Religion in Hamlet Essay

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, is a timeless play which continues to remain relevant across all generations due to its presentation of ideas that are fundamental to humanity. The play highlights aspects that relate to the society of not only Elizabethan England but also that of our modern society. Hamlet, as a character, considers ideas from outside his time and is somewhat relatable to modern day man. By drawing from ideas of archetypes and the human psyche, it reveals that Hamlet relates deeply to the elements of humanity.

        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

The tragedy of Hamlet by William Shakespeare brilliantly recounts the tale of feigned and true madness as it delves into themes of betrayal, incest, revenge, moral corruption, and death. The play, set in the kingdom of Denmark, gives an account of how Prince Hamlet seeks exact revenge on his uncle Claudius, for murdering his own brother and Prince Hamlet’s father. After assassinating King Hamlet, Claudius succeeds the throne and becomes joined in holy matrimony to King Hamlet’s widow and Prince Hamlet’s mother, Queen

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.

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark has been performed thousands of times since it was “written in 1599–1601 and published in a quarto edition in 1603” (Britannica.com). It’s popularity stems from its themes that translate across time. These themes, are seen to be relatable even to this day with the ever growing audience. Readers and viewers are able to find similarities between the current state and or even relate to one of the characters or events taking place over the course of Shakespeare’s five act masterpiece. Shakespeare's, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark remains a viable text for contemporary readers in that it functions as a mirror.

Throughout the course of the play, Hamlet is also obsessed with the mystery of death. In the beginning of the play, he states that he is unsure where one ends up after they die. Later into the play, he makes a reference to the afterlife contradicting his first approach. When he attempts to kill

Texts reflect their context and paradigms but transcendental texts that explore aspects of humanity can resonate through time and remain relevant and accessible to audiences. William Shakespeare’s introspective play, Hamlet, explores the complexity of the human condition by reflecting ideologies such as justice, loyalty and morality. Although these deeply human ideas ensure the plays resonance, they are somewhat secondary to the depths of Hamlet’s human struggle. These thematic concerns reflect how flaws in the values of society descend into corruption. Through an exploration of the characterization, Shakespeare invites a re-evaluation of the values that shape human nature. The textual integrity of Hamlet makes it of distinctive

In 1600 Europe had abandoned the ideas and teachings of Catholic Christianity and began having a Protestant view on the world. When Protestants changed their worldview they rejected the idea of purgatory, causing a key foundation of their new religion. The Protestant Worldview and reaction of it can be reflected in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In this time of religious and spiritual changes many people are very confused which can be closely related to Prince Hamlet’s immense amount of anxiety and “madness” that causes tension, due to the lack of knowledge and the ghost of his father.

Thesis: In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet mythological and biblical allusions informs us of Hamlet’s inevitable fall.

Many of the plays written by Shakespeare in his time were performed to influence his audience and provoke thought and debate the social, cultural and economic events that were taking place at that time. Shakespeare’s Hamlet, in particular, was a reflection of the events happening during the Elizabethan era. In this essay, the focus is mainly on Act IV scene IV and the speech of Hamlet and the essay focuses on answering the question of the effect Hamlet had on the audience in the Elizabethan era, specifically culturally, socially, and economically. It is the purpose of this essay to demonstrate that due to the religious turmoil of the Elizabethan era, Hamlet’s reference to God in Act IV was significant to show that

In life, religion can play a huge role in peoples’ actions and decision making. This holds true not only in the real world but also the literary one as seen in the play Hamlet by Shakespeare. In the play, Hamlet exhibits characteristics of faith with mentions of heaven and hell as well as a god and a devil. However, there is no clear mention to narrow down his views to a single religion. These religious views do however play an important part in Hamlet’s decision making and the actions he carries out. Shakespeare’s work brings out the dilemma of right and wrong, moral and immoral with Hamlet being a prime example of these conflicts.

William Shakespeare alludes to the Bible in Hamlet constantly because many of the characters, including Claudius and Hamlet, are experiencing a personal crisis concerning sin. Claudius prays, “O, my offence is rank it smells to heaven;/ It hath the primal eldest curse upon ‘t,/ A brother’s murder.” The reflection made by Claudius to the killing of his brother, an allusion to the biblical story of “Cain and Able,” is influential because it captures the importance and failure of religion present during the play’s depicted period of time. Pamela Ronson, a Professor at Yale, states, “[Claudius] asks God for forgiveness, yet knows he does not merit it, since he cannot commit to penance for his crime. His prayers are empty: while he may repent breaking the sixth commandment by murdering his brother (a direct reference to Cain & Able), he refuses to preform any penance for it because of his pride (a Deadly sin)” (11). Religion proves important to Claudius because he does decide to reach out in prayer, but religion

Most significantly though, is some absolute contrasts displayed here with Hamlet earlier on and with his first soliloquy. He declares all the ‘books’, ‘forms’ and ‘pressures’ of his childhood and education as ‘baser matter’ despite having desired to go back to study at Wittenberg beforehand. Hamlet makes it clear that ‘[the Ghosts] commandment all alone shall live within the book and volume of [his] brain’ (the alliteration of ‘book’ and ‘brain’ adding a pronounced determination to his tone), the religious allusions presenting a complete displacement from the humanistic Christian values expressed in his comments on ‘the Everlasting’ fixing his ‘canon ‘gainst self-slaughter’ in his first soliloquy, where he also condemns his flesh as ‘too too solid’, the same ‘sinews’ that he now calls upon to ‘bear [him] stiffly up’.

thinking. “What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason, how infinite in

The development of Polonius through his interactions with others serves as an aspect of Shakespeare’s Hamlet particularly suited for a Marxist analysis. While his pompous and long-winded ramblings have served as comic fodder for generations of readers, a Marxist reading reveals the insidious nature behind the text’s contempt for royal sycophancy. Polonius, who is of a lower-class status than the royal family, and who presumably lives during a feudal era which featured asymmetric distributions of wealth and power privileging the royalty and their allies, most probably regales figures of the royal family with circuitous servility to secure his survival as a member of a subordinate class. However, the text portrays Polonius’s incessantly pompous sycophantic tendencies as reflections of his, and in extension the noble class’s, inner character. Implicit in this portrayal is a classist ideology which ascribes inherent characteristics to lower classes, using these traits to justify the differential treatment of the classes.