William Shakespeare's Hamlet

Hamlet’s religion shapes his view on morality, ultimately guiding many of his actions regarding death. Hamlet is a afraid of life after death as demonstrated by his reluctance to kill Claudius during prayer.“Now

In the play by William Shakespeare, the ghost of King Hamlet approaches his mourning and depressed son, Hamlet, who is still affected by his death. The ghost explains to Hamlet how he died and demands that Hamlet avenge his death. Note how the ghost approaches Hamlet when he’s the weakest and still mourning to persuade and manipulate him into taking revenge for him. In Act one Scene 5 the ghost states, “If thou didst ever thy dear father love-/ Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.” The way King Hamlet words his request is more as a challenge; in which Hamlet’s love for his dead father can only be proven by carrying out whatever his father wishes. The ghost influences most Hamlet’s behavior, which not only affects the plot, but also the relationships with other characters. The ghost influences the relationship between Hamlet and his mother, Gertrude. He becomes angry at Gertrude because of her fast marriage with his uncle Claudius. Through the use of innuendos, antic disposition, and metamorphic plays, Hamlet makes it his duty to get King Claudius back for killing his father. Hamlet agreed to avenge his father without second thought. As the play advances, Hamlet begins to doubt the apparition. In act 3 Hamlet begins to have second thoughts and states, “The spirit that I have seen/ May be a devil…” This shows Hamlet’s inner conflict between listening to his father and avenging his death or following his ethics. To be sure that Claudius

The beginning of the play sets the stage for everything to unfold. Hamlet is weak in the mind due to his father’s unnatural death. In Act 1, Hamlet speaks to the Ghost and learns how his father died. Without Hamlet interaction with the Ghost, he would not have created a desire for revenging his father’s death. Now knowing that Claudius killed his father in order to take his place as king, it only makes sense that Hamlet desires the truth to be revealed as to what happened to his father.

When Hamlet is first encountered with the ghost that resembles his father, it is revealed that his uncle Claudius might have been the cause of his father’s death. Hamlet is then confused about what he should believe and how he

In the first scene of the play the guards of the Kingdom of Denmark are frightened by a ghost that looks similar to the recently deceased King Hamlet. These guards go to Prince Hamlet, the dead king’s son, and report to him their sightings. Very intrigued, and currently grieving over his fathers death, Hamlet decides to watch the next night in order to personally see the ghost. The following night the ghost arrives and summons Hamlet to him. When Hamlet first sees the ghost he is questioning what the ghost actually is and his intentions, “be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned, bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell”. Hamlet is questioning whether this figure is from heaven or hell. This is one of the views of Protestants. There is a spiritual world and a human world. The spiritual world consists of Heaven and Hell, with nothing in

This action taken by Shakespeare affects the attitude the audience may have towards either Catholics or Protestants at the time by creating a mutual understanding of the religions. In doing so, Hamlet does not create disagreements and succeeds in meeting the rules of the Queen, for it is not a religion-oriented play.

At the time in which “Hamlet” was written, the Great Reformation was in full force. In England began a gradual movement from strict Catholicism to Protestantism. Shakespeare wrote Hamlet as a Christian tragedy, and consequently, the play is laced with different themes and allegories influenced by Christian beliefs. During the Elizabethan Era, conscience began to affect daily societal roles. People started living in a way that would please their state and their God. They believed that birthright and actions could not determine whether or not a man was spiritually ethical (Terry 1071). “Hamlet” also deals seriously with the idea of conscience and moral contemplation, spurred by the Christian notions of sin. Hamlet is hesitant to enact any kind

In William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, it is clearly evident Prince Hamlet is overcome with “madness” due to his father’s murder and other malicious actions taken against him. Throughout the play, there are many examples of how Hamlet displays his insanity due to certain situations he experiences and how he handles them. Hamlet shows his madness through the killing of Polonius, his treatment of Ophelia, his thoughts of suicide, and the treatment of his mother Gertrude.

The play Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, is set in an anti-feminist era. Women traditionally have been seen inferior to men. This was an intellectual as well as a physical issue. Women were to raise a family, cook, clean, be pretty and not be smarter than any man. The main characters Ophelia and Gertrude are both depicted with these characteristics as powerless and frail people. This illustration of helpless women affects one's understanding of what their true selves could be.

To start with, the ghost heavily influences the development of a few characters in the play which includes Hamlet and his friends. In the opening act, Hamlet’s friends encounter the ghost of the former king while standing guard on the wall of the castle. They are the first and only characters besides Hamlet that the ghost influences. They are also the only ones besides Hamlet that can see the ghost. This furthers the story by sending Hamlet’s friends on a mission to tell him of his father’s return. From the beginning of the play Hamlet is already depressed and down after being called home from school to return to Denmark to witness the funeral of his father. Following the funeral Hamlet meets up with his friends where they tell him of his father’s ghost. Immediately, this sparks Hamlet’s interest and he wishes to hear more of his father. ‘The king my father!/For God’s love, let me hear.” (1.2.192-95 Hamlet) Here Shakespeare shows Hamlet’s interest in the matter

Weakness is an inadequate or defective quality in one's character that negates their strength that is often accentuated by an unsatisfactory situation. In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, a character's inability to overcome their weakness due to it being emphasized by their unfortunate circumstance results in their tragic downfall. This is illustrated through Hamlet's over thinking, Claudius's ambition, and Gertrude's naive persona.

Prior to any dialogue discussing alleged ghost, it is clear that Hamlet has Protestant philosophies. He attended Wittenberg, a famous German Lutheran university, up until returning to Elsinore for his father's funeral. His beliefs against sinning are evident in 1.2 where he deliberates the morality behind committing suicide. Hamlet exclaims:

The ghost in Hamlet creates the hate that Hamlet has towards his mother. Since Gertrude’s the widow of the late Hamlet Sr., he despises her for marrying his father’s killer and for marrying so quickly after his death. The ghost serves a purpose in the relationships between the three for the simple reason of avenging his death. The story would not have any meaning if the ghost did not come back from the dead. The ghost’s appearance is not just someone’s imagination. “In the same figure like the king that’s dead… Looks like

One of the Ghosts most poignant effects on Hamlet is pointed out by L.C. Knights in Hamlet and Death, where he explains that “Hamlet’s exclusive concentration upon things rank and gross and his consequent recoil from life as a whole determine his attitude to death, which also is purely one of negation”. While Hamlet declares the Ghost’s commandment will live in his brain ‘unmixed with baser matter’, he immediately switches to a vicious verbal assault on Gertrude as a ‘most pernicious woman!’ and Claudius as a

Hamlet, the broody teenager of the stage, philosophizes life and death within the play Hamlet but it is his fear of religious damnation that gives him his various answers. Many characters in the play Hamlet find themselves questioning different things or actions and after weighing all their moral options it is their religion that gives the final say in what answer they end up with. King Claudius, after killing his brother, takes the throne but King Hamlet returns as a ghost and asks his son to seek revenge on his uncle. Hamlet agrees to this but also finds himself struggling with a moral dilemma about suicide. Religion becomes the major decision maker and plot pusher of the play Hamlet.