A Christian Reading of Hamlet Essay

Hamlet exhibits his insecurity toward death when he lingers on the phrase ' no traveler returns' from death. He is afraid of leaving his earthly life, showing his indecision towards what lies in the afterlife. This indecision carries over into his actions when trying to go through with Claudius' murder.  Hesitant to kill Claudius, Hamlets settles on making sure the ghost was correct in his accusation. By employing the players to dramatize the murder of King Hamlet Sr., Hamlet hides behind the façade of the play in order to accuse Claudius. By using the players as his medium for accusation, Hamlet again shows how timid he is to approach the subject of death and confront it face to face. It is seen by Claudius that Hamlet's 'madness' is a direct threat to his security, and Hamlet is shipped off to England. While traveling to his execution, Hamlet again slips out of deaths way before having to directly challenge it. Prior to Hamlet's 'kidnapping', he changes the letter to have it be his escorts execution. This is only appropriate, since Hamlet never is present to see their reaction to facing death, or is there is witness the ending of their lives. Again, Hamlet is able to allude death, by escaping the ship set sail for his execution.

But that is what we are warned the Devil will do: in order to disguise himself as an angel of light, he will clothe his naked villany with a piece of scripture. Catholics and Protestants both agreed that the mere repetition of Christian doctrine proved nothing. Both warned that we must be alert to the speaker’s ultimate purpose.

murder in a rash mood. It is not seen by Gertrude. It tries to urge

The Ghost’s appearance troubles Hamlet again in a different way at the end of Act Two, when Hamlet questions whether or not the apparition he has seen is really the ghost of his father. He believes that it is likely that what he saw was really an evil spirit trying to trick him into sinning, for, as he says, “the devil hath power / T’assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps…abuses me to damn me” (2.2.628-32). His concern is legitimate; however, it causes him to delay further due to his worries about sin and what could happen to him should he decide to take action if the Ghost is in fact evil. When Hamlet attempts to work himself into a frenzy by insulting himself and climactically cursing Claudius with caustic epithets, he is incapable of maintaining his emotion and he orders his brains to turn about, bringing himself back down to logic and reason. He feels that he cannot act without some sort of proof of the truth of what the Ghost has said, and therefore he arranges to “catch the conscience

The Ghost in Hamlet is a widely controversial topic with arguments determining whether the Ghost is a “goblin damn’d” or a “spirit of health.” (1.4.40) “‘A spirit of health’ is one, which comes from heaven with charitable intentions, and ‘a goblin damn’d’ is one, which comes from Hell with wicked intentions.” The Ghost only has two appearances in the play and is a symbol for uncertainty, yet it is important as it catalyses the play into action and also Hamlet into madness. The Ghost in Hamlet is an evil spirit returning to revenge his killer Claudius; which is a questionable action for a Catholic person leading the audience to believe that the Ghost is evil. He pressures Hamlet into revenging Claudius while destroying Hamlet’s

        It may appear that anything could be twisted into a typological pattern. Such interpretations appear to suffer from the structuralist faults of skating too lightly over actual texts, ignoring details that cannot be forced into a preconceived mold, and robbing narratives of their concrete shapes through abstraction. I would stress that there is more to Shakespeare than typology, but I would also insist that typology is often an important part of his drama. To make this claim plausible, however, requires more detailed attention to the text of his plays. In what follows, I will call attention to the textual and dramatic details that justify a typological reading of

How does the use of comic relief best contrast the tragedy of Hamlet? In great works of literature a comic relief is used as contrast to a serious scene to intensify the overall tragic nature of the play or to relieve tension. As illustrated in Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet, intense scenes are joined with character’s banter and vacuous actions as to add a comic relief. In Hamlet, Polonius acts as a comic relief by his dull and windy personality, Hamlet uses his intelligence and his negativity toward the king and queen to create humor, while on the other hand Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are a comic relief by their senseless actions and naïve natures. Polonius, Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are all used as a comic relief to

In Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature like a Professor, Foster claims that there are key characteristics of a Christ figure in most protagonists. In Shakespeare’s, Hamlet, these such characteristics are seen vaguely in the young prince, Hamlet, but aren’t extremely notable until the ending. Towards the end of Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet begins to appear as a Christlike figure in some ways. In the final scene, Hamlet is martyred when he saves his country of Denmark by giving up his life. Even though he had no intention of saving the people and country, Hamlet ultimately did so. The only other relation to Christ are Hamlet’s dying lines that mirror those of Jesus. Foster’s claim is very weak, especially when applied to Hamlet. Hamlet never

What should Hamlet do? Explain the moral theories of each philosopher: Plato, Aristotle and Augustine. For each, determine the right thing for Hamlet to do. Then, assess the prince's actions from the perspective of each recommendation.

