A bstract Social Concepts in the Time of William Shakespeare and

UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA
FACULTAD DE FILOSOFÍA, LETRAS Y CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIÓN
ESCUELA DE LENGUA Y LITERATURA INGLESA
Abstract
Social Concepts in the Time of William Shakespeare
and their Manifestations in Hamlet.
William Shakespeare, like any other writer, was
influenced by many social concepts of his time to write his
tragedies. But in Hamlet, one of the greatest tragedies of
English Literature, is in which William Shakespeare
focuses especially on such concepts.
Practices, beliefs, politics, economy, culture, religion,
and social norms or expectations of Elizabethan England
are exposed in the tragedy of Hamlet. We can see these
in the description of the settings and in the way of
thinking, the reactions, and in the behavior of the
characters during the development of the tragedy.
All these social concepts manifested in Hamlet make
the tragedy a mysterious work of great discussion in our
days. Themes such us revenge, treason, ambition, love,
murder, pre-arranged marriages and other matters
exposed in Hamlet are resonant in Ecuadorian society
nowadays too, and new perspectives concerning the
tragedy are always being incorporated. The tragedy of
Hamlet will keep alive for generations.
Julio Chumbay G.
Willian Garcia P. / 2008
1
UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA
FACULTAD DE FILOSOFÍA, LETRAS Y CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIÓN
ESCUELA DE LENGUA Y LITERATURA INGLESA
Palabras Claves:
William Shakespeare
Analysis of Hamlet
Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabethan Period
English Literature
Social Concepts
Elizabethan Social Concepts and Hamlet
William Shakespeare and Hamlet
Modern Perspective of Hamlet
Summary of Hamlet
Elizabethan England
Contents
Introduction
009
Chapter 1
Life of William Shakespeare and the Social Concepts of
his Time
016
Chapter II
Hamlet: Date of Composition and Summary
069
Chapter III
Manifestations of the Social Concepts in Hamlet 145
Chapter IV
View of Hamlet in our days
230
Conclusions
248
Appendix
257
Bibliography
280
Julio Chumbay G.
Willian Garcia P. / 2008
2
UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA
FACULTAD DE FILOSOFÍA, LETRAS Y CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIÓN
ESCUELA DE LENGUA Y LITERATURA INGLESA
Universidad de Cuenca
Facultad de Filosofía, Letras y Ciencias de la Educación
Escuela de Lengua y Literatura Inglesa
Social Concepts in the Time of William Shakespeare
and their Manifestations in Hamlet.
Tesis previa a la obtención del
titulo de Licenciados en Ciencias
de la Educación en la especialidad
de Lengua y Literatura Inglesa.
Autores: Julio Chumbay G.
Willian Garcia P.
Directora:
Mst. Katherine Youman
Cuenca – Ecuador
2008
Julio Chumbay G.
Willian Garcia P. / 2008
3
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FACULTAD DE FILOSOFÍA, LETRAS Y CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIÓN
ESCUELA DE LENGUA Y LITERATURA INGLESA
Acknowledgem ent
From the deepest part of our heart, we want to thank God
for giving us the opportunity to live and to study.
And we also want to thank in a very special way
Mst. Katherine Youman, who with her wise knowledge
Knew how to guide us in the elaboration of this present
work.
Julio
Willian
Julio Chumbay G.
Willian Garcia P. / 2008
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ESCUELA DE LENGUA Y LITERATURA INGLESA
Dedication
This thesis is dedicated to my family,
especially to my parents, Julio and Teresa,
who helped me in all ways to finish my career
successfully.
Julio Vicente
Julio Chumbay G.
Willian Garcia P. / 2008
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Dedication
I dedicate this thesis to four marvelous people:
To my parents, Manuel and Transito, who have
unconditionally
supported me to overcome the bad and good moments of
my life.
To my wife, Diane, who with her patience and
understanding has become
my best friend and confidant during the development of
this work.
To my dear son, Justin, who has been my best gift from
God, for
having been my inspiration and strength to accomplish
this work with success.
Willian Patricio
Julio Chumbay G.
Willian Garcia P. / 2008
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The ideas, thoughts, and points of view
expressed in this thesis are the exclusive
responsibility of its authors.
Julio Chumbay G.
Julio Chumbay G.
Willian Garcia P. / 2008
William García P.
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FACULTAD DE FILOSOFÍA, LETRAS Y CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIÓN
ESCUELA DE LENGUA Y LITERATURA INGLESA
Abstract
William Shakespeare, like any other writer, was
influenced by many social concepts of his time to write his
tragedies. But in Hamlet, one of the greatest tragedies of
English Literature, is in which William Shakespeare focuses
especially on such concepts.
Practices, beliefs, politics, economy, culture, religion,
and social norms or expectations of Elizabethan England
are exposed in the tragedy of Hamlet. We can see these in
the description of the settings and in the way of thinking, the
reactions, and in the behavior of the characters during the
development of the tragedy.
All these social concepts manifested in Hamlet make the
tragedy a mysterious work of great discussion in our days.
Themes such us revenge, treason, ambition, love, murder,
pre-arranged marriages and other matters exposed in
8
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FACULTAD DE FILOSOFÍA, LETRAS Y CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIÓN
ESCUELA DE LENGUA Y LITERATURA INGLESA
Hamlet are resonant in Ecuadorian society nowadays too,
and new perspectives concerning the tragedy are always
being incorporated. The tragedy of Hamlet will keep alive for
generations.
Introduction
If we look for information about William Shakespeare or
Hamlet, we will find many sources, but analysis and
commentaries of the factors that encouraged William
Shakespeare to write his tragedy is what is missing. So, this
thesis will focus upon an analysis of the Social Concepts
that took place during William Shakespeare’s life and how
they are manifested or developed in the tragedy of Hamlet.
To do so, we will analyze the environment that William
Shakespeare lived in and present a summary of Hamlet to
see later how the social concepts of his time influenced
Shakespeare in writing Hamlet.
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The Elizabethan period, known as England’s Golden
Age, was a great period in English History. It was a time of
many changes in English politics, economy, and religion.
Here occurred the most splendid period of English
Literature, too, with great writers like William Shakespeare.
William Shakespeare, the second “giant” of English
literature after Geoffrey Chaucer, was born on April 23,
1564,
under
Queen
Elizabeth’s
reign.
So
William
Shakespeare witnessed all the changes that occurred in
English politics, economy, religion, and social norms. All
these changes and upheavals affected Shakespeare’s life
and his tragedies as well.
Hamlet, one of the tragedies most influenced by the
social
concepts
composed
of
around
William
1602.
In
Shakespeare’s
this
play,
life,
was
Shakespeare
expresses the different aspects and concepts of his time in
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the behavior of the characters during the development of
the tragedy.
Claudius’s Denmark, for example, can be compared to
Shakespeare’s England under Queen Elizabeth’s reign.
Both were troubled countries. As the play opens, Denmark
fears a foreign invasion of young Fortinbras, and in
Elizabethan England, although the Spanish Armanda had
been defeated in 1588, alarms still persisted about a
renewed invasion.
William
Shakespeare
also
uses
in
Hamlet
his
knowledge of religion to manipulate the reaction of the
audience. Although England was officially a Protestant
nation, many citizens still adhered to Catholicism, and in the
same way, Shakespeare incorporates the Catholic notion of
Purgatory in Hamlet. In Elizabethan time, people had the
idea of the supernatural, of ghosts, witches, witchcraft, and
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in a similar way Shakespeare introduced in Hamlet a Ghost
which
has
Catholic
characteristics.
Hamlet’s
own
preoccupation and doubt reflect, on the other hand, ideas of
Protestantism during Elizabethan England.
Queen Elizabeth had the idea of Sovereignty, which
consisted of not marrying to keep her power on the throne
of England. But, in Hamlet, something different occurred.
Queen Gertrude married and she lost her power over
Denmark. Where did Shakespeare get such an idea from?
Probably, he took this idea from the marriage of Queen
Mary Tudor and Philip II, which was a disaster, but a very
common type of matrimony among Elizabethans.
Claudius becomes king of Denmark by getting married
to Gertrude. This marriage is seen as a pre-arranged
marriage such as those in Elizabethan times. Nobles of
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England or around the country wanted to marry Elizabeth
for convenience; to be kings and to get power over England.
Hamlet calls the marriage of his mother and his uncle
“incestuous.” Some critics say that his argument is based on
the biblical text of Leviticus. This reference to incestuous,
Shakespearean society had been made years before with
Catherine of Aragon who had been married to Henry III’s
brother, Arthur. When Arthur died, Catherine married Henry.
Similarly, when old King Hamlet died, Gertrude married
Claudius, old Hamlet’s brother.
Hamlet
is
a
story
about
revenge,
where
did
Shakespeare get such an idea from? This question can
have two answers. First, during Elizabethan times, plays
about revenge were very common and this fact could have
influenced Shakespeare in a certain way or other. And
secondly, Elizabethan society experienced a real story of
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revenge in the case of King James of Scotland. His father
was murdered, and his mother married King James’s
father’s murderer. James, like Hamlet, swore to revenge his
father’s murder.
During Elizabethan time, honor was moving from an
external code to an internalized concept in which people
sought to behave in such a way as to please both their state
and God. Moral and political ideas began to emphasize the
individual conscience and allegiance to the state. An
analysis of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and in particular its
characters’ use of promise, provides new and revealing
insights into the evolving renaissance codes of honor, for
Shakespeare creates characters in Hamlet that represent
various stages in the evolution of a changing honor system.
Horatio, Laertes, Claudius, and Hamlet indicate, through
their promises, different concepts of honor.
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Queen Elizabeth established some rules for a duel of
honor, and sometimes she preferred to watch these duels.
A similar case occurred in Hamlet. Hamlet and Laertes had
a duel, which brought as a consequence the death of the
main characters of the play: Gertrude, Claudius, Laertes,
and Hamlet.
As we can see most of the social concepts that took
place in Elizabethan England are expressed in Hamlet’s
Denmark. So we can say that concepts in England seen in
the behavior of its nobles and common people are the same
that are manifested in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Finally, as Hamlet is considered a “masterpiece” of
English Literature and considered a “classic,” our thesis will
also focus, in particular, upon an explanation of the
popularity of Hamlet, making reference to present-day
themes. We now invite you to read this thesis.
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Social Concepts in the Time of William
Shakespeare
and their Manifestations in Hamlet
Chapter I
Life of William Shakespeare and the Social Concepts of
his Time
1.1 The Elizabethan Period
Elizabeth, daughter of King Henry VIII
and his second wife Anne Boleyn, came
to the throne of England in 1558, when
she was about twenty-five years old.
Elizabeth was third in line for succession,
Queen Elizabeth I
following her younger half-brother Edward
(son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour)
and her older half-sister Mary (daughter
of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon)
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Queen Elizabeth was the symbol of a great period in
English history. It was a time of many changes in English
politics, economy, and religion. During Elizabeth’s reign,
England enjoyed an unusual degree of peace and
prosperity,
becoming
later
a
powerful
force
among
European nations. Spain and France, especially, felt the
effects of England’s growing strength.
The Elizabethan Period is known as England’s Golden
Age. Here occurred the most splendid period of English
literature with great writers such as Edmund Spenser,
Marlowe, Shakespeare, and Ben Johnson.1 Before studying
William Shakespeare, in whom we are mostly interested, we
will review the beginning of the literary Elizabethan age.
1
See Marvell Anderson; Noble’s Comparative Classics, Julius Caesar and Elizabethan the Queen; pages 3 - 6
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The literary Elizabethan age began in 1579, twenty years
after Elizabeth’s succession to the throne of England. That
year Edmund Spenser produced The Shepherds Calendar.
In the same year, Sir Thomas North published a book called
The Lives, of Plutarch, which was read by William
Shakespeare
twenty
years
later.
From
this
book,
Shakespeare borrowed many of the plots for his tragedies
and comedies.
At about the same time as North's Lives, there appeared
another book called The Chronicles by Raphael Holinshed.
This book was a history of Kings of England, and it was a
great aid to Shakespeare; many of Shakespeare's tragedies
have to do with the lives of the kings of England.
Another writer we should mention before Shakespeare is
Christopher Marlowe, who wrote many works. Among the
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most important ones are Tamburlaine (1587), the first big
English tragedy, and Doctor Faustus. Christopher Marlowe
gave Shakespeare two foundations for writing poetry: first,
skilful use of blank verse, and second, the idea of creating
vivid characters.
Queen Elizabeth encouraged people to write literary
works, and she even wrote some herself. Under her reign
there were many famous writers that followed Shakespeare,
such as Ben Johnson, Philip Sidney, Richard Kakluy,
Francis Bacon, and others. In 1603, Elizabeth's 45-year
reign came to an end with her death. The man who
succeeded Elizabeth was James I.
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1.2 Life of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare, the second "giant" of
English literature after Geoffrey Chaucer,
was
born
in
Stratford-upon-Avon,
Warwickshire, on April 23, 1564, and was
christened in the Holy Trinity Church on
April
William
Shakespeare
26
of
Shakespeare
the
same
was
the
year.
son
William
of
John
Shakespeare, who was a glover and trader
on Henley Street, and of Mary Arden, who
was the daughter of a landowner of Wilcote.
William Shakespeare attended Stratford Grammar School
where he received a tuition-free education. He was exposed
to standard Elizabethan curriculum strong in Greek and
Latin literature. He studied Plautus (playwright) and Ovid
(poet). He learned rhetoric, including that of the ancient
Roman orator, Cicero. Also, he received Christian ethics,
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including knowledge of the Holy Bible. These influences on
his life were pervasive in the works that he wrote later.
Linguists have said that in his early life Shakespeare
cultivated knowledge of English literature through chronicles
written shortly before and during his adolescence. In 1579,
Shakespeare left school because of a family financial
problem. He received no further education and so never
attended a university.
In 1582, he married Anne Hathaway. They had a
daughter, Susan. Two years later, they had twins: Hamnet
and Judith. Hamnet, Shakespeare's only son, died at the
age of eleven.
About 1585, he left Stratford-upon-Avon, and the next we
hear of him is in London around 1590. There are many
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speculations about the reasons why he left Stratford-uponAvon. John Bayley holds that Shakespeare left his town in
order to support his family economically.2
An unknown
author says that he left Stratford-upon-Avon because he
was
not
happy
in
his
marriage.
There
are
other
speculations, but we won’t include them; one thing is certain
that he arrived in London on the date mentioned above.
Around 1590, Shakespeare became acquainted with Lord
Southampton, his principal patron. Working with him,
Shakespeare rose quickly in the theatre as both an actor
and a writer. He joined the Lord of Chamberlain’s men, an
acting company which was protected by the Queen. Here,
he became a shareholder and senior member in 1595. His
popularity as both an actor and a playwright was strong, and
thanks to his reputation he became the owner of the famous
2
See Bayley John; Shakespearean Tragedy-Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, and Macbeth; pages 4 - 7
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Globe theatre which opened in 1599. His share of the
company's management added greatly to his wealth.
Shakespeare's financial success in London enabled him
to retire and return to his home in Stratford-upon-Avon
around 1610. He lived there comfortably until his death on
April 23, 1616. He was buried in the Holy Trinity Church in
Stratford-upon-Avon.
1.3 Shakespeare's Works
Shakespeare’s works were produced between the early
1590s and the second decade of the seventeenth century,
about 1611. During this time, Shakespeare composed the
most extraordinary body of works in the history of world
drama. His works are often divided into periods, moving
roughly from comedies to histories to tragedies and then to
his final romances. There follows a brief description of his
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works, which will serve to place the period in which Hamlet
belongs.3
3
See Harbago Alfred; The Pelican Shakespeare, Hamlet; pages 14, 35
See also Bayley John; Shakespearean Tragedy-Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, and Macbeth;
pages 34, 493
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Period I
1590-1594
Period III
1600-1609
Love’s Labor Lost
Hamlet
A Comedy of Errors
Julius Caesar
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Measure for Measure
Two Gentlemen of Verona
Othello
Richard III
Macbeth
Romeo and Juliet
King Lear
Antony and Cleopatra
Period II
1594-1600
Coriolanus
King John
Period IV
The Merchant of Venice
Henry IV – Parts I and III
Henry V
1609- 1612
Cymbeline
The Tempest
The Winter's Tale
The Merry Wives of Windsor
Much Ado about Nothing
Poetry
The Taming of the Shrew
“Venus and Adonis”- 1593
As You Like it
“The Rape of Lucrece” - 1594
Twelfth Night
Sonnets - 1609
All’s Well that Ends Well
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1.4 Social Concepts in the Time of William Shakespeare
When we refer to Social Concepts, we mean, of
course, the important ideas about social behaviour at a
particular point in time. The Social Concepts in our thesis
focus on all the different aspects and rules that belong to
the Elizabethan society: practices, beliefs, politics,
economy,
culture,
religion,
and
social
norms
or
expectations. Therefore, the society that will be analyzed
in our thesis is that of England during the reign of Queen
Elizabeth I; period in which William Shakespeare lived.
As we have said, Elizabeth came to the throne of
England in 1558. After this date, a variety of events began
to take place in English society. When Shakespeare was
born in 1564, the people were suffering the effects of
these great changes. It’s necessary to examine these
upheavals in detail because they affected Shakespeare’s
life and works as well.
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1.4.1 Religious Concerns
The first concern which we will consider in William
Shakespeare’s time is the religion. As we know, when
Queen Elizabeth succeeded to the throne of England, she
re-established Protestantism as the official religion of
England, but to avoid rebellions against her reign, she
kept many features of Catholicism. So Shakespeare’s
religion is in doubt.
Before starting to discuss Shakespeare's religion, we
must be sure about some features of the two main
English religions under Queen Elizabeth.
