Summary A Level Essay Plan: Religion in Shakespeare’s Hamlet
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Course
Drama and poetry pre-1900 (H47201)
Institution
OCR
An essay plan formulated based on my study notes for the A-level Drama and Poetry section of the course, studying specifically Shakespeare’s Hamlet featuring analysis, context and critics surrounding the theme of religion which could potentially come up in a future exam in the part b section. Th...
Religion is presented as the source
of fear within Hamlet
Act Scene Act Scene Act Scene Act Scene
Act 1 scene 2 Act 3 scene 3 Act 3 scene 1 Act 1 scene 5
Act 1 scene 2/ act 3 scene 1 (Hamlet and Suicide)
Hamlet mourns the death of his father and contemplates the nature of death for himself in
terms of religion. The religiousness of the divine right of kings becomes redundant in death.
Act 1 scene 4/5 (Hamlet and the Ghost)
Hamlet is framing the appearance of the supernatural in terms of religious beliefs.
Act 3 scene 1/ act 3 scene 3 (Hamlet and Revenge)
Hamlet belittles and undermines Ophelia through religion, contributing to his plan for
revenge. Similarly, in act 3 scene 3, he justifies his inaction in his plan for revenge in
religious ways.
Hamlet and Suicide
Act 1, Scene 2
“His canon ‘against self-slaughter! Oh God! God!” - exodus, sixth commandment
Early modern Europe attitudes to suicide, mortal sin, condemned to hell
Denied a Christian burial if one kills themselves
Hamlets first soliloquy.
As a student of Wittenberg, hamlet was Protestant- Martin Luther attended there. It is
home to Protestant movement.
Critics argue if Hamlet is truly suicidal, or if he is just mourning the death of his father.
Religion is presented as the source of fear within Hamlet 1
, “So loving to my mother, that he might not beteem the winds of heaven visit her
face too roughly”= Hamlets father loved Gertrude so much, imagery of heaven with
grace and love.
“Heaven and earth!” Opposition between the afterlife and living, his exclamative
statement shows his despair.
“Would i have met my dearest foe in heaven or ever i had seen that day. Horatio”;
hamlet is imaging heaven throughout the scene, he doesnt want to ruin the joy of it, he is
instantly conscious of that. It could also doubly mean God, as God appears to not be on
Hamlets side. This would’ve been disturbing for Elizabethan audiences.
Act 3, Scene 1
“To be or not to be- that is the question”
Bloom argues that Hamlet is just being philosophical, he doesnt actually want to kill
himself.
Somatic metaphors- represent his desire to die
“Suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”- violent, battle imagery. ‘Noble’
and ‘fortune’ perhaps allude to his privilege, the divine right. Metaphor
“Take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them?”
he is directly contemplating death.
“To die to sleep, to sleep, perchance to dream’ euphemism of death
“The undiscovered country from whose born no traveller returns” idea of afterlife. Death
as a separate country.
“In the orisons, be all my sins remembered”; orisions meaning prayers. Hamlet asks
ophelia to pray for him and for the sins he will commit, particularly against her. He asks
her for forgiveness if she has heard.
Others
Ophelia commits suicide and the priest says “shards, flints and pebbles should be thrown
on her”
Idea of suicide contagion; when one is exposed, it would result in increased suicidal
behaviour.
Gertrude describing Ophelias death in a romantic way: “her clothes spread wide and
mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up.” “Like a creature native and endured unto
Religion is presented as the source of fear within Hamlet 2
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