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Justification Of Religion In Hamlet

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In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet attempts to avenge his father’s death by killing his murderer, his brother King Claudius. However, throughout the play Hamlet appears to have ulterior motives for plotting against his uncle, which he justifies with church doctrine. Although he intends to murder Claudius to free his father from Purgatory, Hamlet’s religious background and relationship with his mother demonstrate that using religion as justifiable means to instill one’s own form of justice is ill founded.
One of the fundamental reasons why Hamlet would reasonably doubt the ghost’s intentions are his contradicting religious beliefs. His religious education provides Hamlet with a sound foundation for doubting the ghost’s initial claim describing his presence in Purgatory. According to Claudius, Hamlet attended “school in Wittenberg” (Shakespeare 15), a well-known Protestant school, so it is safe to assume that Hamlet has adopted Protestant ideology. The ghost of King Hamlet explicitly describes how his sins will be “burnt and purged away”(30). Considering Protestants do not believe in Purgatory after death, it would be unlikely that Hamlet would accept this as the ghost’s justification for demanding revenge. The ghost of King Hamlet, on the other hand, describes a situation only plausible under Catholic beliefs. Based on his description of being “confined to fast in fires” (30), the ghost expects Hamlet to pity him and his suffering so he will avenge him. Whether he is in

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