Romeo and Juliet which was written not long after the so-called Plague years 1592-4，
reveals some influences of the plague in the minute description and the excessive fear and hate of death; the hero's defiant attitude toward death also reflects the people's desperate wish for survival in those days who would never yield to their fate. This might partly explain why the play is fulI of lively aspiration for life in spite of the fact that death swallows the lovers in the end. In Hamlet written several years later， the view of life suddenly turns dark and death is
considered to be 'a consummation devoutly to be wished'. This rather unnatural way of
thinking suggests some turn of mind caused by unpleasant and unbearable events and
situations. In this paper it is examined how the darker side of the Elizabethan age and the social and mental crevices which were making their appearance towards the end of the age are mirrored in the hero's pessimistic view of life.