“I am thy
father’s spirit, doom’d for a certain term to walk the night, and for the day
confined to fast in fires, till the foul crimes done in my days of nature are
burnt and purged away. But that I am
forbid to tell the secrets of my prison-house, I could a tale unfold whose
lightest word would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, make thy two eyes,
like stars, start from their spheres, thy knotted and combined locks to part
and each particular hair to stand an end, like quills upon the fretful
porpentine. But this eternal blazon must
not be to ears of flesh and blood” (Shakespeare, “Hamlet”, 23).
What is
hell? Shakespeare’s dread description of
purgatory reminds me of a quote I heard, attributed to the prophet Brigham
Young:
“Hell is when
the man you are comes face to face with the man you could have—and should have—become.”
I believe that
statement. To experience hell is to
enter eternity, conscience of one’s shortcomings, and stare into the face of
unfulfilled potential, and unreachable glory.