A list of features of Protestantism is described below.
1. Elizabethan Protestants believed that Church
services and the Bible should be in the language
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of the people so that the ordinary people could
understand them. In other words, the language of
The Bible should be in English.
2. Elizabethan Protestants believed that people
could find God without a priest or a Pope and
those ministers were ordinary people who should
lead normal lives and wear ordinary clothes.
3. Elizabethan Protestants believed that only God
can forgive sins.
4. Elizabethan Protestants believed that churches
should be plain allowing the congregation to
concentrate on the sermons.
Now, a list of features of Catholicism is mentioned
below.
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1. Before Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary was on the
throne of England. As she was Catholic, many
people kept practicing that religion under the reign
of Queen Elizabeth. Children, especially, were
taught to be Catholics and kept the characteristics
of Catholicism for a long time during Elizabeth's
period.
2. Elizabethan
Catholics
believed
that
Church
Services and the Bible should be in Latin.
3. Elizabethan Catholics believed that Priests were
the link between God and the people and that the
Pope was ordained by God. Priests were viewed
as special and expected to devote their lives to
God and to remain unmarried and wear elaborate
clothes.
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4. Elizabethan Catholics believed that Priests and
the Pope were able to forgive sins. Gifts or
indulgences were given to the church.
5. Elizabethan Catholics believed that Churches
serve God and should be elaborately decorated
with statues and shrines.4
From these features, many critics consider that William
Shakespeare practiced these two religions, Catholicism
and Protestantism. This is because his parents, in the first
place, were Catholics, and secondly, the official religion of
England was Protestantism.
William Shakespeare was baptized in the Holy Trinity
Church, a Catholic Church, for which critics consider that
4
See O’Dell Leslie; Shakespearean Scholarship: A Guide for Actors and Students; “The English Church” Pages 298 - 299
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Shakespeare practiced Catholicism during his childhood
and adolescence. But when he became a playwright, he
had to practice Protestantism. Let’s remember that Queen
Elizabeth did not accept Catholic writers. However,
Shakespeare continued to practice Catholicism; he had
had Catholic teachers in school and Catholicism is
notable in his works, not directly, but in a certain way.
As we can see, William Shakespeare lived in a society
where there were many conflicts between Protestants and
Catholics. The first conflict that Shakespeare’s society
faced was the Ridolfi plot in 1570, which had as its goal to
assassinate Queen Elizabeth and replace her with Queen
Mary Stuart, a Catholic Queen. The plot was hatched
and planned by Roberto di Ridolfi, who, as an
international banker, was able to travel between Brussels,
Rome, and Madrid to gather support; fortunately for
Elizabeth this plot failed.
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The second plot against Queen Elizabeth was the
Babington Conspiracy organized by Anthony Babington in
1587. This plot had as its goal to convert England back
into a Catholic nation and replace Queen Elizabeth with
Mary Stuart, but this plot failed too, and Queen Mary
Stuart was held captive by orders of Queen Elizabeth.
This detention caused a new plot against Queen
Elizabeth, the Throckmorton plot. The conspirator,
Francis Throckmorton, with Catholic representatives,
organized this to plot to free Mary; but the only thing
achieved was Mary’s execution in 1588.
Mary’s execution solved Queen Elizabeth’s problems,
but it created others. King Philip II of Spain became
furious over Mary’s execution, and he decided to invade
England; something that he had wished to do for many
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years. So, he sent a fleet to invade England in 1588,
hoping to restore Catholicism and stop privateers (as we
shall see later), but the Spanish Armada suffered a
terrible defeat in a naval battle in the English Channel,
giving England Spain’s place in sea power.
These four rebellions against Queen Elizabeth’s reign
made her change her mind. All people had to become
Protestants and not Catholics, as at the beginning of her
reign. In the last years of her reign, Catholics were cruelly
persecuted and many were put to death.5
The conflicts between religions in England affected
Shakespeare’s life and his society and we can deduce
that Shakespeare practiced Protestantism not in the
deepest way because of his Catholic roots.
5
See Spencer Beesly; Queen Elizabeth I; “Foreign Affairs and the Change of Religion” Pages 1559 -1563
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1.4.2 Political and Economical Concerns
The
two
dominant
aspects
that
also
affected
Shakespeare and his society were the political and
economical concerns of England under Queen Elizabeth.
Elizabethan policy had a complicated system of
government. Here is a brief description of it.
Monarch
Privy
Council ‐
Parliament
At the top was the monarch and its parliament,
Regional bodies
(Council of the Marches and
the North)
then it was followed by regional bodies and
finally there was the community bodies.
County and
Community bodies
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The three first authorities , the monarch, the
privy
council, and the parliament, worked together to rule the
country, make laws, raise money, and decide upon
matters of religion and national defence.
In regional bodies, we have two important ones. The
Council of the North was responsible of the North of
England and the Council of the Marches was responsible
of Wales and some of the English border countries. The
Council of the North and the Council of the Marches were
part of a more localized method of government during
Tudor England.
The county and the community bodies, on the other
hand, ensured what Queen Elizabeth commanded. There
were royal representatives in every county in the country.
The most important representatives were the Justices of
the Peace, the Sheriffs, and later the Lord Lieutenants. In
this way, nobody could disobey the laws. In this system of
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government, Elizabeth showed talent in choosing her
ministers, and she trusted in them completely.
These
ministers and authorities helped the Queen to solve the
problems of the country. So England faced wars and
rebellions without any problem.6
The Political system of Queen Elizabeth helped her to
reach other goals. For example, it helped her to establish
the economical system. This goal was achieved as
follows:
Queen Elizabeth encouraged the development of
English sea power in all ways. She commissioned her
courtiers who were also sea-captains as “privateers,”
which meant “official pirates.” This meant that an English
ship could attack a ship of any other nation (Spain,
Portugal, etc.) not in the name of England, but privately
6
See Frye Susan; Elizabeth I: The Competition for Representation; “ England and Elizabethan Policy” Pages 56-61
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on its own. There were plenty of volunteer “privateers”
who wanted to do this. Some of them were Sir Francis
Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh. The latter was also sent by
Queen Elizabeth to explore the New World. He became
popular for introducing tobacco into England and for
starting the first English colony in the New World, which
later was called Virginia in honor of the Virgin Queen
Elizabeth.7
Englishmen sent ships with privateers across the sea
to the west and east of the country. They came into
conflict with Spaniards and Portuguese who owned the
entire New World. These privateers broke through the
blockade of the ships and made good profits. In other
words, English ships attacked the ships of Spain and
Portugal and stole their gold. The idea of Queen Elizabeth
of getting wealthy was not approved of by Philip II of
7
See Youman Ion; English Literature from Beowulf through Milton; Pages 153
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Spain. He decided to put an end to Elizabeth’s power by
stopping the privateers. However, as we explained above,
the Spanish Armada was defeated by the Englishmen.
This policy of privateers was a factor that helped
England to grow economically as well as in power. During
this time, England flourished despite plagues and other
calamities, and England was considered a major
European power in politics and commerce of that time.
While English society enjoyed economical growth,
Queen Elizabeth had other ambitious plans to achieve. A
revolution in reading and writing was taking place and
poets,
scholars,
and
playwrights
began
to
write
adventures about the circumstances of England. Themes
of conquest, of the acquisition of wealth, and of privateers
were among the most popular. Queen Elizabeth’s plan did
not fail, and she continued to gain power and wealth.
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1.4.3 Social Concerns
Once we have talked about the religious, political, and
economical concerns that William Shakespeare and his
society experienced, knowing that Queen Elizabeth
established Protestantism as the official religion of
England, and knowing also that the political and
economical system was well-developed, we are ready to
talk about the way of thought of the people who lived in
that society. In this way, we will describe the behaviour,
rules, practices, and beliefs which were common under
Queen Elizabeth’s reign.
1.4.3.1 C h i v a l r y
Chivalry is a code of behaviour that medieval knights
followed. Chivalry was a feature of the early and later
Middle Ages in Western Europe. The system of Chivalry
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flourished most vigorously in the 12th and 13th centuries
before deteriorating at the end of the Middle Ages.
However, the ideals of Chivalry kept on influencing the
behaviour of gentlemen and the nobility during the
Renaissance in the 16th century. Queen Elizabeth kept
the idea of chivalry alive with respect to her knights to
serve as a model for the nobility and the gentlemen at
court, but Chivalry was nevertheless in decline.
During Elizabethan time, Courtiers and Nobles still took
part in Tournaments and were expected to be able to use
the weapons of the era. Codes of conduct and the strict
etiquette of everyday court life evolved around the Code
of Chivalry, courtly manners, and courtly love. A young
noble would start life as a Page8 and then move up to the
role of a Squire and then to that of a Knight. The Code of
Chivalry dictated that Elizabethan knights should be brave
8
Page: A youth in attendance at court.
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and fearless in battle but also exhibit knightly qualities
showing themselves to be devout, courteous and
generous. Weapon practice included enhancing skills in
the two-handed sword, battle axe, mace, dagger and
lance.
The code of Chivalry was subjected to certain
rules that Queen Elizabeth established for her knights.
Here are some of them:
¾ Live to defend Crown and the country in all it
holds dear.
¾ Live one’s life so that it is worthy of respect and
honor.
¾ Obey the law of Queen and chivalry.
¾ Show respect to authority.
¾ Respect women.
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¾ Fight with honor
¾ Die with valor.
¾ Fight for ideals of Queen, country, and chivalry.
¾ Always keep one’s word of honor.
¾ Always maintain one’s principles.9
The idea of chivalry is very important in Elizabethan
England because gallant knights, beautiful princesses
and clashing swords are the stuff of many literary authors.
In William Shakespeare’s plays, chivalry is very notable
and we find it in the works he wrote - King John, Henry V,
Richard II, and Richard III, and in his tragedies such as in
Hamlet and in Macbeth. The main characters of many of
9
See Brown Watson Curtis; Shakespeare and The Renaissance Concept of Honor; “The Medieval Chivalric Code” Pages 34-41
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Shakespeare’s plays are kings and they practiced
chivalry.
1.4.3.2 The Concept of Honor
Honor, like other intangible and abstract terms such as
love or faith, is difficult to define and to discern, but here
are some ideas concerning it. The Code of Honor or the
Concept of Honor is a set of rules or principles governing
a community based on a set of rules or ideals that define
what
constitutes
honorable
behaviour
within
that
community. Honor is an inheritance from the past, in
particular from such aristocratic, heroic, and chivalric
societies
as
those
of
ancient
Greece,
Medieval
Civilizations, and Renaissance Europe.
According to Greeks, honor was earned by virtuous
life, composed of valor in battle, honesty, loyalty, and
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good citizenship. In the Medieval Era, honor became
martial glory and absolute fealty to one’s lord. The
aristocracy rewarded men of honor by elevating them in
social status, which allowed them control of lands and
inhabitants. Under the Renaissance, honor combined all
of the above, but configured the concept to justify the
actions and status of an inherited aristocracy. Honor was
not necessarily related to actions, although in any
instances, honorable actions were rewarded by those in
power.
The Renaissance was a period in which the honor
code underwent a significant metamorphosis. The
medieval, chivalric code of honor, with its emphasis on
lineage, allegiance to one’s lord and violence, evolved
into an honor code that was both more moral and political
which
emphasized
the
individual
conscience
and
allegiance to the State.
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The Renaissance, during Elizabeth’s reign, was also
seen as a period of transition in the evolution of the code
of honor. One of the most complex changes in the code of
honor was a movement from an external code to an
internalized concept of what it is to be an honorable man.
Men were no longer considered honorable simply by right
of birth, nor were they able to claim to be men of honor by
producing a long list of heroic deeds. Instead of these,
honor was becoming by the sixteenth century, a matter of
conscience; honorable men needed to seek, in every
situation, to behave in such a way as to please both their
state and their God. That is not to say that there didn’t
exist
a
residual
chivalric
sense
of
honor
which
emphasized the importance of blood and lineage as well
as martial worth. Rather in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries this medieval concept of honor both co-existed
and overlapped with a more modern code of honor which
simultaneously emphasized both godliness and political
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allegiance to the State. This new code, in turn, created
tensions of its own precisely because of its demand that
men act both in accordance to the dictates of their
conscience and their duty to the State.10
In other words, the concept of honor, in Shakespeare’s
society, came to encompass the internal conscience. This
emphasis, on the conscience within society, forced men
to balance obedience to the State with adherence to
Christian virtues of patience and forgiveness that could be
found in God’s word. In this period existed a conflict of
conscience between obedience to God and to the State
which
often
required
violent
military
action,
and
adherence to an honor code that demanded Christian
patience, long-suffering, and non-violent solution to
conflicts.
10
See Brown Watson Curtis; Shakespeare and The Renaissance Concept of Honor; “Shakespeare and the Renaissance Concept
of honor, Part II” Pages 241,245, 254
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One’s word remained inherit in the code of honor
precisely because honor as a political and moral
consideration required, even more than before, a public
statement of intent. It is the essence of honor which
Shakespeare manifested in his tragedy, Hamlet, when he
created the characters in Hamlet. So a close analysis of
Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and in particular in its characters’
use of promise, provides new and revealing insights into
the
evolving
Renaissance
codes
of
honor,
for
Shakespeare creates characters in Hamlet that represent
various states in the evolution of a changing honor
system.
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1.4.3.3 The Duel of Honor
As we have mentioned above,
honor, in the Elizabethan Period,
became
Knights dueling
part
of
people’s
conscience. So all kinds of people
wanted to be the most honorable in
the society; in this way, they
practiced dueling, which later was
seen as the duel of honor.
The duel appeared in Italy and spread over all Europe
in the sixteenth century. When it arrived in England, it was
not taken in the way it appeared as the first time, as a
judicial duel or a duel of chivalry, but it was taken in a
different form that lasted much longer, the duel of honor.
This duel was a prearranged combat with lethal
weapons between two people, usually taking place under
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formal arrangement. The field was an open area, typically
a courtyard or open field where there was enough room to
hold the combat and also allowed for the judges and
spectators. Each combat had a grandfather who was the
spokesperson. The grandfather decided the weapons
they would use, the armor they would wear, the time they
would combat, etc.
They also checked for hidden
weapons, armor and amulets of protections; witchcraft
was believed to be used at that time, both for protection
and to cause injury or harm to one’s opponent.
The duel of honor had several characteristics. It was
usually fought over an insult, a slap to the face, a slur on
reputation, an accusation of lying, etc. The duel of honor
was irrelevant. The loser of the duel was not punished
socially, and after the duel reconciling was common.11
11
See Brown Watson Curtis; Shakespeare and The Renaissance Concept of Honor; “The Duel” Pages 133 - 135
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At the beginning, the duel of honor was seen as a
sport, but later it underwent some changes. The duel of
honor was popular under Queen Elizabeth and all
common people practiced it. Some authorities attempted
to call it illegal, but Queen Elizabeth established some
rules in order to avoid deaths. Sometimes she preferred
to watch the duels. Shakespeare’s society lived around
this environment, and of course, Shakespeare used the
duel of honor in his tragedy, Hamlet. It ends in a duel
between Laertes and Hamlet, which will be discussed in
the next chapter.
1.4.3.4 Sovereignty
When we say sovereignty, we refer to the supremacy
of authority or rule, and of course, Queen Elizabeth was
such an authority in England. As a woman was on the
throne, women had many rights and were allowed to do
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many things men did. In this way, men thought that
marriage was in danger because they were living a period
of matriarchy. Queen Elizabeth gave many rights to
women, and she acted strictly to accomplish her goals.
Courtiers and Nobles many times asked Queen
Elizabeth to get married, but she refused. She considered
that if she kept herself unmarried, she would have more
sovereignty over her country. The courtiers were afraid of
this because what they wanted was a descendent to the
throne of England. To this, she replied that she was
married to England, and that she did not need a man to
rule it. She was aware that if she married, her husband
would become king, and would probably destroy the rules
protecting women, and she would lose her sovereignty.
Sovereignty in God was another important aspect of
Queen Elizabeth’s rule. She manifested that God was the
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supreme authority who helped her to be a better
sovereign of her country. She kept this idea alive among
her people. She told them that in the world and universe
there existed only one God and that people could reach
him by being Protestants or Catholics.12
This thought of sovereignty of Queen Elizabeth was
admired by all her contemporaries. Writers, for example,
began
to
take
this
concern
up
in
their
works.
Shakespeare was one of them. In his tragedies, Hamlet
and Macbeth, sovereignty is included. Shakespeare, in
Hamlet, gave power to female protagonists
and
suggested the danger of woman’s involvement in politics
at the sovereign level. In this way, he dramatized real
political concerns that evolved from and during the reign
of Elizabeth Tudor.
12
See Levin Carole; Elizabeth and the Politics of Sex and Power; “Elizabeth as Sacred Monarch” Page 39, 121
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Thus, Shakespeare’s Hamlet reflects the Elizabethan
world, where we can see potential conflicts arising from
female ambition for sovereign power and corruption of the
political body through corruption of the female sovereign.
1.4.3.5 Marriage and Incest
Under Queen Elizabeth, marriage was seen as a
problem. Elizabethan men considered women as their
subservients. Although Queen Elizabeth gave women
many rights, they were dependent on their male relatives
who at the beginning of the Elizabethan reign thought
they were living a period of matriarchy.
Marriage was frequently arranged so that both
families who were involved got some kind of benefit; for
example, to bring prestige and wealth to the involved
families. Therefore, couples often met for the first time on
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their wedding day. This particular Elizabethan custom
usually applied to the nobility and married or religious life
were the only real options for Elizabethans. Elizabethan
women were expected to bring a dowry, such as an
amount of money, goods, or properties to the marriage. At
the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign, women were also
expected to run the households and take care of their
children, and the law gave a husband full rights over his
wife. In other words, the woman became the husband’s
property effectively. But those laws were changing over
the course of Elizabeth’s reign.13
Shakespeare’s society lived this idea of marriage.
