How Does Cymbeline Influence Shakespeare's Life

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Hamlet, written by Shakespeare, is a compelling story about love, betrayal, and murder. It is one of the most well known of the Shakespeare writings and has greatly influenced many things in life today. Cymbeline, also written by Shakespeare, is a story that has also greatly influenced the way we look at literature today. I have pulled two small parts from both, Hamlet and Cymbeline. “To Be Or Not To Be” is the scene from Hamlet that will be discussed and analytically compared to “Fear no more the heat o’ the sun” from Cymbeline. In both Hamlet and Cymbeline, they both have the idea that life is full of sadness and is not worth living, so death is the only way to completely get away from the intolerable levels of hardship; although they both…show more content…
For example, the first few words of the speech are “to be or not to be” (Crowther). This literally means “to live or not to live”. At this point in the story, Hamlet is actually deciding whether or not to kill himself, wondering if the unknown of death is a better option than living in this hatred world. With his father dying, Ophelia rejecting his love, and his mother marrying too soon after his father’s death, he soon realizes that maybe dying is the solution to not hurting on this earth…show more content…
The most obvious thing that I learned was the view of death in Cymbeline. In the poem, the author writes about not fearing death, but what Hamlet taught me was not to fear death, but fear more of the unknown, such as heaven/hell. The fear of after death is worse than actually being alive. This is believed to be the main topic in “To Be Or Not To Be”, which I agree with completely. In Cymbeline, there is no actual reference to the afterlife. Instead, it explains that people should not fear death, like you do not fear sun, changes, or other things. In the poem, it states, “…Golden lads and girls all must, As chimney-sweepers, come to dust…” (Marshell). From what I learned in Hamlet about death, it is saying that death does not discriminate against race, social status, or other things that set people apart from one another. In Hamlet, you see that at the end of the story, almost all the characters die, no matter what their differences (Crowther). In “Fear no more the heat o’ the sun”, it talks about how death should be an escape from the hardships and the evil that this world throws at us on a daily basis. I think that this is completely different from what Hamlet is trying to say. Hamlet says that the afterlife might actually be worse than what this world has to offer and that is why he put a stop to his suicidal

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