05 июля 2017г.
Abstract
In this paper, we will discuss the religious perspective in the thoughts of William Shakespeare according to his play “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” and the role of religion in the tragedy, along with religious values presented therein.
Introduction:
In most Shakespeare's works, his writings are rich in controversial ideas and full of different views and explanations. The Same is true for Hamlet, where one can find plethora of ideas in various fields including philosophy, religion, literature, psychology, culture, and history that cover a wide range of aspects of the play. Religion is an important field, not only in literature or science, but also in our daily life, even for the next generations considering a balance between reality and faith. Hamlet was written by William Shakespeare at an uncertain date1599 and 1601 (The tragedy of Hamlet, 2010) in the Elizabethan era, a period when religious conflicts where much in evidence.
There are many questions here about the relation between religion and Hamlet play. Do the characters have a faith? Was the main character a believer? If they have a faith and they are believers, how this faith influenced on the play’s story? Was a faith considered as a positive or a negative phenomena in the play? To what extent does religion help to illustrate the play’s events?
Concept of Religion In William Shakespeare World View:
Each religion has some rituals and traditions that form a continuity. The time when William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet; is known as a period of religious conflicts. Christianity paradigm can be clearly traced throughout the text. The main character (Hamlet) was a part of his community and surely his speech and his beliefs reflected his religious faith, and the consideration of religion is very important in understanding the character’s motives. In the play “Hamlet”, there are various situations that have rhetorical purposes;n this paper puts these purposes in the spotlight and analyses the religious perspective of each situation in different contexts.
At the beginning we can consider Hamlet’s speech to his father’s ghost:
But tell why thy canonized bones, hearsed in death, Have burst their cerements; why the sepulchre, Wherein we saw thee quietly inurn’d,
Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws, To cast thee up again. What may this mean,
That thou, dead corse, again, in complete steel, (Hamlet, 1.4, 27)
The play exists in a context of religious beliefs, and the consideration of religion is a very important thing to understand the characters’ motives. Hamlet wondered why his father had appeared like that. He had died in a natural way and was buried in a Christian way. So why did he have such unexplainable appearance? Why was his soul still suffering and troubled ? What should he do to make this soul go back to its place to find the peace?
The question here is that, if Hamlet had no faith and if he wasn't a believer, why did he mention his father’s soul state? Why did he wonder when he saw a ghost and asked about his father’s funeral and whether he was buried in the right Christian way? So we can say that this is the first hint that Hamlet was a believer and that he was interested in the Christian rituals and had faith.
Let us see page 32, Scene 5, Act 1; in the text of Hamlet play [5]; the conversation between ghost of Hamlet's father and Hamlet:
Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,
Unhousel’d, disappointed, unaneled;
No reckoning made, but sent to my account With all my imperfections on my head: (Hamlet, 1.5, 32)
As it can be seen, not only Hamlet was a believer and had faith; Shakespeare introduced another person of faith in his play, Hamlet's father, to speak exactly, the ghost of his father. He believed that he died suddenly without remission of his sins, therefore his soul was still suffering because he didn’t have a chance to give up his sins by repentance. The matter is that each human is already full of sins. This concept exists in Christianity and can be found in other religions. So in Shakespeare’s mind, to get salvation and peace to our souls after death, we should have got purified from our sins when we were living, and we should always do that whenever we had the chance.
If Hamlet’s father wasn’t a believer and didn’t have faith, so why did he mention and appreciate the idea of purification of souls from sins before death?
Murder most foul, as in the best it is;
But this most foul, strange and unnatural. (Hamlet, 1.5, 31)
Hamlet's father's ghost described himself as having been a sinful person during his life, which reveals the depth of his faith and includes advice about sins that have been committed. He wants his son to kill his uncle; he talks about the “murder” in the context of his faith and justifies his request on religious grounds.
Although Hamlet is considered "a tragedy of revenge" [2], the ghost does not primarily want to get revenge on his brother, but wants to stop the debauchery. In Shakespeare’s view, Hamlet is as much a believer as anyone in his community. In addition to that, some of Hamlet's words show him to be a devout person.
In general, religion is the framework through which a believer looks at the world and judges things as right or wrong. It also helps a believer to get in balance when he receives a shock. Usually disasters cause the believer to become more pious and ascetic. The same happens to with Hamlet. He received many shocks: father’s death, his mother’s marriage..etc. All those events became disasters to him and affected his behavior.
Hamlet said a lot of things that refer to his belief and faith: ‘I’ll go pray’, and ‘by Saint Patrick’.(Hamlet, 1.5, 35). The question is what aim was behind his prayer? Was he expressing his gratitude to God because he saw his father’s ghost? or because he knew the truth of his father’s death? The central point here is the prayer and swearing by a holy man – all that could be done only by a person who had faith.
Hamlet said: Nay, but swear ‘t. Upon my sword.
Indeed, upon my sword, indeed. The ghost said:
[Beneath] Swear. Hamlet:
Never to speak of this that you have seen,
Swear by my sword. The ghost: [Beneath] Swear. Hamlet:
Hic et ubique? Then we’ll shift our ground.
Come hither, gentlemen,
And lay your hands again upon my sword: Never to speak of this that you have heard, Swear by my sword.
The ghost: [Beneath] Swear. (Hamlet,1.5, 35-37)
It appears that the ghost and Hamlet are Christians because they insist that Horatio and Marcellus should swear on the sword, which is in the form of a cross. This paper discusses actions and thoughts of the characters, in particular, how religion influences their behavior.