Families tried to marry their children for convenience, and
thus to achieve a good style of life and a good level inside
society, but Shakespeare thought that marriage should be
13
See O’Dell Leslie; Shakespearean Scholarship: A Guide for Actors and Students; “ Love, Marriage, and Procreation” Pages
253-254
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sacred and based on true love. For this reason, he
included these concepts of marriage, whereby marriage
for love overcame arranged marriage. An example of
marriage for love is found in the tragedy of Romeo and
Juliet, and an example of arranged marriage is seen in
Hamlet when Claudius killed his brother to marry his
sister-in-law, and so obtained power.
Let’s remember that marriage of a brother-in-law to a
sister-in-law was forbidden by the Church, and regarded
as incest. Sermons in Church regularly condemned it as
adultery, and offenders were subjected to cruel ritual of
public penance, sometimes carted around the town to be
mocked, humiliated, and assaulted with missiles.
Elizabethans kept in mind the theme of incest that
years before Catherine of Aragon had committed with
Henry VIII. Catherine had been married to Henry’s
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brother, Arthur. When Arthur died, she married Henry VIII.
Thus, incest had been popular among Elizabethans14. Of
course, Shakespeare included the theme of incest in
Hamlet, which will be studied later.
1.4.3.6 Elizabethan Revenge
Revenge is “an action taken in return for an injury or
offence.”15 This term which describes the bad behaviour
of people, has prevailed for centuries, and it is
everywhere.
During Elizabethan England, personal
revenge was forbidden both by the State and the Church,
which held that either the law or God would punish
wrongdoers. The Church defined revenge as sin and
damned revengers to suffer for all eternity. The State, on
the other hand, punished them cruelly.
14
Gibson Rex; Shakespeare - Hamlet: Cambridge Student Guide, page 69
15
Definition taken from The American Heritage Dictionary, Fourth Edition
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So
revenge
had
contemporary
echoes
for
Elizabethans. Also, years later, the Englishmen had
testified to the revenge of King James (King of Scotland
who later became also king of England) against his
father’s murderer (his father’s murderer had married
Mary, Queen of Scots, James’ mother), James killed the
murderer in order to get revenge for his father’s death.16
This event of revenge shocked Shakespeare’s society,
and became part of people’s minds. So many Elizabethan
authors took this theme up in their masterpieces.
Shakespeare was one of them obviously, and the work in
which we are interested in analyzing contains such
matter.
16
Gibson Rex; Shakespeare - Hamlet: Cambridge Student Guide, page 68
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1.4.3.7 Crime and Punishment
During
this
chapter,
we
have
described
the
Elizabethan reign as a good period for England, but not
everything was as it appeared. Crimes of treason and
offences among the citizens were treated with cruel
severity. All these crimes and offences were especially
punished, including those committed by the nobility.
Many punishments and executions were witnessed
by many hundreds of people. The Lower Classes treated
such events as exciting days out. Even royalty were
subjected to this most public form of punishment for their
crimes. The execution of the tragic Anne Boleyn was
restricted to the Upper Classes and Nobility and was
witnessed by several hundred spectators.
Elizabethan England was divided into two classes:
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the Upper Class with the Nobility and the Courtiers along
with the commons.
Punishments obviously varied
according to class.17
The Upper Class
The Upper Class was well educated, wealthy, and
associated with Royalty and high members of the clergy.
Members often became involved in Political intrigue and
matters of religion. So the Nobility could become involved
in crimes which were not shared by other people. If they
were accused of one of the serious crimes, they were
tortured cruelly. The most common crimes of the Nobility
were the following:
- High treason
- Murder
17
Translation from OCEANO, Mentor Enciclopedia Temática Estudiantil-Sec. Historia Universal; “Periodo Isabelino: Crimen
y Castigo” Page 3025 - 3026
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- Blasphemy
- Witchcraft
- Sedition
- Poisoning
- Spying
- Alchemy
- Rebellion
These crimes were punished in different ways. One
of the greatest and most grievous punishments carried
out in England was when people offended the State. They
were taken from the prison to the place of execution upon
a hurdle or sled, where they were hanged till they were
half dead, and then taken down, and quartered alive.
After that, their members and bowels were cut from their
bodies, and thrown into a fire.
Another kind of punishment that Elizabethans
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witnessed was execution by burning. This was a terrible
death for the accused nobles; they were burnt at the
stake. Executioners sometimes showed mercy to their
victims by placing gun powder at the base of the stake
which helped the victims to a swifter and less painful
death. The only other respite from the excruciating pain of
being burnt to death was if the victims died of suffocation
through smoke inhalation and lack of oxygen. An example
of what we are talking about, we can see in the movie
“Elizabeth” starred in by Cate Blanchett.
The last punishment that nobles suffered was by
beheading. This punishment of death by the axe was also
a terrifying prospect. The Elizabethan executioners often
needed several blows before the head was finally cut off.
Punishments of death by execution were held in public
and witnessed by many people. In addition, the heads of
Elizabethan traitors were placed on stakes and displayed
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in public places such as on London Bridge.
The Lower Classes
In the same way that nobles committed crimes,
commoners also committed crimes. The most common
crimes were the following:
- Theft
-
Debts
- Cutting Purses
-
Forgery
- Begging
-
Fraud
- Poaching
-
Dice coggery
- Adultery
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From this list of crimes, we will focus only on the
three more important ones: Theft, Poaching, and
Begging. Theft, or stealing anything over five pence,
resulted in hanging, a terrible price to pay for people who
were starving. Punishment for poaching crimes differed
according to when the crime was committed – Poaching
at night resulted in punishment by death, whereas
poaching during the day time did not. The Elizabethan
government considered begging as a crime and therefore
illegal. As their punishment “poor beggars” were beaten
with stones till they bled. Sometimes, they were sent to
jail or hanged.
Aside from these punishments, there were others
ones,
- Hanging
-
Pressing
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- Burning
-
Ducking Stools
- The Pillory
-
The Wheel
- Whipping
-
Boiling in oil, water, or lead
- Starvation in a public place
-
Cutting off various items of the anatomy – hands,
ears, etc
Minor crimes and punishment in small Elizabethan
towns were dealt with by the Justice of Peace. The
Justice of Peace for each town parish was allowed to
collect a tax from those who owned land in the town. This
was called the poor Rate which was used to help the poor
during the Elizabethan period.
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Shakespeare's society was subjected to several
laws, and if the people did not obey the laws, they were
punished cruelly. So Shakespeare treated this topic in his
tragedies; for instance, in Hamlet and in Macbeth.
1.4.3.8 The Supernatural
In Elizabethan time people had the idea of existence
outside the natural world and attributed this idea to divine
power, and it was known as the Supernatural. The new
ideas, information, and increased knowledge about
science, technology, and astrology let to a renewed
interest in the supernatural which included witches and
witchcraft and ghosts which led to belief in the
supernatural and in superstitions.
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Women were those most often accused of being
witches. Queen Elizabeth passed a new and harsher
witchcraft Law in 1562 leading to witch hunts and the
prosecution of witches. If a person was found practicing
witchcraft he or she was cruelly punished or sometimes
hanged.
In Elizabethan England, ghosts and the idea of them,
was also a common phenomenon. Many people wrote
books on strange happenings which they tried to describe
by mentioning sudden noises like cracks that were heard
just before death; or visions of men seen walking in their
homes just after they had died; or houses filled with so
much noise that the owners believed that they were about
to fall down; or doors and windows seen opening when no
one was around; footsteps heard through hallways at
night.
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Catholics and Protestants had different conceptions
in their beliefs with respect to the supernatural. The
Catholic people believed in a place called purgatory,
which was between Heaven and Hell where souls could
reside. They believed that the soul returned to the world
when it had not done all its work in the world. Those souls
appeared to some people to tell them the undone work in
the world, and then they could go to Heaven or Hell.
The Protestants, on the other hand, believed that the
dead people were either sent to Heaven or Hell, and that
there was nothing in between.
So they believed that
Catholic people’s minds created convincing illusions of
ghosts.18
18
See Kermode Frank; The Age of Shakespeare; Pages 542, 544
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One of the most famous people to believe in and
include the supernatural in his everyday life work was
William Shakespeare. All the time he was writing Hamlet,
a debate raged in England about the nature of ghosts. It
was agreed that if spirits and apparitions existed in
people’s minds, they should probably exist in everyday
life. Shakespeare’s play does an excellent job of revealing
the fascination with ghosts during this time in history: of
course, we are talking about Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.
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C h a p t e r II
H a m l e t
2.1 Date of Composition of Hamlet
Hamlet is the most popular
of
Shakespeare’s
plays
for
readers and theatre audiences,
and it is also one of the most
Picture taken from
the movie of
Hamlet starred in
puzzling. Many questions about
by Mel Gibson.
readers and playgoers, making
the play continue to fascinate
Hamlet not only a tragedy of
revenge, but also very much a
mystery.
About the
date of composition of Hamlet some
scholars accept the year 1602. But others say that it was
composed
earlier.
However,
most
students
of
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Shakespeare accept late 1600 or early 1601 as the date
of publication. So it was probably first performed in 1601
on the stage of the Globe theatre in London’s Barkside.
By
the year 1601,
Shakespeare had
written
comedies, histories , and three tragedies other than
Hamlet .The
tragedy of Hamlet is considered as the
beginning of the playwright’s great period of composition
. As we have described in the first chapter, Hamlet
belongs to
the third
period of Shakespeare’s works
(1600-1609) in which Shakespeare produced Hamlet
,Othello, King Lear ,and Macbeth that are
the greatest tragedies in
considered
world literature .However,
learned men of Shakespeare
insist
that Hamlet is
Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy.19
19
See Lowers James K.; Shakespeare’s Hamlet, page 5
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2.2 An Introduction to the Text of Hamlet
It is necessary to consider the way that the tragedy
of Hamlet was written back in time. The tragedy was
printed in three different versions in the early seventeenth
century.
In 1603 appeared a Quarto20 or pocket-sized version
called The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet Prince of Denmark
by William Shakespeare.
This version of the play is
different from the two subsequent printings and is longer
than the others. Some of the characters have different
names (Polonius - Corambis, Reynaldo -Montano). The
action of the play also varies considerably. Most
linguistics have found many passages difficult to read and
say that it’s full of errors as to what was written
20
for the
Quarto: The page size obtain by folding a whole sheet into four leaves. (AHD)
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stage . The First Quarto has therefore been seen as a
bad quarto.
The Second Quarto, often called the good quarto, is
dated from 1604. It is the text, with certain minor editions
and corrections, which is generally acknowledged to be
Shakespeare’s definitive version. Further , it
is
the
Second Quarto which, according to eminent scholars,
served as the source for the version included in the First
Folio21 . The third version to see in print is found in the
First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays, which was published
in
1623, seven
years after Shakespeare’s
death,
entitled The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.
Most modern editions of Hamlet offer various
combinations of the Second Quarto and the Folio
versions. The most recent editors have preferred the
21
Folio: A book of largest common size consisting of such folded sheets. (AHD)
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Second Quarto’s readings in the belief that it was printed
either directly from Shakespeare’s
own manuscript or
from a scribe’s copy of it. A few have, instead, adopted
the Folio readings in the belief
that the Folio was set
into type from a theatre manuscript, and they wanted to
give
their readers the play
as it was performed on
Shakespeare’s stage.22
2.3 Shakespeare’s source in writing Hamlet
From the beginning of this thesis, it has been
manifested that Shakespeare wrote Hamlet based on the
social concepts of his time, but not all the tragedy refers
to such concepts. Shakespeare was under other
influences when he wrote and dramatized the story of
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.
22
See Mowat Barbara A and Paul Werstine; Hamlet by William Shakespeare; Pages 47 - 54
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Some critics have thought that Hamlet is based on a
twelfth century revenge called Historiae Danicae which
was about an early Prince of Denmark, Amleth. This tale,
by Saxo Grammaticus, was published in Latin in 1514,
but most Scholars believe that Shakespeare read a
1570 French version
Belleforest. According to
of the story by François de
certain critics, the story has
some recognizable similarities to Hamlet. Other critics say
that William Shakespeare was influenced by Seneca23
when he published a collection of tragedies in 1581.
Seneca found the material for his tragic dramas in
Greek mythology, but his reworking of those ancient tales
was done in a startling manner which greatly appealed
to Elizabethan audiences. Seneca’s impact on English
playwrights, including Shakespeare, was profound, and
many revenge plays imitated his example.
23
Seneca: Roman writer and philosopher.
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Around 1590 Thomas Kyd published The Spanish
Tragedy, and it was based on Seneca’s tragedies wherein
revenge and justice are the main themes. The Spanish
Tragedy demonstrates how much audiences enjoyed
plays in which
murder breeds murder and almost every
character intends to hurt the others. Its astonishing
success undoubtedly influenced Shakespeare to write
Hamlet.
But there was written and performed in England
an earlier Hamlet play usually referred to as the UrHamlet (Ur means “early”), which unfortunately didn’t
survive. Evidence of its existence comes from several
sources – one of them is the criticism made by Thomas
Nash. The Ur-Hamlet may have been written by Thomas
Kyd or some other dramatist, or even by Shakespeare
himself. No one knows. Shakespeare may have reworked
this old play, or at least may have had it in his mind while
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he wrote Hamlet. But with the creation of Hamlet,
Shakespeare
moved
the
tragedy
far
beyond
the
bloodbolstered melodrama of the early 1590s. However,
Hamlet
is radically different from Elizabethan drama’s
earlier revengers.
24
2.4 Literary elements that Shakespeare developed in
Hamlet
Before we
start to
summarize the tragedy of
Hamlet, there is something else we should know in
order to make it easier to understand the plot. We
talk, of course, of the literary elements that Shakespeare
developed in Hamlet, which are four.
The first one is the tragic flaw. A flaw means a fault
in the character of the hero. So the tragic flaw is the
24
See Lowers James K.; Shakespeare’s Hamlet, page 6, 7
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imperfection of the main character which combines with
an unfortunate train of
events and
circumstances to
produce a tragic consequence. Hamlet’s tragic flaw, as
we shall see later, is indecision.
Another element that Shakespeare developed is the
soliloquy. A soliloquy means a speech that is made on
stage by an actor “to himself”. In other words, the actor or
actress is speaking his/her thoughts aloud. A soliloquy
only happens when the person who speaks it is alone on
stage. Shakespeare develops several soliloquies in the
tragedy of Hamlet. One of the most famous soliloquies is
“to be or not to be…”
Another element developed by Shakespeare is the
“aside,” which differs from a Soliloquy in one way. An
aside is when there is someone else on stage who hears
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the private speech of the person who is speaking, but the
speaking person doesn’t realize of the other people. A
relevant aside in Hamlet , as we shall see, is when
Hamlet listens to his uncle, Claudius, asking God for
pardon for killing his brother. Claudius doesn’t realize
that Hamlet is listening to his speech. This is what we call
an aside.
The last element we should mention before reading
the tragedy is the climax.
The climax is the point of
greatest tension in the tragedy and the turning point in the
action of the plot.
The climax occurs after the rising
action and before the falling action. In Hamlet, as we
shall see later, the climax is in “the play within the play”
(Act 3. Sc. 2). Thanks to the climax Hamlet confirms his
doubts and important decisions are made.25
25
See Youman Ion; English Literature from Beowulf through Milton; Pages 195, 227-228, 237
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2.5 Summary of Hamlet
To achieve success in the development of this
thesis, it is important to present a summary of Hamlet.
The book, from which we will take the information for the
summary, combines
the Second Quarto
Folio. The tragedy of Hamlet is divided
and the First
into five Acts,
and each Act contains several scenes. So the summary
is presented in scenes, but first let’s check the list of the
characters.
Characters of the Tragedy
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
Son of the dead King Hamlet and nephew to the
present ruler of Denmark; he has returned to Elsinore
because of his father’s death.
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Claudius, King of Denmark
Hamlet’s uncle who succeeded his brother to the
throne and married his brother’s wife .
Gertrude
Queen of Denmark and mother of Hamlet.
Polonius
Elderly Lord Chamberlain and thus chief counsellor
to Claudius.
Horatio
Commoner who is a fellow student and loyal friend of
Hamlet.
Laertes
Polonius’ son, a student at the University of Paris,
who, like Hamlet, has returned to Elsinore because of
King Hamlet’s death.
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Ophelia
Obedient daughter of Polonius and sister of Laertes;
the young court lady who Gertrude hoped would be
Hamlet’s bride.
Rosencrantz
One-time schoolfellows and friends of
Hamlet.
Guildersten
Fortinbras
Prince of Norway, a valiant young man who, like
Hamlet, has lost his father.
Osric
Affected
courtier who plays a minor role as the
king’s messenger and as umpire of the fencing
match
between Hamlet and Laertes .
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Voltimand
Danish courtiers who are sent as
ambassadors to the Court
of
Norway.
Cornelius
Marcellus
Danish officers on guard duty at the castle
of Elsinore.
Barnardo
Francisco
Danish soldier on guard duty at the castle
of
Elsinore.
Reynaldo
Young
man whom Polonius instructs and sends to
Paris to observe and report on Laertes’ conduct.
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The Gravediggers
Two clowns who dig Ophelia’s grave,
whom is engaged
by Hamlet
the first of
in a grimly humorous
conversation.
Players who take the roles of prologue, Player King,
Player Queen, and Lucianus in The Murder of Gonzago.
Hamlet
***
Act 1 ***
Scene 1
On the guards’ platform at Elsinore, Francisco left
Barnardo to guard the castle. A
few
minutes
later,
Horatio and Marcellus arrived at that place to confirm
the
apparition
of the
Ghost
that had twice before
appeared in the form of the late King Hamlet.
