Question

Read the passage from Act V of Hamlet.

Laertes: Must there no more be done?

First Priest: No more be done:
We should profane the service of the dead,
To sing a requiem, and such rest to her
As to peace-parted souls.

Laertes: Lay her i’ the earth;
And from her fair and unpolluted flesh
May violets spring! I tell thee, churlish priest,
A ministering angel shall my sister be,
When thou liest howling.

How do the themes in the passage interact?

The passage shows that death conquers everyone, but family bonds outlast even death.
The passage shows that when people eventually die, those around them must move on with their lives.
The passage shows that brotherly love, while strong, is fleeting, whereas death is permanent.
The passage shows that everyone dies eventually, and love is a pointless emotion that brings ruin.

Answer 1

The first choice is correct.

Explanation: the priest’s lines stress the universal, ritualized fact of death — “No more be done…We should profane the service of the dead” — while Laertes’s response focuses on his personal, lasting devotion to Ophelia (“Lay her i’ the earth…A ministering angel shall my sister be”). The exchange sets public, impersonal mortality against private, enduring family love: death conquers everyone, but family bonds continue to matter after a person is gone.