throughout the play, Hamlet planned his revenge plot against Claudius while distracting people that he had lost his sanity after losing his father. Later, Hamlet killed Claudius with a poisoned sword and made him drink a glass of poisoned wine for the death of his father. After knowing that Claudius was dead, Hamlet was relieved that he had avenged his father's death and that his father's soul may rest in peace. All characters in 'Lovely Bones' and 'Hamlet' may be different but they are all connected and similar to the emotion of grief. Grief is difficult to avoid but if we learn to surf the waves of our emotions and manage our thoughts and feel our feelings, we will be able to deal better with the difficult situations in life.