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Bernardo welcomed Horatio and Marcellus to stay
and wait for the Ghost. While he
last apparition, the ghost entered
was telling about the
the platform in the
same figure as the King that was dead. Marcellus and
Barnardo asked Horatio to speak to it, but when he did
so, it disappeared without any answer. Horatio looked
pale and he didn’t know why the Ghost had appeared
to him and his friends. They thought that the ghost was
trying to protect Denmark from young Fortibras of
Norway. The late King had fought for lands against
old Fortibras years before . But as the late King slew
old Fortibras, he got those lands. It caused fury in
young Fortibras who, of course, wanted
to
attack
Denmark to recover the lands his father had lost .While
they were interpreting
appeared
the
Ghost’s apparition,
it
again. This time Horatio asked it about its
purpose, but the ghost spread its arms. When it tried to
speak, the cock crew and it disappeared. Horatio,
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Marcellus, and Barnardo said that the cock’s crowing kept
away the spirits, and so they decided to tell young Hamlet
about what they had seen that night.
Scene 2
In the hall of Elsinore entered Claudius, King of
Demark, Gertrude the Queen, the council as Polonius, his
son Laertes, Hamlet, and others such as Voltemand and
Cornelius.
King Claudius addressed the audience expressing
his sorrow for his dead brother, but at the same time
he told the audience he had married his former sisterin-law, Queen Gertrude. After that, he despatched his
bearers, Voltemand and Cornelius, to Norway to avoid
the attacks planned by young Fortinbras .Cornelius
and Voltemand had to give the message
to the King
of Norway so that he would stop his Nephew’s attacks .
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Next, Laertes asked the King to let him return to France
from which place he had come to pay honor to the new
King upon his coronation. To this the King answered that
if he had his father’s permission he could go without any
problem. Polonius gave him leave to go. In that moment,
Hamlet requested his uncle to allow him to return to
Wittenberg, but the King denied his petition saying that he
had to stay with his mother and to ascend the throne
later. Then
Queen
Gertrude intervened
Hamlet that he shouldn’t be sad about
and
told
his father’s
death because it was something natural. Also, she said
that he should stay with them in Elsinore; Hamlet
decided to obey his mother. Afterwards, King Claudius
celebrated his new position as King of Denmark with his
courtiers. Hamlet decided to leave, and went to his room.
There he was confused over his mother’s behavior
because she had married his uncle in less than two
months after his father’s death. He said that his mother
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had committed a sin by marrying her former brother-inlaw, an act which was seen as incest.
At that moment entered Horatio, Marcellus, and
Barnardo. Hamlet asked Horatio why he came from
Wittenberg to Elsinore. Horatio answered him that he
came to attend Hamlet’s father’s funeral and Hamlet’s
mother’s wedding. Later, Horatio told Hamlet about the
apparition of his father’s ghost upon the platform where
they had been stationed. Also, Horatio told Hamlet that
the
Ghost
had
appeared
two nights in a row
to
Marcellus and Barnardo, and he described to Hamlet
the ghost as it had appeared the last night. Hamlet was
surprised and he couldn’t believe what he heard. Then
Horatio invited him to go to the platform to see if it would
appear again that night. Finally,
Hamlet
made them
promise not to tell anyone about the apparition of the
Ghost and they agreed
to meet that night before
midnight.
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Scene 3
In a room at Polonius’ house, Laertes said farewell
to Ophelia, his sister. As he was the older brother, he
pronounced some words of advice for Ophelia. He said
that she shouldn’t believe the promises of love that
Hamlet made her. Also, he said that she should protect
her virtue and honor because Hamlet could take
advantage of her feelings. Ophelia good naturedly
accepted this advice, but urged her brother to practice
what he preached. At that time arrived Polonius, who
gave Laertes his blessing. Polonius said that Laertes
should be friendly with all people, but he should never
trust in
them because
they
could betray him. After
Laertes went his way, Polonius asked his daughter about
the conversation that she had had with her brother.
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When Ophelia replied that the conversation was
related to Hamlet, who had
made her vows
of love,
Polonius said that Hamlet’s intentions were not serious
and
honourable, and he warned Ophelia to conduct
herself so as not to make him, her father, appear a fool.
Finally, he said that he knew how young men importuned
young ladies, not for love, but for other purposes. Thus
she was ordered to avoid the Prince’s company and she
promised to obey her father.
Scene 4
About midnight Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus
arrived on the platform and waited for the Ghost.
Suddenly they heard the sounds of some trumpets which
came from King Claudius’ chamber, where the King was
celebrating a banquette. Thus Hamlet explained to his
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friends about
the corruption and bad behaviour of his
uncle. At that moment, Horatio exclaimed “look, my lord, it
comes.” Hamlet was surprised and replied “Angels and
ministers of grace defend us.” Then he asked the ghost to
speak, no matter if it came from heaven or hell, but the
Ghost beckoned him to follow it. Horatio urged Hamlet not
to follow the Ghost, warning him that it might lead him to
his death. Both Marcellus and Horatio forcibly tried to hold
the Prince back, but Hamlet held their hands off and
followed the Ghost. Horatio and Marcellus despaired of
this act and at last they decided to follow Hamlet.
Scene 5
When
Hamlet
and
the Ghost
were alone, the
Ghost told Hamlet that he was his father’s spirit, which
was
doomed
for a time to walk on earth during the
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nights and to endure purgatorial fires during daytime in
expiation for sins committed during life. Then the Ghost
asked Hamlet to get revenge for his murder. “Murder?”
replied
Hamlet
with a voice
of surprise,
and
immediately the Ghost told him that the man who was
sleeping in his orchard, the man who had invented a
false story of his death, and the man who now wore his
crown, had ended his life by pouring poison into the ear
of the sleeping Hamlet. Hamlet couldn’t believe that his
own uncle, Claudius, had sent his brother to his death
without sacraments and Extreme Unction, and had
robbed the King Hamlet at once “of life, of crown, and
Queen.” Also, the Ghost said that Hamlet shouldn’t
allow the royal bed of Denmark to be a couch for luxury
and Hamlet should terminate the damned incest between
his
uncle and his mother; finally, the
recommended
Hamlet
not
to take revenge
Ghost
on his
mother, but to leave her to be judged by Heaven, and
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saying
“adieu,
adieu,
adieu,
remember
me”
it
disappeared. After that, Hamlet began to curse his uncle
and swore to take revenge on him. Later, Horatio and
Marcellus arrived at the place where Hamlet was. There
Hamlet made them take his sword and swear not to
reveal what they had seen that night. While
they were
holding Hamlet’s sword, the voice of the Ghost under the
stage said three times, “swear.” Hearing this voice they
swore to keep the secret.
***
Act 2 ***
Scene 1
At Polonius’ home, Polonius ordered Reynaldo to go
to Paris to give Laertes money. Also Polonius ordered
Reynaldo to ask Laertes about his conduct in that foreign
country.
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At last, he recommended Reynaldo to seek out other
Danskers26, who were in Paris, to ask them about
Laertes’ behaviour. In this way Polonius could be sure
about the way of life of Laertes with his friends in France.
After Reynaldo had left Polonius’ room, Ophelia entered
in a state of fright to talk to her father. She told him that
while she was in her private room, Hamlet had entered
it
“…with his
doublet all unbraced, no hat upon
his
head, his stockings fouled, ungartered, and down-gyved
to his ankle, pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each
other, and with a look so piteous in purport as if he had
been loosed out of hell to speak of horrors…” After this
description of Hamlet’s condition, Ophelia also told her
father that Hamlet’s behaviour was strange because he
held her and looked at her in a brutal way. So Polonius
deduced that Hamlet was mad for Ophelia’s love, and he
decided to inform the King about this madness.
26
Dankers means Danes
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Scene 2
At Elsinore Castle, King Claudius and Queen
Gertrude welcomed Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who
were ordered by the King to find out the reasons of
Hamlet’s strange behaviour. After that, Polonius entered;
he was called “… the father of good news…” by the
King because he told the authorities that he knew
the causes of Hamlet’s lunacy, but before telling them,
he announced that the ambassadors, Voltemand and
Cornelius, had arrived at the Castle with news.
Voltemand informed the King that the Old King of
Norway had restrained his nephew, young Fortinbras,
from attacking Denmark. Instead, they were going to
invade The Polacks. This news pleased the King; he
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thanked these ambassadors for their work and they
exited.
When the King, Queen, and Polonius were alone,
Polonius explained to them that Hamlet was madly in
love. Hamlet had given Ophelia a letter of love, but out of
respect and obedience for her father, she had given it to
him. This letter was the proof that Polonius had about
Hamlet’s strange behaviour. The letter said,
“To the celestial, and my soul’s idol, the most
Beautified Ophelia –
In her excellent white bosom, these words
Doubt thou the stars are fire,
Doubt that the sun doth move,
Doubt truth to be liar,
But never doubt I love.
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O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers; I have not
Art to reckon my groans, but that I love thee
Best, O most best, believe it .Adieu.
Thine evermore most dear lady, whilst
This machine is to him, HAMLET”
The King and Queen were not convinced of this
at all , but Polonius vowed to them to prove it by hiding
behind the hangings while the Queen talked to Hamlet.
Hamlet arrived in the room reading a book and Polonius
asked Hamlet what he was reading. “Words, words,
words”, Hamlet answered him. Polonius asked him many
questions and
through
them
Hamlet
convinced
Polonius that he was indeed the victim of unrequited
love for his daughter . Hamlet’s responses were a
scathing ridicule of Polonius and he left Hamlet alone.
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When
Hamlet
was
alone
Rosencrantz
and
Guildenstern entered. Hamlet greeted them cordially as
his “excellent good friends”. They had a conversation
about how Denmark had changed under the new King.
By and by, Hamlet realized that these two had been sent
by the King and Queen to observe his behaviour carefully.
So Hamlet told them that he had lost his happiness and
foregone most normal activities. The firmament, which he
believed to be wonderful, now appeared to him to be
foul; and man the so-called paragon of the animals, no
longer
delighted
him
Rosencrantz told Hamlet
-
nor
did woman either.
that if he didn’t delight in
man, he wouldn’t be able to enjoy the players to whom
he had
passed on the way. But Hamlet immediately
showed his interest because these players acted out
tragedies of the city, which reflected London theatrical or
political happenings. But Hamlet had a doubt about these
players and asked his friends why they were travelling
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around the world. Rosencrantz explained to him that an
acting company of children had engaged upon the
“common plays” and that theatrical performances by the
adult companies had been suspended. This was the
reason why these players had been travelling.
Afterwards, Hamlet
Elsinore and
told his
welcomed
the
players to
friends, Rosencrantz
and
Guildenstern, that his “ uncle-father and aunt-mother”
would be deceived about his madness. Later, Polonius
entered to talk to Hamlet about the players, but as Hamlet
knew about them, he gave Polonius a good response
suggesting that Polonius’ news was old news. Polonius
said that those actors sometimes performed plays of
Seneca and Plautus pretty well, but sometimes not. To
this Hamlet compared Polonius to Jephthah, who
according to the Bible, killed his daughter by a promise.
This comparison offended Polonius because it involved
his daughter.
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Next, Hamlet requested the first player to recite a
play based on Aeneas’ tale to Dido, Queen of Cartage, as
told in Virgil’s Aeneid, which Hamlet described as
excellent. The speech, which was in epic style, told of the
slaying of King Priam by Pyhrrus, son of Achilles. After
that, Polonius was ordered to house the players in the
best way that he could. As Polonius and the players
exited, and Hamlet spoke to the first player in private,
Hamlet asked him if they could perform the next day
The Murder of Gonzago, but with an extra speech of
some dozen or sixteen lines, which would be given
by the Prince. The first player accepted the petition and
Hamlet was left alone.
Now that he was alone, he expressed the plan that
he was going to carry out against Claudius. Sometimes,
he qualified Claudius as a “… bawdy villain, remorseless,
treacherous, lecherous, kindless, villain …” He then said
that the players were going to act out something like the
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murder of his father in presence of his uncle. In this way,
he would be able to observe his uncle’s reaction when he
saw the play. During the performance, he would keep
his eyes fast on Claudius, who, if guilty, would surely
flinch and thus inadvertently prove that the Ghost had
spoken true words. On the other hand, if Claudius didn’t
flinch, Hamlet would think that the Ghost was sent by
the Devil, who had taken advantage of his weakness
and melancholy. Thus the play’s goal was to move the
conscience of the King.
***
Act 3 ***
Scene 1
King Claudius asked Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
if they had been successful in getting information about
Hamlet’s lunacy. These gentlemen informed the King
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that Hamlet felt himself perturbed and distracted, but
about the causes he was not able to speak.
Also, they told him that Hamlet was interested in the
players who had arrived at the castle. Polonius added that
the Prince wanted the King and the Queen to witness the
performance of those players. “With all my heart, and it
doth much content me to hear him so inclined,” the King
replied when he heard that Hamlet was interested in
the players, and he instructed
Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern to motivate Hamlet’s new interest. So they
exited. After that, the king requested Gertrude to leave
him, Polonius, and Ophelia alone in order to put into
effect Polonius’ plan that, by accident, Ophelia would
meet Hamlet face to face, while her father and the
King himself
would
behaved towards
spy secretly on how
Hamlet
Ophelia. This way they could make
sure whether or not Hamlet’s affection was real. When
Hamlet entered the room, Ophelia would appear to be
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reading a prayer book, which would give the pretext for
her being alone.
Suddenly, Polonius heard Hamlet coming and he,
with the King, withdrew. Hamlet entered and soliloquized.
He argued with himself over the question of “to be or not
to be”. In this soliloquy, Hamlet said that if he lived, he
would have to face all the problems that he had; if he died
,on the
contrary, he would be released from such
problems, but at the same time, he realized that if he
ended his life, he would be a coward, trying to escape
from his problems.
This soliloquy was interrupted by Ophelia and as
he saw her reading a prayer-book, he urged her to
pray for him. When Ophelia said that she had certain
gifts which she had received from him and now wished
to return, he declared that he had given her nothing.
Next, he told her that he never loved her and asked
her to go to a nunnery, if she was to keep her honesty.
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Ophelia was surprised at that answer and told him that
he had made her believe that he was in love with her,
and that he had promised to marry her. But Hamlet told
her one more time that she should be in a nunnery
even if she was as “chaste as ice, as pure as snow
…” Then he exited and left her alone.
Soon the King and Polonius met Ophelia, and
Claudius now was convinced that love was not the cause
of Hamlet’s madness. He said, “There is something in his
soul over which his melancholy sits on bread”. In this
way, the King thought that Hamlet was a threat
to his
reign. The King then told Polonius that he had decided to
send Hamlet to England. Polonius was still convinced that
the Prince suffered from love madness and offered the
King a new plan to discover Hamlet’s secret. The Queen
would talk with her son severely on the subject of his
melancholy
while
Polonius
would
listen
to
this
conversation behind hangings; then if Hamlet’s secret
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was not exposed, Claudius would send Hamlet to
England. The king agreed to do that at the end of the play
that they would watch that night.
Scene 2
Hamlet gave some orders to the players so that The
Murder of Gonzago would be as natural as possible. After
giving these instructions the players went out to get ready
for the performance. Suddenly, Polonius, Guildenstern,
and Rosencrantz arrived to tell Hamlet that the King
and Queen were ready to watch the play, and they
exited . Then
Horatio entered
to hear Hamlet say, “
There is a play tonight before the King; one scene of
it comes near the circumstances which I have told thee
of my father’s death.” So he invited Horatio to watch
carefully the King’s reaction while the play was being
presented. Horatio promised him to do that.
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Later, the King, the Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, the
courtiers and attendants entered to watch the play.
“Come hither my dear Hamlet, sit by me” exclaimed the
Queen. “No, good mother,” Hamlet answered her and he
took a place near Ophelia. Immediately the trumpet
sounded and a Dumb show followed. In it entered a King
and Queen very lovingly. He took her up and reclined
upon a bank of flowers. She saw him asleep, and left him.
Another man took off his crown, kissed it, and poured a
poison into the sleeper’s ears; then left him. The Queen
returned, found the King dead and made a scene of grief.
Later, the poisoner came again and pronounced his
laments for her .The dead body was carried away. The
poisoner wooed the Queen with gifts. At first, she denied
him, but in the end she accepted his love. The players
exited. Ophelia asked Hamlet what it meant and Hamlet
answered her that the actor who had entered into the
scene would tell the significance of the action. When the
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four lines of the prologue were recited, Ophelia remarked
that it was brief. “As woman’s love,” Hamlet replied. The
performance of the play then commenced.
The player King told the Queen that he had always
loved her and the Queen promised him that if he died
soon, she would never marry a second husband. “If once
a widow, ever I be wife,” she replied and let him sleep. At
that moment King Claudius asked Hamlet, “ what do
you call that play?,” and Hamlet answered him, “The
Mousetrap.” Also, he added that this play was the
image of a murder carried out in Vienna. Gonzago was
the Duke’s name, Baptista was his wife, and Lucianus
was the nephew of the Duke. Then the Play within the
play continued. Lucianus entered the scene and seeing
that nobody was watching him, he poured the poison
in
the
Duke’s ear. At that moment, Claudius was
surprised and asked for some light and left the hall. All the
people who were watching the play left except Hamlet
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and Horatio. Horatio and Hamlet agreed that the King had
reacted like a guilty man.
Suddenly, Rosencrantz
and
informed
Hamlet
and Guildenstern
that the
King
was
arrived
greatly
disturbed and that the Queen wished to speak with
him privately. Also, they wanted to know why he had
behaved in that way with his mother. At that moment, he
realized that
they were not good friends as he
had
believed, because they wanted to pluck out the heart
of his
mystery.
