Grief is an emotion that all of the characters in the play of Hamlet by William Shakespeare experience. It is a painful emotion that can exist in anyone during troubling times. Hamlet's troubling times begin when he sees his father's ghost, and as Arthur Kirsch states "He is speaking of the early stages of grief, of its shock, of its inner and still hidden sense of loss, and trying to describe what is not fully describable-the literally inexpressible wound...pg 129" What Hamlet needs in his times of grief is sympathy, and that he does not receive, not from his friends, not from his uncle, and more importantly, not from his own mother. That is why Hamlet's grief grows and grows and leads him to perform revengeful acts. Therefore, Hamlet's grief comes from his fathers' murder, his mother's lack of sympathy, and the betrayal of his love, Ophelia.

Hamlet's...