Hamlet is a suspenseful play that introduces the topic of tragedy. Throughout the play, Hamlet displays anger, uncertainty, and obsession with death. Although Hamlet is unaware of it, these emotions cause the mishaps that occur throughout the play. These emotions combined with his unawareness are the leading basis for the tragic hero’s flaws. These flaws lead Hamlet not to be a bad man, but a regular form of imperfection that comes along with being human.

The plot of the play focuses on the one hand on the impossibility to know the truth, and on the other hand on the necessity to know the truth to act with justice and with honour. As D.G. James says in his essay, “[c]onscience requires that we do is right; but then, what is right or wrong in these circumstances?” We can thus say that Hamlet is right to hesitate. It is only in the second act that Hamlet begins to doubt, and begins to think that “[t]he spirit that [he] ha[s] seen/ May be the devil” (2.2.575-6). When Hamlet realizes that it “may be a deceiving spirit”, he decides to stage that play to trap Claudius. But “when his guilt was proved beyond any doubt, Hamlet still did not kill him; he left him alone, giving a reason, plausible enough in Hamlet’s eyes, in the eyes of his audience, and in our eyes […]” (Hattaway, p83). As I said before, the

Hamlet questions the true intentions of the ghost and whether it be “a spirit of health or goblin damn’d,” (1.4.669). The Ghost enlightens the Prince of the treason committed by his uncle Claudius, which Hamlet doubts the legitimacy for an instance. According to “Hamlet’s Precarious Emotional Balance,” “Hamlet conceives a way out of his uncertainty, a way to make certain that he has not, because of his melancholy, simply hallucinated the ghost's revelations or been tricked by an evil spirit,” (Lidz). Hamlet develops a scheme to “catch the conscience of the king” by staging a play that depicts the murder of King Hamlet precisely (2.2.581).

Similar to the quest for truth in Oedipus’ case, so does Hamlet lead to his own decease. In the first act of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, after Hamlet is aware of the tormented ghost of his father walking on the ramparts, he goes to witness it for himself. This immediately exemplifies the theory that Hamlet, like Oedipus, is in search of the truth, until he realizes it is too much to bear. Subsequent to seeing the apparition, he is convinced to avenge his father’s murderer. The ghost tells him, “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder,” (29). As Hamlet lays the trap for the new King Claudius, he is procrastinating in order to solve his self-doubt. Even after the ghost tells Hamlet how his father was murdered, Hamlet has the players act

2.2.634-35). This quote means that Hamlet will study Claudius during the performance of the play, and should he change his behavior, he will know that the Ghost’s story was true and he can now take revenge. Even despite the fact .that Hamlet now knows that Claudius killed his father, he still delays his actions. This goes on to show that Hamlet is an intellectual dreamer. Hamlet gets a perfect opportunity to kill Claudius but he neglects to kill him because he is in prayer. Hamlet delays in action of seeking revenge against Claudius when he quotes, “Now might I do it(pat,) now he is a-praying, and now I’ll do it/ And so he goes to heaven/ And so am I(revenged.) That would be scanned: A villan kills my father, and for that/ I, his sole son, do this same villain send to Heaven” (Ham. 3.3.77-83). Hamlet’s rationale for this was that he assumed Claudius was confessing his sins, and his death would send him to heaven. For Hamlet, taking revenge is just not about killing Claudius, but making sure that he suffers, another deeply thought-out belief. Hamlet is too much of a thinker and not enough of an actor. Even when Hamlet is given the opportunity to carry out his intentions, he delays and reasons himself out of it. Hamlet does have an almost excessive desire to reason everything through thoroughly.

as these lines relate back to the development of Ophelia’s character, as well as play an important role in the plot of the play, and a major conflict that is portrayed.