Polonius
entered with the
same
message for Hamlet that his mother wished to see him,
but Hamlet made fun of him, and Hamlet was left
alone. Now Hamlet’s words spoken in soliloquy revealed
a blood thirsty mood. But he advised himself not to hurt
his mother physically and he went to his mother’s room.
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Scene 3
King Claudius met Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
and the King told them that he didn’t like the play.
Also, he said that his position as a King might not endure
because of Hamlet’s behavior. So he ordered them to
prepare for a speedy voyage to England where
was
going
to
send
Hamlet.
Rosencrantz
he
and
Guildenstern promised the King to hurry up and left him
alone. Later, Polonius entered to talk to
the King.
Polonius expressed to him that Hamlet was on his way
to his mother’s chamber, and he added that he was going
to hide behind the tapestries in order to listen to that
conversation. As soon as possible, he would tell the King
about what he had heard. “Thanks, dear, my lord,” the
King replied to Polonius, who went on his way to the
Queen’s chamber .
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Once King Claudius was alone, he repented of his
crime and compared himself to Cain. Also, he manifested
that he committed a sin to get what he didn’t have. At that
moment, Hamlet saw the King praying and drew his
sword to kill Claudius,
but
at
the
same
time
he
realized that if he killed him at that moment, Claudius
would go to Heaven and the revenge of his father’s
murder would fail. So he decided to kill him another
time when the King was committing a sin so that
Claudius would go to hell. Then he sheathed his sword
and kept going on his way. Finally, the King rose, aware
that his words could “fly up,” but that his “thoughts would
remain below.”
Scene 4
Polonius arrived in Gertrude’s chamber before
Hamlet. He told the Queen that she should scold her son
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for what he had done. When he heard that Hamlet was
coming in, he hid behind the tapestries to spy on Hamlet.
Hamlet entered the room and his mother asked him why
he had offended his father with that play. To this, Hamlet
answered that she had offended his father more because
she was “her husband’s brother’s wife.”
Then
he
ordered her to sit down and to be sure to listen to
what he said. “What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murder
me? Help, ho!” the Queen replied. Behind the tapestry
Polonius shouted “what ho; help!”
At
this
moment
Hamlet took out his rapier and thrusting through the
tapestry, he killed Polonius. Later, he pulled the dead
body out and realized that the man who was behind
the hangings was Polonius and not the King, as he
had supposed. Then he described Polonius as a foolish
man.
Afterwards Hamlet attacked his mother verbally for
marrying Claudius. Later, he compared two portraits, one
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of king Hamlet, whom he lauded, and the other of
Claudius, whom he described as a villain. Also, he
said that his father was laid as dead as a cereal plant,
while his uncle enjoyed his reign in all good health.
Hearing these things that her son said to her, she
implored him to speak no more.
Suddenly, the Ghost
entered and reminded Hamlet that the real purpose of
his apparition was to have Hamlet avenge his father’s
death. Only Hamlet could see the Ghost for which reason
Gertrude thought that her son had lost his mind. Hamlet
required his mother to believe the presence of King
Hamlet’s spirit, but she couldn’t see anything. Then the
ghost disappeared. After that, Hamlet asked his mother to
abandon Claudius’ bed and to pray if she wanted to be
forgiven by the heavens. Hamlet then
about
Claudius’
plans
to send
told his mother
him
to
England
accompanied by his two schoolfellows, Guildenstern and
Rosencrantz, who he completely distrusted. Convinced
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that they would function as agents for his destruction,
he told his mother that he would react violently against
this plot. Finally, he took out his rapier from Polonius’
body and carried it away saying good night to his
mother.
***
Act 4 ***
Scene 1
Immediately, Claudius asked Gertrude what had
happened in her room. The Queen replied that Hamlet,
“Mad as a sea…,” had killed old Polonius while he was
hearing their conversation behind the hangings.
Then the King decided that it was a better idea to
ship Hamlet away instead of executing him in Denmark.
He called Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to seek Hamlet
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out, to talk with him as if nothing had occurred, and to
bring Polonius’ body to the chapel. They promised to do
that and left. Finally, Claudius told Gertrude that they
would call their wisest friends to inform them that they
hadn’t had anything to do with Polonius’ death.
Scene 2
When Rosencrantz and Guildenstern found Hamlet,
they asked him where he had placed the body of
Polonius. Hamlet made fun of them and replied that
“the body is with the King, but the King is not with the
body, the King is a thing…” As Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern didn’t understand what he tried to say,
Hamlet asked them to take him with the King.
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Scene 3
King Claudius told some courtiers that he had sent to
seek Hamlet and to find the body of Polonius. Also, he
told them that he had decided to send Hamlet away.
Immediately, Rosencrantz entered and told the King that
they couldn’t discover where Polonius’ body was placed.
The King obligated him to bring Hamlet. At that moment,
Hamlet entered and was asked by Claudius where
Polonius’ body was. “At supper/ Not where he eats, but
where he is eaten,” Hamlet answered him. After giving
Claudius some hints of torture, Hamlet said that the body
of Polonius was near the lobby. Claudius then ordered
some attendants to seek him there. Afterwards Claudius
told Hamlet that he was going to be sent to England for
his own safety. Thus he ordered Hamlet to prepare
himself as soon as possible because the ship was ready
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to go. Then Hamlet said good bye to the King and went
on his way.
After
Hamlet
went
out,
Claudius
ordered
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to follow Hamlet till he was
aboard ship. When Claudius was alone, he told himself
that he would send some letters to the King of England,
who would put Hamlet to death as soon as he arrived in
England.
Scene 4
Fortinbras, nephew of old King of Norway, ordered
his captain to go to greet the Danish King and to get
licence to march across a plain in Denmark. Hamlet,
escorted by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, met the
captain on the way. The
Captain told Hamlet that his
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soldiers were going to fight against the Polack by “a little
patch of ground that hath in it no profit …” He also told
Hamlet that they were going
to do that only for
honor of his King. Then the captain kept going his way
and Hamlet asked Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to leave
him alone.
Hamlet soliloquized that
the young prince of
Norway was strong to face his problems while he was a
coward who hadn’t done anything to revenge his father’s
murder. All he wanted was to get revenge on the man
who had caused all his misfortune.
Scene 5
“I
will
not
speak with
her,” replied
Queen
Gertrude when a
gentleman
informed her
about
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Ophelia’s madness. The Gentleman told Gertrude that
Ophelia spoke constantly about the way her father died.
When the gentleman exited, Ophelia entered distracted,
asking for “the beauteous Majesty of Denmark.” Then she
began to sing some verses of ballads, some of them
relating to the death of the elderly father, and others
relating to the seduction of an innocent maiden. At this
moment, Claudius entered onto the scene and addressed
some words which the maiden answered singing new
verses about “Saint Valentine’s day.” Then Ophelia said
“Good night” to the ladies and went out. Immediately, the
King ordered Horatio to follow her closely.
While King Claudius was talking with Gertrude about
the problems which had affected Elsinore lately, the death
of Ophelia’s father, Hamlet’s banishment, Ophelia’s
madness, and the return of Laertes from France secretly,
there entered a messenger who told the King that Laertes
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was
in
Elsinore.
Laertes
had
been
informed
by
Gossipers27 that King Claudius was the one responsible
for his father’s death. So he came to Denmark to defend
his family’s honor. The king explained to Laertes that he
didn’t have anything to do with the death of his father, but
he hinted about the guilty man. Suddenly, Ophelia
entered, singing a verse in which she related the sad
death of a man with a “beard as white as snow.”
In
fantasy, she distributed some flowers to the people who
were watching and listening to her. Laertes felt sad
seeing his sister’s behaviour. When Ophelia left, Claudius
promised Laertes to punish the guilty person in the matter
of Polonius’ death, and he prayed Laertes to go with him.
27
Gossiper: A person who habitually indulges in gossip. (AHD)
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Scene 6
A gentleman announced to Horatio that some
“seafaring men” wanted to give him some letters.
Immediately, Horatio realized that those letters belonged
to Hamlet. Then he received the sailors, greeted them
and they handed Horatio a letter. This letter said that
when they were travelling, sailing to England, their ship
was attacked by a Pirate ship. So Hamlet had had the
opportunity
to board
this
ship, but
he became
a
prisoner there because the sailors were thieves. But
they told him that if they brought him back to Denmark,
he, in return, must do a good turn to them.
With this letter Hamlet also ordered Horatio to give
some letters to the King on his return. About Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern Hamlet said that they should hold their
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course to England. Finally, he told Horatio that he had to
meet as soon as possible with the sailors who were going
to direct him.
Scene 7
King Claudius and Laertes had a conversation
whereby Laertes asked Claudius why he had not gotten
revenge for Hamlet, for the murder of his father; “…for
two especial reasons…” the King replied. First, Claudius
said that Hamlet was Gertrude’s son, who lived almost by
his looks. Second, Claudius told Laertes the public felt
affection for Hamlet who would go against the King if he
had done something to him. To this Laertes answered the
King that he had lost his father and that his sister was
driven into madness, which he considered something
unjust. Suddenly, a messenger came in and gave the
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letters, which said “these to your majesty, these to the
Queen.” Then the King took the letters and realized that
they came from Hamlet, who was on the way to Denmark.
King Claudius and Laertes were surprised at this letter
and so they decided to plan another plot against Hamlet’s
life. King Claudius wisely told Laertes that Hamlet felt
envy when he listened to the reports of Laertes’ skill.
Then Laertes said that he could avenge his father’s death
in a fencing match between Hamlet and him. In this
fencing match, Laertes would use a rapier poisoned at the
point to kill Hamlet. But if it failed, Claudius would prepare
a cup of poisoned wine for Hamlet which would be drunk
by him in the middle of the duel.
Suddenly, Queen Gertrude entered and told them
that Laertes’ sister, Ophelia, had died drowned. Gertrude
said that Ophelia had climbed up a tree of willow to
weave some garlands of flowers, but that the branch on
which she sat broke down and she fell down to the
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weeping brook where she was found drowned. Laertes
felt very sad at this news and he left. Lastly, the King told
the Queen that they had to calm Laertes’ rage.
***
Act 5 ***
Scene 1
At the cemetery of Elsinore, two gravediggers
were digging a hole to bury Ophelia. These gravediggers
questioned whether Ophelia merited or not a Christian
burial. One of them said that she should have certain
privileges only because she was gentlewoman.
The gravedigger told the other one that the house he
had made would last till doomsday and asked him to bring
some liquor.
When the gravedigger began to dig and
sing, Hamlet and Horatio came close to him. Immediately,
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Hamlet asked the Gravedigger who was going to be
buried in that hole. “One that was a woman, but rest her
soul, she is dead” he answered. When Hamlet asked
the gravedigger, how long he had been a grave
maker, the gravedigger answered him that he had
been
a
overcame
gravedigger since
the
last
king
Hamlet
Fortinbras. It was when young Hamlet was
born (thirty years ago). The gravedigger told Hamlet that
the prince who had been considered mad, and for that he
had been sent to England. Also, he said that in England
the men were as mad as him.
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While they
were
talking, the
gravedigger dug up a skull which
he
identified
King’s jester.
Picture taken
from one of the
scenes of
Hamlet starred
in by Mel
Gibson
as
Yorick’s,
Hamlet,
the
taking this
skull, told Horatio that it had been
his favorite jester when he was a
child. This skull brought to Hamlet’s
mind ideas about death and Hamlet
realized that all men return to dust.
Alexander and Caesar were taken
as examples.
The funeral procession, headed by King Claudius,
Queen Gertrude, Laertes, attendants, and the corpse of
Ophelia with the Doctor of Divinity28, approached them
and they stepped aside. Laertes asked the Doctor why his
dead sister hadn’t received all the honors that she was
due. The Doctor explained to him that Ophelia hadn’t
28
Doctor of Divinity means Priest
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received
such
honors because
of
the
doubtful
circumstances of her death. Aside, Hamlet realized that
the fair Ophelia was dead. When the corpse of Ophelia
was lowered into the grave, the Queen scattered some
flowers saying, “sweets to the sweet, farewell!.” In the
meantime, Laertes cried out in grief and then leaped into
the grave saying that he wished to be buried with her.
Suddenly, Hamlet approaching the grave, asked Laertes
why he emphasized his grief. “The devil take thy soul,”
Laertes told Hamlet, coming out of the grave. Laertes
seized Hamlet by the throat, and the two grappled
until they were separated by attendants. Then Hamlet
said that he loved Ophelia more than Laertes and told
Laertes that he would have done impossible things for his
sister. The king told Laertes that Hamlet was mad and the
Queen agreed. When Hamlet left, the King asked Horatio
to accompany him. So the King had the opportunity to tell
Laertes that he had not long to wait for revenge.
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Scene 2
At Elsinore Castle, Hamlet told Horatio about the
King’s plot against his life. Hamlet explained to Horatio
that during the trip to England he had found a letter in
which King
Claudius had commanded
the
King
of
England to kill him as soon as he got to England. But
as he had discovered it, he immediately wrote new
instructions in the official style, requesting that Claudius’s
servants, who had brought the communication to the king
of England, be put to death. So he replaced the letters.
On the next day, the sea fight with the pirates took place
and, as Horatio knew by his letters, only Hamlet was
taken captive; the others proceeded on the voyage to
England. Also, Hamlet told Horatio that Claudius had
killed his father, and married his mother, and had kept
him from succeeding to the throne. Horatio told Hamlet
that soon the King would realize that Guildenstern and
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Rosencrantz
had
been
killed
in
England.
This
conversation was interrupted by Osric, a courtier who
arrived to communicate to Hamlet that he would be
challenged in a duel with Laertes. The match would
take place before the King and Queen with their
attendants.
Also,
Osric
told Hamlet that the
King
thought that Hamlet would be the winner in the duel;
Hamlet declared that he would win if he could. Osric
departed, leaving Hamlet and Horatio to remark on how
ridiculous he was. Immediately, a lord asked Hamlet to
be ready for the match because the King and the
Queen were now coming to witness the contest.
When Horatio told Hamlet that he would lose the
match, Hamlet answered that he had been practicing
from the time Laertes left
to France; Horatio asked
Hamlet to postpone the match, but Hamlet wanted to
have the duel for honor as it had been planned.
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A table was prepared for the match. When the
trumpets and drums sounded, the King and Queen and
other courtiers entered. Some attendants entered with the
foils and gauntlets. By Claudius’ chair, there was a table
on which were flagons of wine. Before taking his seat, the
King put Laertes’ hand on Hamlets’ hand. Then Hamlet
asked Laertes’ pardon for having wronged him, stating
that he had not intended any real harm.
But Laertes
didn’t accept that apology until he could prove his honor.
So the foils were brought and the match began. When
they were duelling, the King replied, “stay give me drink.
Hamlet this pearl is thine here’s to thy health.” The king
drank some wine and he dropped the pearl in the cup.
Thus he offered the cup to Hamlet, but Hamlet said
he would duel first and asked to set it by awhile .
Gertrude was nervous when Laertes almost hurt
Hamlet.
She offered her handkerchief to Hamlet and
lifted the cup of wine. When the King
saw the cup in
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Gertrude’s hands, he replied “Gertrude, don’t drink.”
Gertrude, asking the King for pardon, drank the cup of
wine and wiped Hamlet’s face. Meanwhile, Claudius,
aside, told Laertes to kill Hamlet as soon as possible.
The duel began again and Laertes wounded Hamlet, and
Hamlet furiously taking Laertes’ rapier wounded Laertes.
All the people were surprised at this scene. Suddenly, the
Queen fell. As Laertes was wounded he also fell and
Osric went to take care of him. Immediately, Hamlet
asked what had happened to his mother. To this, the
King answered “she swoons to see them bleed”, but
the Queen was able to urge “ no, no, the drink, the
drink; o my
dear Hamlet! The drink, the drink, I am
poisoned” and she died. At this moment Hamlet asked his
friends to lock the doors. Laertes, fading, told Hamlet that
he had been a victim of his own trap. Laertes had
wounded Hamlet with a poisoned rapier and Hamlet had
used that rapier to wound Laertes. Then he confessed
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that Hamlet’s mother had drunken the poisoned wine
which was for Hamlet. Finally, he told Hamlet that the
plan had been prepared by the King. Then Hamlet taking
the same envenomed rapier, wounded the king while
saying, “here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned
Dane, drink off this potion”. Then Hamlet forced the King
to drink the poison and the King died.
Laertes asked Hamlet to forgive him, saying “mine
and my father’s death come not upon thee nor thine
on me,” and he died. Hamlet now turned to his dead
mother and said to her farewell, and he also asked
Horatio to tell his story to the rest of the world. Suddenly,
Osric entered and announced that young Fontibras was
returning from Poland. So Hamlet told Horatio that
Fontibras would be the new King of Denmark and he
died. “Good Night , sweet prince, and flights of angels
sing thee to thy rest,” replied Horatio when he looked
at that terrible scene. Right away Fontibras with the
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English ambassadors entered. Fontibras and the English
ambassadors were shocked at the spectacle of death.
The ambassadors realized that they were too late to
inform the King that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern had
been executed as the letter had instructed. Then Horatio
told the whole story, including all the problems which had
caused accidental deaths.
Finally, Fontibras asked to take up the dead bodies
and he named four captains to see that Hamlet was
buried with full honors. All exited marching.29
2.6 Relevant themes of the Tragedy
When referring to relevant themes of the tragedy,
we mean to the main problems that the characters
face during the play. It is necessary to focus upon them
29
Summary made from the book: Hamlet by William Shakespeare , by Mowat Barbara A. and Paul Werstine
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to have a clear vision of the events which lead to a tragic
end.
