Hamlet

Are they really going to give her a Christian burial

after she killed herself?

In Shakespeare’s time, people who committed suicide were not given a Christian burial.

after she killed herself?

I’m telling you, yes. So finish that grave right away. The coroner examined her case and says it should be a Christian funeral.

But how, unless she drowned in self-defense?

That’s what they’re saying she did.

Sounds more like “self-offense,” if you ask me. What I’m saying is, if she knew she was drowning herself, then that’s an act. An act has three sides to it: to do, to act, and to perform. Therefore she must have known she was drowning herself.

No, listen here, gravedigger sir—

Let me finish. Here’s the water, right? And here’s a man, okay? If the man goes into the water and drowns himself, he’s the one doing it, like it or not. But if the water comes to him and drowns him, then he doesn’t drown himself. Therefore, he who is innocent of his own death does not shorten his own life.

Is that how the law sees it?