Life is a very delicate thing. Sunday morning in Sunday school, I heard a man talk about the connection between the fragility of our lives and that of sheep. The man said that he once heard one of his sheep coming around the corner of his barn and jumped out to scare it, literally killing it instantly from fear. We are not always as harsh and unnecessary as we think. In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, Hamlet often finds himself much closer to death than he once thought. Hamlet approaches death in Act V through three circumstances: Ophelia's death, Laertes' challenge to a duel, and the king's foolish plans to get rid of Hamlet. First, Hamlet comes closer to death because of the death of his beloved, Ophelia. Hamlet has no idea when the act opens that not only is Ophelia dead, but he is standing right next to her grave. Moments before his body enters the scene, Hamlet actually jokes with a skull about him. He said: "Now go to my lady's room and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, she must come to this favor." (scene I, line 179) He is joking without knowing it...