2.6.1 Revenge
One of the main themes developed in the tragedy is
revenge. At the beginning of the story the Ghost tells
Hamlet that
he
was
killed by
the new King
of
Denmark. Thus he asks Hamlet to get revenge for his
death. When Hamlet confirms what the Ghost has told
him, he wants revenge, not as soon as he can, but in
a way that the offender suffer for what he has done.
On the contrary, when Claudius knows that he has been
discovered by Hamlet, he tries to get revenge on Hamlet
by sending him to be killed in England. But even though
this plan fails, Claudius’ revenge doesn’t die there. He
prepares here a duel between Hamlet and Laertes. In
this duel Laertes has to kill Hamlet and so Claudius can
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get revenge on Hamlet and keep his power on the throne.
During the development of the story the plans prepared
by Claudius are not carried out successfully. Only when
Hamlet kills his uncle does he get revenge, though he lost
his own life in getting it. If
developed
the theme
of
Shakespeare had not
revenge, the
tragedy
of
Hamlet would not have had the success it had in the
past and present.
2.6.2 Madness in Hamlet
Madness,
mental
incapacity
caused
by
an
unmentionable injury, is another fundamental theme of
the tragedy of Hamlet.
It is developed in three main
characters of the play, Hamlet, Laertes, and Ophelia.
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Since the death of King Hamlet, young Hamlet
appeared to be involved in a state of madness. In a
discussion between Hamlet and Polonius, Hamlet asked
Polonius “Have you a daughter?” (Act 2. Sc. 2, Line 199).
In this conversation, Hamlet shows strange behavior
towards Polonius by mocking him instead of showing him
respect for his age and for his high position in the court.
This makes Polonius believe that Hamlet has a form of
love-madness. Actually Hamlet’s pretended madness
has the goal to discover the killer of Hamlet’s father, but
in that conversation Polonius deduces that Hamlet is
mad from love and not from any other cause. Later, The
Queen and King realized that Hamlet was not affected by
love-madness, but they thought that Hamlet’s madness
was caused by his father’s death. In this way, Hamlet’s
madness leads to a tragic end.
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Unlike Hamlet, Laertes develops a different kind of
madness, a madness that is instigated by anger. When
Laertes is talking to Claudius, Laertes gets angry to the
point that he wants “to cut Hamlet’s throat” (Act 4. Sc.7,
Line 144). Laertes’ behavior is caused by the sudden
death of his father which caused his sister to go
crazy. These two tragic events built inside Laertes a state
of madness. This madness grows even stronger when
Claudius offers Laertes a way to get revenge on Hamlet.
Thus, Claudius turns Laertes into a savage beast to
avenge his father’s death.
Ophelia, on the other hand, has a unique form of
madness unlike Hamlet’s and Laertes’ because it is a
mixture of love and hate. An example of hate is when
she talks about a “ baker’s daughter” ( Act 4, Sc. 5, Line
47). In this line, Ophelia is referring to the way her
father used to treat her before the tragic incident of his
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death. Love within her madness is shown when she
speaks about the events on “Valentine’s day” (Act 4, Sc.
5, Line 53).
When Ophelia speaks about Valentine’s Day, she
is referring to the promise of matrimony that she was
denied by Hamlet. Ophelia’s madness is brought on by
her not being able to face her problems with a mature
attitude. Her father’s death and the destruction of her
relationship with Hamlet inflict on her so much pain that it
turns her mad and ends her life at last. Hamlet only
invented a
fraudulent madness
to discover
the
murderer of his father, but he has the capacity to control
his
conscious mind by acting. Laertes is very much
influenced by others and has no real control over the
mental state he has been developing from the sway of
Claudius. Ophelia is the most innocent victim of all
because she is the victim of everyone else’s actions and
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has no idea that she is mentally disintegrating. It is
interesting to note that each of these three people
behaves in public in an unpredictable way due to their
mental states.
2.6.3 Appearance versus Reality in Hamlet
As we have been saying, Hamlet is a story of a
young Prince whose father has recently died. Hamlet’s
uncle, Claudius, marries his mother, the Queen, Gertrude,
and takes the throne of Denmark. As the play is told,
Hamlet finds out that his father was murdered by the
recently crowned King. The theme that remains constant
throughout the play is appearance versus reality,
where things within the play seem to be true and honest,
but in reality they are infested with evil. Most of the
characters within the play hide behind masks of
falseness.
They
are
Polonius,
Rosencrantz,
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Guildenstern, and the King, Claudius. They give the
impression of persons who are sincere and genuine, but
in reality they are filled with lies and evil lust.
It is necessary to analyze each one of them.
Polonius, the King’s royal assistant, has a preoccupation
with appearance. He always wants to keep up the
appearance of a loving and caring father. He appears to
be a man who loves and cares about his son Laertes. He
speaks to his son with advice that sounds sincere, but in
reality it is rehearsed, hollow, and without feeling. In truth
he only speaks to appear sincere as a politician, to
look
good
rather
then
actually to be good. Then
Polonius gives his son, Laertes, his blessing (Act I, Sc. 3,
Lines 60-80) before his trip. He also sends a spy to follow
him and keep an eye on him. This shows his lack of trust
of anyone; he gives the appearance of a confident
father, who trusts his son to go off on his own. But
the blessing and advice that he gives his son is
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rehearsed and is only said to give the appearance of a
loving father .
Polonius further adds to the theme of appearance
versus reality
by
ordering
Ophelia
to
stop seeing
Hamlet. He lies to her by saying that Hamlet doesn’t love
her and he only lusts for her. Throughout the play
Polonius hides behind his mask appearing to be a good
father. In reality Polonius lies constantly and manipulates
people. He also eavesdrops on people’s conversations. In
the ways described above we can see how Polonius
really is as opposed to how he tries to appear.
Other
appearance
characters
that
versus
reality
develop
are
the
theme
Rosencrantz
of
and
Guildenstern. They are two of Hamlet’s childhood friends
who are asked by the King to try to find out what is
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troubling the young prince. Both help to contribute to the
theme by showing the appearance of being Hamlet’s
friends. The pair goes to Hamlet pretending to be his
friends when in truth they are only there because the King
has asked them to find out the truth.
Hamlet knows that the purpose of their visit is to dig
into his soul to find the real reason for his actions. As the
play goes on the twins are asked by the King to go to
Hamlet and to try again to find the real reason for
Hamlet’s behaviour. Hamlet insults them at every chance
knowing that they are lying to him about the purpose of
their visit. In the same way, they appear to be good
friends when Hamlet is sent with them to England.
However, Hamlet realizes their true intentions and takes
revenge on them by sending them alone to England to be
executed.
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The last character that appears to be an honest and
honourable man is Claudius, the King of Denmark. At the
beginning of the story, Claudius, in the presence of the
council, shows his true skill and ease of manner at
speaking.
Claudius speaks well of the old King by
showing general love for him to all his subjects. Claudius
shows respect for the old sovereign by speaking kind
words of him, but in reality he cares little for the old
King; he speaks kindly only to give the appearance of
a loving brother. Here are some lines that illustrate
Claudius hypocrisy:
“Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother’s death
The memory be green, and that it us befitted
To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole Kingdom
To be contracted in one brow of woe…”
(Act I, Sc2 lines 1-4)
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As Claudius sends Voltimand and Cornelius off to
give the King of Norway the message for Fortibras, he
thanks them and gives them complete trust in the
deliverance of the letter. He acts in that way to appear
honourable before the court, especially to Polonius.
Claudius further makes it difficult to uncover the truth
by announcing that Hamlet is next in the line for the
throne of Denmark. This seems to show that Claudius
would let Hamlet become the next King when he is gone.
This reveals a love and care for Hamlet to the council and
Gertrude makes Claudius appear to be a kind, loving
person; “ you are the most immediate to our throne; And
with no less nobility of love”(Act 1. Sc. 2, Lines 113 114).
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However, Claudius’ final conduct that shows his
deceitfulness is his apparent desire that Hamlet remain in
Denmark. Then Claudius is insulted by Hamlet. He asks
Hamlet to stay only because his Queen, Gertrude, wants
Hamlet to stay. Claudius appears to be concerned with
Hamlet’s well being, Gertrude and the council see this,
thinking that Claudius deserves to be King.
Also, as Claudius speaks in the council, he gives
the appearance of someone who deserves to be the
ruler King. Claudius is voted in as King, meaning that his
position is approved by everyone. Claudius shows
respect to his subjects by giving the council the
impression that he respects them. Also, the King shows
general concern for Hamlet, his nephew. This makes it
very difficult to prove the truth about Claudius in the
future because he has not only the love and respect of
the council
that
voted
him
in, but
he has also
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prevented an attack on Denmark from Fortinbras proving
that he is a good King that can protect the state from
harm. Claudius makes it very difficult in the future for
Hamlet to uncover the truth about the true nature of his
character.
The characters within the play all help to show the
theme
of
appearance
versus
reality.
Polonius,
Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and the King all appear to be
good and honest. But, as Hamlet finds out, all are full of
lies and have hidden intentions within their souls. As each
character is presented in the play, all appear to be sincere
making it a difficult task for Hamlet to uncover the hidden
truth about the nature of each one.
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C h a p t e r III
Manifestations of the Social Concepts in Hamlet
3.1. Analysis of the Social Concepts in Hamlet
Once we have explored the Social Concepts that
took place during the life of William Shakespeare, and
summarized and analyzed in detail one of his tragedies,
Hamlet, we are ready to develop the main chapter of our
thesis. To develop this chapter, we will compare and
contrast the Social Concepts of William Shakespeare’s
life with those in Hamlet. In this way, we will see how the
tragedy was influenced by the concepts that took place in
William Shakespeare’s life.
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3.1.1 Political System around Elsinore
The tragedy of Hamlet took place, most of the time in
the Castle of Elsinore, Denmark. The castle of Elsinore, in
the tragedy, is described as a problematic place, having
the characteristics of England, the place where William
Shakespeare was born.
In first instance, Elsinore had a King, who was the
supreme authority to rule all around the country. Other
authorities that were under the King were the courtiers.
These courtiers, when Hamlet’s father died, named as
King of Denmark Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle. Similar
actions occurred in the Elizabethan time in England. Let’s
remember that when Queen Mary died (1558), Elizabeth,
Mary’s half-sister, was named by the courtiers Queen of
England. Being Queen, Elizabeth had to rule the country
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from a castle called Richmond.30 So Queen Elizabeth
ruled all the country and was the supreme authority, but,
of course, there were other authorities inferior to her
power; for example, the parliament, courtiers, and the
authorities of the regional bodies.
Richmond re-built by Henry VII
There are other similarities between Elizabethan
England and Claudius’ Denmark.
As the play opens,
Denmark fears a foreign invasion of young Fortinbras,
Prince of Norway. Here are some lines pronounced by
Claudius when he’s informing the courtiers about the
invasion of Fortinbras.
30
Richmond: it’s the name of one of the most known Castles of England. At the beginning, it was known by the Normans as “Palace-Sheen.”
Later, it was taken by the Tudors. It was Henry VII’s time when the Palace burnt. He re-built it and called it “Richmond” in honor of his family’s
title. From then, this castle was used as a palace for the kings of England. So from this castle ruled England Henry VIII, King Edward, Queen
Mary I, Queen Elizabeth I, the Stuarts dynasty, and the commonwealth until now.
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“...Young Fortinbras,
Holding a weak supposal of our worth
Or thinking by our late dear brother’s death
Our state to be disjoint and out of frame
Colleagued
advantage,
with
this
dream
of
his
He hath not failed to pester us with
message
Importing the surrender of those lands
Lost by his father, with all bonds of law,
To our most valiant brother – so much for
him.”
(Act 1. Sc.2, Lines 17-25)
In England, although the Spanish Armada had been
defeated in 1588, alarms still persisted about a renewed
invasion attempt. Threats of war from abroad were
compounded by threats from within. Although seemingly
stable, Claudius’ Denmark, like Elizabethan England, was
a dangerously insecure place.
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Hamlet mirrors the anxieties of Shakespeare’s
England. Claudius’ murder of Old Hamlet was a political
assassination
to
Shakespeare’s
time,
achieve
people
political
heard
power.
of
In
numerous
assassination plots laid against the life of Elizabeth, such
as the Ridolfi Plot in 1570, the Babington Conspiracy in
1587, and the Throckmorton Plot in late 1587 and early
1588. In this way, we can see that the fictional Denmark
of Hamlet mirrored Elizabethan England in its efforts to
defeat subversion.
In both societies, the right-hand man of the monarch
believed that order was maintained by close surveillance.
Old Polonius is often compared to William Cecil,
Elizabeth’s chief minister of state. Just as William Cecil,
known also as Lord Burghley, maintained an extensive
network of spies and informers, so Polonius is infected by
the same desire to overhear in secret, to keep all potential
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dissidents under surveillance. He secretly spies on
Hamlet, using his own daughter Ophelia as bait. And just
as William Cecil had written moral precepts for his son,
and set spies to report on his behavior in France, so
Polonius lectures Laertes and sends Reynaldo to spy on
him in Paris. Here are some lines pronounced by
Polonius when he mentioned the things that Reynaldo
had to do before visiting Laertes.
“You shall do marvelous wisely, good
Reynaldo,
Before you visit him, to make inquire
Of his behavior.”
(Act 1. Sc.2, Lines, 3-5)
“Inquire me first what Dankers are in Paris:
And how, and who, what means, and
where they keep
What company, at what expense; and
finding
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By this encompassment and drift of
question
That they do know my son, come you
more nearer
Than your particular demands will touch
it.”
(Act 2, Sc.1, Lines 7-14)
His
boastful
description
of
himself
and
the
roundabout ways and indirect methods he uses to
discover the truth reflect the procedures of a spymaster of
the Tudor state:
“And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
With windlasses and with assays of bias,
By indirections find directions out.”
(Act 2. Sc.1, Lines 71-73)
A last similarity that we find between Elizabethan
England and Claudius’ Denmark is when the Danish court
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enters into the scene. Let’s remember that in Act 1,
Scene 2, enters Claudius, King of Denmark, Gertrude the
Queen, the Council, as Polonius, and his son Laertes,
Hamlet, with others, among them Voltemand and
Cornelius. This entry of the Danish court is like the
meetings of Queen Elizabeth and her Privy Council that
took place in Richmond palace very often.31
3.1.2. Religion and the Supernatural in Hamlet
Religion and the Supernatural are two themes that
go hand in hand. William Shakespeare, as we mentioned
in chapter I, did not follow or support any religion.
However, he evidently had a great deal of religious
education. William Shakespeare in Hamlet uses his
knowledge of religion to manipulate the reaction of the
audience for which it was originally intended. This is
31
See Wood Robert I.; “Space and Scrutiny” Pages 26 - 29
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observed
in
the
way
in
which
he
exploits
the
Elizabethans’ confusion concerning religion. He uses
conflicting religion to evoke responses in the audience,
and to give the significance of Hamlet’s Christian
knowledge in first instance.
The time in which William Shakespeare’s Hamlet
was performed was one of great religious confusion for
Elizabethans.
Protestant
Although
nation,
many
England
citizens
was
officially
a
still
adhered
to
Catholicism, and in the same way, Shakespeare
incorporates the Catholic notion of Purgatory and
confession into the play. Persons who had not made full
confession of their sins before dying were believed to go
to Purgatory, where they suffered until their unconfessed
sins were burnt away (“Purged”). Sometimes, these dead
persons, who were in the Purgatory suffering, returned to
the world in the way of a ghost, which appeared to the
relatives and close friends to perform what they had not
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done in their life. So these beliefs, in Elizabethan’s time,
were known as the Supernatural by the Catholics.
A similar case occurred in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
From the beginning of the play, Shakespeare gives us a
Catholic point of view of the tragedy. An example of what
we’re talking about is the apparition of the ghost and the
reactions of the characters when they see it. The Ghost
appeared, at first, to Horatio and Marcellus. When they
saw the ghost, Horatio used the proper Christian formula
in challenging the Ghost:
“By heaven, I charge thee, speak.”
(Act 1. Sc.1, Line 57)
When the ghost hears this phrase pronounced by
Horatio, it stalks away and disappears. The phrase “by
heaven…” makes the ghost afraid. However, Marcellus
and Horatio think that it is a spirit divinely sanctioned that
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will return in order to carry out some mission. They didn’t
miss; the ghost returned. This time, when the ghost is
going to speak, spreading his arms, the cock crowns, and
the ghost disappears again. This happening proves that
Shakespeare
uses
another
Catholic
concept
of
Elizabethans. They believed that when the cock crows at
dawn, all the spirits return to purgatory to rest.
Another example of Catholic manifestations in
Hamlet is when Hamlet sees the ghost. Here he uses the
orthodox32 Christian formula of surprise in this terrible
scene, so he says,
“Angels and ministers of grace defend us¡
Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned
Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts
from hell?”
Be thy intends wicked or charitable.”
(Act 1. Sc. 4, Lines 43 – 46)
32
Orthodox: following traditional doctrine: following the established or traditional rules of a political or religious belief, a
philosophy, or a way of life.
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Consistent with contemporary ideas relating to
ghosts, Hamlet knows that it may be “a spirit of health,”
one divinely allowed to return to accomplish a rightful
mission; or a “goblin damn’d,” a spirit, a devil, or even the
Devil himself, appearing in the form and dress of King
Hamlet to lead the Prince to destruction – perhaps to
draw him into madness, as Horatio warns in Act 1, Sc. 4,
Lines 77, 86. But, under the pressure of powerful
emotion, Hamlet makes a positive identification of the
Ghost as “King, father, royal Dane” (Act 1, Sc 4, Line 50).