Hamlet:
Get thee to a nunnery, why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest; but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better
My mother had not borne me. (Hamlet, 3.1,68)
It is considered that the main evidence for the change in Hamlet after the shock of the ghost’s revelations is his relationship with Ophelia. Before the shock, Hamlet tries to give Ophelia gifts and develops a relationship with her, but he changes his opinion of her because he changes his opinion of all women. In a conversation with Ophelia, Hamlet advises her to be chaste. But do not forget that he wants to create an illusion that he is really mad, and that there is something wrong in his behavior even with the woman whom he loved. We could also say that from Hamlet's point of view all sexual relationships are degenerate. His mother’s betrayal of his father, evidenced by her marriage to Claudius, made him to lose trust in women in general.
The following text contains the important speech, which expresses that Hamlet has a faith as a religious man. In the moment that was suitable for him to get revenge and kill his uncle who was praying, Hamlet controlled his emotions and decided not to kill him when he was praying because Hamlet knew that this was not acceptable behavior from religious point of view and that by killing him at the moment he might send him to heaven. Religious passion influenced the time of the killing. He could have killed his uncle when his uncle asked for forgiveness in the church but he didn't want to send him to heaven. He controlled his passion of revenge, he preferred to make his uncle to die without opportunity to atone for his sins, as Claudius did with his brother.
Now might I do it pat, now he is praying;
And now l’ll do’t: and so he goes to heaven: And so am I revenged. That would be scann’d: A villain kills my father; and for that,
I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven. (Hamlet, 3.3, 88)
The next text is about churchyard where two clowns are speaking with each other about a Christian burial and whether it is possible for a person who died by suicide, like Ophelia, who decided to suicide after her father’s death. So, in Christianity no one is to be buried in a Christian way if he or she killed himself or herself. Maybe, it's a kind of punishment? Anyway, again there are other believer characters in this play.
First clown
Is she to be buried in Christian burial that willfully seeks her own salvation? Second clown
I tell thee she is; and therefore make her grave straight: the crowner Hath sat on her, and finds it Christian burial.
First clown
How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own defence? (Hamlet, 5.1, 124)
Again, William Shakespeare is talking about religious rituals and the punishment by religion and society to anyone who commits suicide. And that time it was said by a priest about Ophelia’s burial that her death was doubtful and she should be buried in unsanctified ground and stay till doomsday.
Her obsequies have been as far enlarged
As we have warranty: her death was doubtful; And, but that great command o’ersways the order, She should in ground unsanctified have lodged Till the last trumpet; for charitable prayers,
Shard, flints and pebbles should be thrown on her:
Yet her she is allow’d her virgin crants,
Her maiden strewments and the bringing home Of bell and burial.
According to Christian rules, she should be punished by burial, by prohibition of memorial prayer. Her soul should suffer until the last trumpet because she committed suicide. Shakespeare here shows the harsh face of the church when the priest refuses to treat Ophelia in the same way as those who died naturally. The priest considers that she lost her right to be buried in consecrated ground when she took her own life[1].
Religious Symbols In Hamlet:
In "Hamlet" there are some religious symbols used to complete the image of religious message that William Shakespeare wanted to send through this play. There was a cross on Hamlet's sword (we talked about it previously).
A cock was an important Christian symbol during the Middle Ages. It crowed at the birth and death of Christ, and it heralded the dawn that 'brings light to the sins of the night and rouses men to the worship of God' [3]. Aurelius Prudentius Clemens (a Roman Christian poet who was born in Spain in 348) sang: 'the night wandering demons, how rejoice in dunnest shades, at the crowing of the cock tremble and scatter in sore affright' [6].
The ‘cock crowing’ appears to be an important symbol in the structure of "Hamlet". Hamlet believes that the 'cock crowing' disperses demons and he wonders if the ghost of his father is just a demon and would fade with the call of the cock.
Hamlet’s hesitation reflects the image of life especially characteristics of the protagonist’s personality, which includes his uncertainty about the nature of the ghost. Hamlet tries to balance his feelings of rage with his religious beliefs.
William Shakespeare also used Hellenic religious symbols for purely rhetorical purposes. He uses Grecian religious figures, for example, Hyperion, Niobe (Hamlet, 1.2) and the God of sun (Hamlet, 2.2). These symbols have rhetorical functions. Shakespeare presented a religious massage and a meditative view of life. In Hamlet, he revealed role of religion in his worldview.
Finally, William Shakespeare sent a message that was full of moral, loyalty, honor, and immortality by his expression of life’s concepts. This play discusses in depth Christianity attitude towards burying a suicide victim and considers some beliefs. This play gives us a great lesson about how we can control our behaviors and how we can re-evaluate the situations according to our religious views.
Conclusions
The main characters in the play "Hamlet" are believers. In Hamlet William Shakespeare uses rhetoric to create a religious message about the values of right and wrong, represents punishment of sinners through creating disastrous endings. Also, religion helps to illustrate the play's events. Finally, religion brings a positive value to the play. An open door is left here for us to start thinking whether Willing Shakespeare was a believer and had faith behind all his messages about religion.
References
1. Alsaif O.(2012).The significance of religion in Hamlet, journal of English and literature Vol.3(6),pp.123- 135.
2. Deutermann A. (2011). "Caviare to the general’?: Taste, Hearing, and Genre in Hamlet’, Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 62, Number 2, Summer, p.230-255.
3. Guiley RE (2008). The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft and Wicca. 3rd ed .New York: Facts on File.
4. Murray B (2000). "God's Spy: Shakespeare & Religious Vision". International Catholic Review. Washington. 27, no. 4. 764-86 K.
5. Shakespeare W.( 2010) The tragedy of Hamlet prince of Denmark,, English fiction collection.
6. Summers M (1973). The history of witchcraft and demonology. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd. ISBN 0710076134,p. 120-125.
