Themes in Hamlet Within the Shakespearean tragic drama Hamlet there are a number of themes. Literary critics have difficulty agreeing on the classification of themes. This essay will present the themes as they are illustrated in the play and allow the reader to prioritize them. Michael Neill in "None Can Escape Death, the 'Undiscovered Country'" interprets the work's main theme as a "prolonged meditation on death". ”:How we respond to Hamlet's ending – whether as a revenge drama or a psychological study – depends in part on how we respond to [the play's most important underlying theme] – that is, to Hamlet as a prolonged meditation on death. . The work is virtually framed by two encounters with the dead: on one side there is the Ghost, on the other a pile of recently unearthed skulls. The skulls (all but one) are nameless and silent; the Ghost has an identity (albeit questionable) and a voice; yet they are more similar than it seems at first glance. For this ghost, though invulnerable “as air,” is described as a “dead corpse,” a “ghost. . . come from the grave", its appearance suggests a grotesque unearthing of the buried king. The skulls for their part may be silent, but Hamlet plays on each of them to bring out his own "excellent voice" just as he designed that "miracle organ " of the Ghost's expression, the "Mousetrap". (112-13)The interpretation of the main theme of the work as revenge is popular among literary critics: Phyllis Abrahms and Alan Brody in "Hamlet and the Elizabethan formula of revenge tragedy" they choose revenge as the dominant theme: There are ten deaths in Hamlet, if we include the death of Hamlet's father and the “fake” death of the Player-King. . at the center of the card... death, the 'Country to be discovered'.” Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardò, California: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from “Hamlet: a modern perspective”. : Folger Shakespeare Lib., 1992. Pitt, Angela. "Women in Shakespeare's Tragedies." Ed. Clarice Swisher. Greenhaven Press, 1996. Excerpt from Shakespeare's Women. Np: np, 1981.Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. full.htmlWest, Rebecca. "A Court and a world infected by the disease of corruption". Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from The Court and the Castle. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1957.