He assumes that the spirit has come from purgatory to
fulfill something undone in his life. This reaction of Hamlet
gives us a clear idea that Shakespeare develops a
Catholic belief in the tragedy.
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Not only to the apparition of the ghost and the
characters’ reactions demonstrate to us some Catholic
manifestations in Hamlet, but also other events that take
place after it. As another example, we will take Polonius’s
blessing that he gives to Laertes before going to France:
“…There my blessing with thee.
And these few precepts in thy memory
Look thou character. Give thy thought no
tongue
Nor any proportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption
tried,
Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of
steel,
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatched, unfledged courage.
Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel, but, being in,
Bear’t that th’ opposed may beware of
thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.
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Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy
judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not expressed in fancy (rich, not
gaudy),
For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
And they in France of the best rank and
station
Are of a most select and generous chief in
that.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be,
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing
husbandry.
dulls
the
edge
of
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell. My blessing season this in thee.
(Act 1, Sc. 3, Lines 62-87)
This blessing given by Polonius, as we can see, has
much good advice given to Laertes about what he should
do, what he shouldn’t do, and how he should behave in a
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foreign country. This blessing pronounced by Polonius
has clear manifestations of Catholic Elizabethans. During
this time, elderly Elizabethans used to give their sons or
daughters their blessing when they went to a foreign
country, as Polonius does. The idea of blessing is written
in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, Genesis 27,
1 - 29. So the Elizabethans kept this idea alive because of
their Catholic roots, and Shakespeare expressed it in the
tragedy of Hamlet.
Another example of Catholicism in Hamlet is the
King’s prayer:
“O, my offense is rank, it smells to heaven;
It hath the primal eldest curse upon’t,
A brother’s murder. Pray can I not,
Though inclination be as sharp as will.
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,
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And, like a man to double business bound,
I stand in pause where I shall first begin
And both neglect. What if this cursed hand
Were thicker than itself with brother’s
blood?
Is there not
heavens
rain enough in the sweet
To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves
mercy
But to confront the visage of offense?
And what’s in prayer but this twofold force,
To be forestalled ere we come to fall,
Or pardoned being down? Then I’ll look
up.
My fault is past. But, o, what form of prayer
Can serve my turn? “Forgive me my foul
murder”?
That cannot be, since I am still possessed
Of those effects for which I did the murder:
My crown, mine own ambition, and my
queen.
May one be pardoned and retain th’
offense?
In the corrupted currents of this world,
Offense’s gilded hand may shove by
justice,
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And oft ’tis seen the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law. But ‘tis not so above:
There is no shuffling; there the action lies
In his true nature, and we ourselves
compelled,
Even to the teeth and forehead of our
faults,
To give in evidence. What then? What
rests?
Try what repentance can. What can it not?
Yet what can it, when one cannot repent?
Wretched state¡ o bosom black as death¡
O limed soul, that, struggling to be free,
Art more engaged! Help, angels! Make
assay.
Bow, stubborn knees, and heart with
strings of steel
Be soft as sinews of the newborn babe.”
[He kneels]
(Act 3. Sc.3, Lines 40 -75)
Claudius’ aside provides another idea of Catholicism
in Hamlet. In this aside, he expresses his self
acknowledgment of guilt of his brother’s murder, and he
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compares himself to Cain. Claudius possesses a
conscience, one which hardly makes him a coward, but
instead makes him admit to being a sinner. Claudius
clearly is not a born criminal; nor, however much he has
sought to conceal his real self from others, and he wants
to forget moral and religious truth. He is orthodox and
knows about Christian doctrine; he knows that as long as
he holds on to what he has gotten through his evil actions
of mortal sin, he cannot remove the sin from his soul. He
is a prisoner of his blame. His soul is damned. With
Claudius’ aside, William Shakespeare presents once
again the roots of Catholicism in the tragedy. Let’s take
into account that in Elizabethan England, Catholic people
used to ask God for pardon by kneeling and voicing their
guilt like Claudius does in the tragedy. At this particular
moment in the action, it is possible to feel some pity for
the tormented man despite his appalling crimes.
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When Hamlet hears Claudius’ aside of repentance,
he also presents some Catholic reactions:
“Now might I do it pat, now he is a-praying,
And now I’ll do’t.
[He draws his sword]
And so he goes to heaven,
And so am I revenged. That would be
scanned:
A villain kills my father, and for that,
I, his sole son, do this same villain send
To heaven
Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge.
He took my father grossly, full of bread,
With all his crimes broad blown, as flush
as May;
And how his audit stands who knows save
heaven.
But in our circunstances and course of
thought
‘tis heavy with him. And am I then
revenged
To take him in the purging of his soul,
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When he is fit and seasoned for his
passage?
No.
Up sword, and know thou a more horrid
hent.”
[He sheathes his sword]
(Act 3. Sc. 3, Lines 77 – 93)
As we can see in the passage, Hamlet hears his
uncle confessing his crime. At this moment, he takes his
sword to kill Claudius, but he realizes that if he killed
Claudius at that time, his soul would go to heaven and be
purged from all the crime he had committed. Hamlet is
restrained by the belief that Claudius is making a “good”
confession to God and thus he is escaping from
damnation. Then Hamlet decides to look for another
occasion to get his revenge. This passage, which is
connected with the King’s prayer, gives us another clear
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vision of the manifestations of Catholic concepts of
William Shakespeare’s society in Hamlet.
Throughout the play, crucial aspects of the religious
beliefs of Elizabethan England keep appearing. According
to the Catholic Church, suicide was condemned and a
person who committed suicide was believed to go straight
to hell. This belief is expressed in the graveyard scene.
The gravedigger’s conversation reveals that people who
commit suicide are normally denied the right to “Christian
burial” in a Churchyard. Some lines of such conversation
are presented below:
Gravedigger: “Is she to be buried in Christian
burial,
When
she
willfully
seeks
her
own
salvation?
Other:
grave
I tell thee she is. Therefore make her
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straight. The crowner hath sat on her and
finds it
Christian burial.”
(Act 5. Sc.1, Lines 1 – 5)
These lines express that only the king’s command
and Ophelia’s high social status have allowed her to be
buried in consecrated ground. But the Priest, convinced
that she took her own life, denies her the full rites of
Christian burial, and he says,
“…..Her death was doubtful,
And, but that great command o’ersways
the order,
She should in ground unsanctified been
lodged
Till the last trumpet. For charitable prayers
Shards, flints, and pebbles should be
thrown on her.
Yet here she is allowed her virgin crants,
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Her maiden strewments, and the bringing
home
Of bell and burial.”
(Act 5. Sc.1, Lines 234 – 242)
These scenes of the gravediggers and words
pronounced by the Priest in Ophelia’s funeral are also
clear manifestations of Catholicism. All of them describe
characteristics of Catholic Priests during the Elizabethan
time.32
Aside
Shakespeare
from
Catholic
also
manifestations,
presents
William
manifestations
of
Protestantism in his tragedy of Hamlet. It is because in
Elizabethan times writers were mostly Protestants. The
Protestant beliefs are demonstrated in Hamlet in two
particular scenes.
32
See Fendt Gene; Is Hamlet a Religious Drama? “Christianity and Hamlet” Pages 161-172
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The first one is manifested in his major soliloquy, “To
be or not be.”
To be or not to be – that is the question:
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous
fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And, by opposing, end them. To die, to
sleepNo more – and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural
shocks
That flesh is heir to - ‘tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep –
To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there’s
the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams
may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
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For who would bear the whips and scorns
of time,
Th’ oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s
contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s
delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th’ unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels
bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death
The undiscovered country form whose
bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we
have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of
us all
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought
And enterprises of great pitch and moment
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With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action. - Soft you
now,
The fair Ophelia. – Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remembered.
(Act 3, Sc.1, Lines 64 – 98)
Shakespeare’s England was an emerging modern
world in which medieval certainties were yielding to
scepticism and doubt. Hamlet’s own preoccupation with
sin and salvation shows he is the product of a feudal
world where religion was used as an instrument of
control. But his style of thought, full of doubts and
scepticism, marks him out as a self-conscious modern
individual.
He
continually
debates
with
himself,
questioning what he sees, hears, and thinks. In this
soliloquy, he opens his thoughts and feelings to searching
examination by himself and by the audience. So Hamlet
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expresses doubts, confusion, and fears about what will
happen in the future. These qualities show us Protestant
beliefs. He doesn’t want to face his problems; he fears
death, and asks himself what will happen to his body and
soul after death. He manifests that when a person dies,
the body is separated from the soul, but he expresses
that the soul can not return to this world. Therefore, he
doubts of the apparition of his father’s ghost. From these
concepts presented in the soliloquy, we can see the
influence of Protestantism on Shakespeare’s society.
Elizabethan Protestants had a preoccupation about what
would happen after death. Also, they didn’t believe in
Supernatural entities; no ghosts, no witches.
The last scene in which the Protestantism is evident
is when Hamlet asks the Gravedigger, “How long will a
man lie in’th earth ere he rot?” (Act 5, Sc.1, Line 168) and
when Hamlet is contemplating the skull in the graveyard
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(“Alas poor Yorick” [Act 5, Sc.1, Line 190]).These two
cases are similar to the previous one that we have been
talking about. Here Hamlet is also worried about what
happens to the human body after death. This symbolizes
crucial
aspects
of
human
consciousness
in
Shakespeare’s time: preoccupation with human body and
a lack of certainty of what will happen after death.
Listening to Hamlet’s questions, Elizabethans audience
would associated with the average life expectancy that
was little more than 30 years and watching Hamlet to
contemplate the skull of Yorick, Elizabethan audience
would associate the idea of Protestants who were
preoccupied with death and decay of the human body.
Their preoccupation was because many skeletons and
skulls of death people were found in yards and this makes
the Protestants reflect about the decay of human body.34
34
See Gibson Rex; Shakespeare - Hamlet: Cambridge Student Guide, pages 62-63
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3.1.3 Sovereignty: Queen Elizabeth vs. Queen Gertrude
William Shakespeare also explores in Hamlet the
issues of sovereignty and marriage. Both sovereignty and
marriage are concerns of Queen Gertrude: marriage
actions carry increased significance for the female
sovereign. Thus, Hamlet reflects, in part, the sovereignty
and marriage of the Elizabethan world.
Let’s take into account that the marriage of the Tudor
queens was the connection between the natural body of
the monarch and the symbolic sovereignty of the state
embodied
within
the
monarch.
This
connection
determined and restrained the relational activity of the
royalty. Questions of marriage and the succession
connected the natural and the political bodies in ways that
Elizabeth constantly sought to control; the Queen herself
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became the most politically significant sign of her reign.
The physical body of the queen thus gained significance.
Therefore, both for its union in name and for its
physical implications, marriage of the female sovereign
caused great concern. Before Elizabeth’s reign, Mary’s
marriage to Philip II of Spain was a disaster. As a foreign
ruler, Philip was not welcomed in England and many
feared that he dominated Mary, both at home and at
court. The English courtiers felt that Mary made a poor
choice of her husband and that all England suffered the
effects of that relation. In this way, we can see that Queen
Elizabeth didn’t want to marry because she knew that if
she got married, she would automatically lose her
sovereignty in England and, with a husband, bring
instability to England as Mary had done. Therefore, she
assumed the weight of the sovereignty in England without
marrying.
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Shakespeare’s Hamlet, however, is a little different
from the Elizabethan world. Gertrude chose a new King
for Denmark. So Shakespeare, in Hamlet, reveals the
consequence of that choice. In marrying Claudius,
Gertrude loses her sovereignty and her authority over
Denmark and gives Claudius access to the symbolic seat
of the throne. The plot of the play then arises from and
turns upon what Gertrude does with herself. Moreover,
the fate of Gertrude makes Hamlet an Elizabethan play.
Upon the condition of her body depends the health of the
state.
Claudius’ marriage with Gertrude caused many
problems in the state.35
The fate of Gertrude doesn’t rest only upon
Gertrude’s marriage, but also upon her bad choice of a
35
Aguirre Manuel: “Life, Crown, and Queen: Gertrude and the theme of Sovereignty” Pages 166 - 170
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husband. Gertrude’s decision to marry her brother-in-law
is the opposite of what Queen Elizabeth I would have
done. It is similar to the marriage of Queen Mary with
Philip II; this similarity would have been noticed
immediately by the Elizabethan audience when they
watched Hamlet at the Globe Theater.
3.1.4 View of Marriage in Hamlet
As we have said in the previous theme, Queen
Gertrude loses her sovereignty when she marries
Claudius; Claudius becomes the new King of Denmark,
thanks to this marriage. Here it is notable that this
marriage
is
prearranged,
as
were
marriages
in
Elizabethan times. Claudius gets what he wants by killing
his own brother, his own blood, and he is the responsible
for the destruction of Denmark. From this marriage, things
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in Denmark begin to change and affect the people all
around.
The couple was married in less than two months
after the death of Hamlet’s father, and this brings many
comments on and doubts about such a marriage. When
Claudius himself pronounced the phrase “sometime
sister, now our queen” (Act 1, Sc 2, Line 8), he reveals
that this marriage was arranged to get power over the
country. In this line, Shakespeare gives us a cue of the
falseness of this marriage. Similar situations occurred in
Elizabethan times. Nobles of England or around the
country wanted to marry Elizabeth for convenience: to be
Kings and to get power over the country.
Hamlet realizes the hypocrisy of this marriage as
soon as the play opens. Then Hamlet characterizes
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Claudius in terms which suggest a distrust of males who
achieve power through marriage to a female monarch. So
Hamlet describes Claudius as a malicious usurper of
power through sexual manipulation:
“A murderer and a villain,
A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe
Of your precedent lord; a vice of kings,
A cutpurse of the empire and the rule,
That from a shelf the precious diadem
stole
And put it in his pocket-”
(Act 3. Sc.4, lines 110-115)
Hamlet’s comments touch not only Claudius, but
also his mother, Gertrude. He accuses his mother of
having committed a big error because of her improper
sexual activity and marriage. Even though a marital bond
existed between Claudius and Gertrude, the hurried and
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incestuous aspects of that marriage enraged Hamlet, and
he blamed his mother:
“Such an act
That blurs the grace and blush of modesty,
Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose
From the fair forehead of an innocent love
And sets a blister there, makes marriage
vows
As false as dicers’ oaths – o, such a deed
As from the body of contraction plucks
The very soul, and sweet religion makes
A rhapsody of words! Heaven’s face does
glow
O’er this solidity and compound mass
With heated visage, as against the doom,
Is thought-sick at the act.”
(Act 3, Sc. 4, Lines 49 – 60)
These two paragraphs give us an idea of the falsity
of this marriage and at the same time give us a vision of
the consequences of such a union. So this prearranged
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marriage in Hamlet is yet another example of social
behavior of the Elizabethan world.
3.1.5 Aspects of the Incest Problem in Hamlet
In the second scene of Act 1, Claudius announces
that he has married Gertrude, his former sister-in-law.
Imagine how the watching spectators at the Globe
Theater would react to hearing this. Probably, a feeling of
intense moral revolution broke out among the people. The
marriage of a brother-in-law and sister-in-law was
forbidden by both the Catholic Church and the Protestant,
and regarded as incest. Sermons in both religions
regularly condemned it as adultery, and offenders were
subjected to cruel rituals of public penance, sometimes
driven around the town to be mocked, humiliated, and
burned in the public square.
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In the tragedy of Hamlet, Hamlet, as in the
Elizabethan time, is shocked over his mother’s marriage.
He feels ashamed of what his mother has done:
“O, that this too, too sullied flesh would
melt,
Thaw, and revolse itself into a dew…”
(Act 1. Sc.2, Lines 133 –1 34)
With these lines in the soliloquy, Hamlet is reveliang
that he does not agree with his mother’s marriage, and at
the same time, he’s wishing that his “sullied flesh” might
melt as snow does. Hamlet feels stained by his mother’s
behavior, since he is bone of her bones and flesh of her
flesh. Hamlet said that the husband and wife are one
flesh and blood; man and woman are made one flesh only
by carnal copulation. So the man who takes his brother’s
wife will take also the flesh and blood of his brother;
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something that is against the laws of nature. Thus Hamlet
calls the marriage of his mother and his uncle
“incestuous,” a violation of the laws against intercourse
between close kin. Hamlet’s argument against Claudius
and Gertrude’s behavior rests on the biblical text of
Leviticus:
“You shall not uncover the nakedness of
your
brothers wife:
nakeness”
she is your brother’s
(Leviticus XVIII. 16)36
Hamlet keeps in mind these lines of Leviticus and in
relation to these lines, Hamlet says:
“My father’s brother, but no more like my
father
Than I to Hercules. Within a month,
36
See The Holy Bible, revised Standard Version, 1952
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Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
She married. O, most wicked speed, to
post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
It is not, nor it cannot come to good.
But break, my heart, for I must hold my
tongue.”
(Act 1. Sc.2, Lines 156 – 164)
There are other comments in the play where the
ghost speaks against the royal bed of Denmark being
used for dammed incest, qualifying Gertrude’s marriage
as “incestuous.” The ghost then tells Hamlet the following:
“Let not the royal bed of Denmark be
A couch for luxury and damned incest.”
(Act 1. Sc.5, Lines 89 – 90)
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In the same way, Hamlet speaks in the aside of the Act 3,
Scene 3, Line 95:
“…in th’ incestuous pleasures of his bed”
The meaning is that Hamlet’s father’s bed is used for the
pleasure of these two sinners. Something that is against
the law of Leviticus.
On the other hand, Claudius never admits to the sin
of incest as the book of Leviticus describes it. Even during
the prayer scene (Act 3. Sc. 3), when he frankly
acknowledges responsibility for his sin in his brother’s
murder, he remains silent on the question of incest. His
silence may come from the shame that prevents him from
facing an especially offensive act, and probably it is
based on the Scriptural passage opposed to Hamlet’s
central text and associated with Claudius’ behavior in the
book of Deuteronomy:
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“If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and
has no son, the wife of the dead shall no be married
outside the family to a stranger; her husband’s brother
shall going to her, and take her as his wife, and perform
the duty of a husband’s brother to her. And the first son
whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his brother
who is dead, that his name may not be blotted out of
Israel.”
(Deuteronomy XXV. 5- 7)37
So we can observe that if a husband died before
having any children, the law commanded the next
kinsman that was living and free to marry the widow so
that he might raise up seed to his brother deceased.
According
to
the
authority
of
Deuteronomy,
the
Renaissance theologians bound the brother to marry his
brother’s
wife;
it
became
a
tradition
during
the
Renaissance.
37
See The Holy Bible, revised Standard Version, 1952
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In Hamlet, the relationship of Claudius and Gertrude
is within the scope of the Deuteronomy prohibition. Only a
childless widow might remarry; thus, the marriage of
Gertrude and Claudius, in addition to denying the dead
king any claims upon his widow, insults the living prince
by ignoring his birth which should have blocked the union.
So we can return to this point of view, which is of some
importance
in
explaining
Hamlet’s
depression.
Meanwhile, we should note Shakespeare’s mastery in
portraying Claudius from the very start, as a caricature of
the virtuous brother of Deuteronomy.
Claudius’ marriage to Gertrude, far from the true
levirate relationship described in Deuteronomy, is an
example of widow-inheritance, very different and more
primitive, in which the identity of the deceased is
supplanted by that of the successor. King Hamlet’s life,
crown, and queen are taken by Claudius, who has
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violated every token of his brother’s identity. Since the
only clear exception of the Deuteronomy prohibition is the
case of marriage with a widow whose husband has died
without offspring, the presence of Hamlet in the second
scene is utterly destructive of Claudius’ status as the
king.38
A Tudor audience’s knowledge of the true levirate
would
have
been
sharpened
by
the
controversy
surrounding marriage that had taken place years before.
In 1553, Henry VIII had used incest as grounds for the
annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, so
freeing himself to marry Anne Boleyn (their child was to
become Queen Elizabeth). Catherine had been married to
Henry’s brother, Arthur. When Arthur died, Henry married
Catherine. After 24 years of marriage, wanting to marry
Anne, Henry appealed to the incest taboo, quoting the
38
See Rosenblatt Jason P.; “Aspects of the Incest Problem in Hamlet” Pages 352 - 357
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biblical verse of Leviticus that condemned a man’s
marriage to his brother’s wife as unclean and divinely
cursed.39
So we can see that some members of the Danish
court seem to see the marriage of Gertrude and Claudius
as legal and legitimate; for example, Polonius. When
Shakespeare presented Hamlet in theater, many debates
about the incestuousness of a marriage between a widow
and her dead husband’s brother that took place in that
society, basing it on the marriage of Gertrude and
Claudius, and, of course, on the marriage of Henry and
Catherine of Aragon. This debate obviously was based on
the two biblical versions of Leviticus and Deuteronomy.
So we can conclude this theme by saying that Claudius
made a mistake because he went against the two biblical
versions. Shakespeare used controversial themes of his
time in Hamlet because the marriage of Gertrude, which
39
Gibson Rex: Shakespeare - Hamlet: Cambridge Student Guide; Pages 69
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was qualified as incestuous, keeps being a point of
discussion among writers.
3.1.6 Elizabethan Revenge in Hamlet.
Hamlet
is
a
story
of
revenge.
Where
did
Shakespeare get such idea from? This question can have
two answers. First, during Elizabethan time, plays about
tragedy and revenge were very common and a regular
convention seemed to be formed on what aspects should
be put into a typical revenge tragedy. In all tragedies first
and foremost, a crime is committed and for several
reasons laws and justice can not punish the crime. The
individual who is the main character goes through with the
revenge in spite of everything. The main character then
usually has a period of doubt, where he tries to decide
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whether or not to go through with the revenge, which
usually involves thoughts and complex planning.
Secondly, Shakespearean society experienced a
real story of King James of Scotland, who became king of
England in 1603. His own father had been murdered, and
his mother, the murdered man’s wife, Mary Queen of
Scots, had married the murderer. James, like Hamlet, had
also
sworn
to
revenge
his
father’s
murder.
So,
Shakespearean society, watching Hamlet with these
revengeful characteristics, would have noted similarities
of the story of Hamlet with James’.
In Hamlet, the crime that is committed by Claudius is
against a family member. The revenger places himself
outside the normal moral order of things and often
becomes more desperate as the play progress - a
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desperation which drives the person to commit new
crimes.
Hamlet does not obsessively pursue vengeance. He
delays, beset by all kinds of doubts and distractions. An
Elizabethan audience would be alert to Hamlet’s
perplexity over the command to revenge because
Hamlet’s Denmark resembles Elizabethan England in its
point of view of revenge. Personal revenge was forbidden
by both the state and the Protestant and Catholic Church,
which held that either the law or God would punish
wrongdoers. As we said in Chapter one, the Catholic
Church defines revenge as a sin, and damned revengers
to suffer all eternity. So Hamlet, seeking revenge of his
murdered father, was trapped in a dilemma. There could
be no justice from the state, because the murderer
himself was now king. To take personal revenge meant
eternal damnation.
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In the tragedy of Hamlet, Shakespeare sets up the
scene of having a ghost on a dark night (Act 1, Sc. 4).
Everybody
is
working
and
something
strange
is
happening in Denmark. It is as if Shakespeare was saying
that some kind of foul play has been committed. This sets
up the play for the major theme which is of course
revenge. The ghost appears to talk to Hamlet. It’s quite
obvious that the play has a gruesome, violent death, and
the sexual aspect of the play which is clearly introduced
when Claudius marries Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude. The
ghost tells Hamlet that he has been given the role of a
person who will take revenge upon Claudius. Hamlet
must now think of how to get revenge on Claudius,
although he doesn’t know what to do about it. He
plunders his thoughts for a long period of time before
making a decision.
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So Hamlet started a battle of wits with Claudius by
acting mad to get closer to Claudius to discover the truth
and to avenge his father’s death more easily. Hamlet is
an intelligent person because he doesn’t react at once
against his uncle. He tries to make sure of his uncle’s
crime to get revenge.
So Hamlet’s delay in killing
Claudius takes on three distinct stages. Firstly, he had to
prove that the ghost was actually telling the truth, and he
did this by staging the play, “The Mousetrap,” at court.
When Claudius stormed out in rage, Hamlet knew that he
was guilty. The second stage was when Hamlet could
have killed Claudius while he was confessing to God. If
Hamlet had done it here then Claudius would have gone
to heaven because he had confessed his sin while
Hamlet’s father was in purgatory, and Hamlet would not
have been able to get revenge for his father’s murder.
Hamlet therefore decided not to murder Claudius at this
point in the play. The third delay was the fact that he got
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sidetracked. He accidentally killed Polonius which created
a whole new problem with the fact that Laertes now
wanted Hamlet’s death. After committing this murder,
Hamlet was also sent off and unable to see the king for
another few weeks until he could finally do the job. As we
know, when Hamlet was dueling with Laertes and saw
that his mother was poisoned by Claudius, he finally killed
Claudius, getting in this way the revenge that the ghost
had told him to get at the beginning of the play.
For Shakespeare’s society, the fact that the
command to revenge was delivered by a ghost added an
element of suspicion. There was a tradition in Elizabethan
society. Ghosts called for revenge, but the people also
possessed a great distrust of ghosts. Many believed that
ghosts were agents of the devil sent to trap men into
doing evil things.
So Shakespeare has shown us once
again that he was a man who took into account all social
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concepts that occurred in his time to write Hamlet, one of
the greatest plays of all time.
3.1.7 Hamlet: Vengeance and Family honor
During Elizabethan time, honor was moving from an
external code to an internalized concept. Men were no
longer considered honorable simply by right of birth, nor
were they able to claim to be men of honor by the
production of a long list of heroic deeds. So common
people sought to behave in such a way as to please both
their state and God, but people of the court focused honor
upon the importance of blood and lineage. These kinds of
people looked for or protected the well-being of their
families in every way. Similarly, family honor was
important in Hamlet.
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The main theme of Hamlet, as we said before, is the
theme of vengeance and at the same time the characters
looked for a way to protect their family’s honor. This idea
of family honor did not have to do only with Hamlet
himself, but it is illustrated in two other important
characters of the play, Laertes and Fortinbras. All three of
these characters, Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras, are
faced with the problem of having to avenge the nemesis
who had previously hurt their family or their family’s
name. The idea of vengeance for the sake of family honor
causes great destruction throughout the play and causes
many more people to get caught up in the circle of
destruction and vengeance.
From the beginning of the play, we as readers,
notice the first signs of the hate and the need of
vengeance from some of the characters. Initially, the
Norwegian prince Fortinbras is shown getting ready for a
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voyage to conquer Denmark. His great ambition, as we
find out later, is driven solely out of hatred toward the Old
Danish King Hamlet who had previously defeated
Fortinbras’s father in battle and has taken some of
Norway’s territory when Fortinbras was still a child. As a
result, young Fortinbras aspires to recover the lands and
power lost by his father as a way of honoring and
avenging him.
If we go further and deeper into the play, the feelings
of hate and vengeance also take over the mind of Hamlet.
After talking to his father’s Ghost, and then staging the
play, Hamlet is almost totally sure that his uncle, King
Claudius, had killed his father in order to take the power
of the throne of Denmark. But unlike Fortinbras, Hamlet
does not act quickly and is paralyzed by his own
indecision and fear. This paralization or the inability of
Hamlet to act and take vengeance could be described as
being his main problem. Hamlet represents the type of
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man whose power of direct action is paralyzed by the
excessive development of his intellect. The climax occurs
when Hamlet finally takes revenge, but unlike the case of
Fortinbras, Hamlet’s revenge comes with great cost to all.
His previous inability to act and take revenge soon
causes, ironically, the death of both his mother (who
drinks the poison destined for Hamlet) and the woman he
loved, Ophelia, (who most likely committed suicide
because of Hamlet’s murder of her father Polonius). The
irony is that Hamlet, by fulfilling his revenge, has
destroyed the family whose honor he sought to avenge.
Laertes, who at the end of the play is the third son
who tries to avenge his father’s death, causes great
destruction trying to achieve his goal. After finding out that
his father Polonius is dead, and then later that he was
killed by his old friend Hamlet, Laertes allows his
emotions to overtake his judgment and is easily
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manipulated by Hamlet’s nemesis, King Claudius. Both of
them together plan to kill Hamlet at a fencing match, but
while Laertes takes part in the battle itself, Claudius just
stands by to watch with the poisonous drink at hand,
almost like a puppet master watching his puppets perform
a battle to the death. This similarity between Hamlet and
Laertes can be seen in that both characters fix
themselves on murder as the only means for revenge and
thus are both destroyed by their inability to control their
hatred. While murder as the only means of revenge
destroys both Hamlet and Laertes, Fortinbras emerges as
the real winner who gets to avenge his father and the
honor of his family by recovering the lands that were lost,
and even more by becoming the new ruler of Denmark.
As we can see, the tragedy of Hamlet, with respect to
honor, is very similar to the Elizabethan world. The nobles
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at the Elizabethan court conserved their lineage and at
the same time protected their family.40
3.1.8 Hamlet: Chivalry and the Code of Honor
In chapter one, we mentioned that the height of the
Renaissance as well as the Elizabethan era, were periods
in which the honor code underwent a significant change.
The medieval, chivalric code of honor, with its emphasis
on lineage, allegiance to one’s lord and violence, evolved
into an honor code that was both moral and political that
began to emphasize the individual conscience and
allegiance to the state. Analysis of Shakespeare’s
Hamlet, and in particular its characters’ use of promise,
provides new and revealing insights into the evolving
Renaissance codes of honor, for Shakespeare creates
40
See Brown Watson Curtis; Shakespeare and the Renaissance Concept of Honor; “Honor and
Family” Pages 107 - 109
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characters in Hamlet that represent various stages in the
evolution of a changing honor system.
Horatio, Laertes, and Hamlet all indicate, by their
use of promise, different concepts of honor that range
from an antique system of kinship and violence to a more
modern idea of morality, virtue, and allegiance to the
state. Shakespeare delineates these characters, their
concepts of honor, and their functions in moving the
dramatic action toward its climax by a careful use of each
character’s freely given word. In doing so, Shakespeare
also takes a conventional stance in a period of change.
Hamlet represents a middle point in the changing honor
system, and it is his attempt to gain an antique honor in a
new system that contributes not only to his own tragic
death, but to the deaths of several others as well.
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In this way, oaths function structurally to develop
characterization and move the action toward its climax.
Although Hamlet can, of course, withdraw from his oath of
vengeance without a threat to his honor should he
discover that the ghost is, in fact, not truthful, when he
swears that the ghost’s commandment to seek revenge
“all alone shall live / within the book and volume of my
brain / unmixed with baser matters! Yes, by heaven” (Act
1. Sc. 2, Lines 109-111). The prince is, in effect, stripped
of his power to stop the events. He is a man of honor, a
noble man, and now that the vow is spoken he has no
choice but to carry it through. The Mousetrap scene in
Hamlet is an example of more modern code of honor
whereby a man’s honor can be either lost or won by
surviving an order designed to determine his guilt. Hamlet
clearly devises an order for Claudius, the alreadydiscovered criminal, in order to prove Claudius’ guilt
without having to depend on the ghost’s word. In doing
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so, Hamlet unwittingly brings together both the chivalric
code of honor and the more modern moralized one;
Shakespeare exempts Hamlet from being dependent
upon the word of a ghost. Then Hamlet uses the chivalric
code to make himself honorable in the more modern
concept of honor. Moreover, Hamlet’s use of aspects of
both an older idea of honor and a new one demonstrates
the way in which these codes overlap during Queen
Elizabethan’s time in an evolving honor code.
In investing Hamlet with a concern to meet the
demands of this evolving honor code, Shakespeare
foreshadows
the
events
of
the
drama
while
simultaneously divesting his main character of power.
Shakespeare’s careful delineation of Hamlet as Horatio’s
“honoured lord” (Act . Sc. 2, Line 234), as a man who
inspires “our duty to your honour” (Act 1, Sc. 2, Line 275),
and as a lover who has approached Ophelia “with love / in
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honourable fashion” (Act 1, Sc. 3 Line 120) makes clear
that if Hamlet swears revenge against his father’s
murderer, then as a man of honor in the chivalric tradition,
he must carry out that revenge no matter the cost.
It is significant that Hamlet swears revenge in
soliloquy; his oath is not public, nor does it ever become
so. By keeping private his oath to gain revenge upon
Claudius, by refusing to enter the public scene of oath
and honor, Hamlet’s honor is seemingly not dependent
upon his ability to slay his father’s murderer precisely
because honor is a public code. But, his swearing of
revenge in a soliloquy - a dramatic element that uniquely
combines both the public and the private – does not
necessarily imply that his honor is not at stake, because
the Elizabethan concept of honor was evolving into a
more internal code; Hamlet’s honor has become as much
a matter of his own conscience as of public recognition.
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Hamlet’s soliloquy underscores the tension that exists
between public and private honor. His oath, known to the
audience but not to the other characters, exemplifies
Shakespeare’s entrance into the discourse of honor.
Precisely because it allows the audience to hear the
promise, they may expect Hamlet, a nobleman, to keep
his word.
Hamlet’s
use
of
promise,
though
certainly
problematic and complex, explicitly identifies him as a
transitional character in the changing code of honor. In
fact, both the medieval chivalric code of honor and the
more modern and political and moral code are seemingly
embodied in this one character. Moreover, as transitional
character, Hamlet must meet the requirements of both
codes. It is this attempt to find a balance in a changing
code that eventually leads, in part, to Hamlet’s tragic
death.
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Hamlet begins by swearing to avenge his father’s
murder. Since his oath is private, it places Hamlet’s honor
closer to Laertes’ in the changing code. Hamlet, however,
soon converts to a public form of oath when Horatio
becomes confused by Hamlet’s words regarding his
meeting with the ghost:
Horatio:
These are but wild and whirling
words, my lord.
Hamlet:
I’m sorry
heartily.
they
offend
you,
Yes, faith, heartily.
Horatio:
There’s no offense my lord.
Hamlet:
Yes by Saint Patrick but there’s
Horatio,
And much offense too.
(Act 1, Sc. 5, Lines 148 – 153)
Hamlet, burdened with the revenge of his father’s
murder, attempts to use the violent, medieval code of
honor as he begins to make public oaths. He swears by
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Saint Patrick, and although his words are confusing to
Horatio, and thus Hamlet is not yet publicly committed to
action, it is clear to the reader that it is the ghost’s words
that Hamlet finds offensive, and that he realizes that he
must avenge his father.
Hamlet does not swear another oath until Act 2: in
this oath Hamlet swears by his faith, a faith which must
have been considerably shaken by the appearance of his
mighty and virtuous father. Hamlet hears that the late
king, by all accounts an honorable man in the medieval
sense of the word, has been sentenced to a “prison” in
which he must burn until his sins are purged away.
Although Hamlet’s initial oath swears revenge based
upon lineage and familial loyalty, a violent act, he still
maintains the moral and Christian image demanded by a
more modern view of honor by invoking Christ to bear
witness to his oaths. The complexity of Hamlet’s situation
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imposes upon him the need to find an adequate system of
honor with which to resolve his problem. Hamlet’s attempt
to carve out a place of honor for himself leads to a crisis
of conscience.
Hamlet is the only son of a murdered king. As such
he, in medieval terms, is honor-bound to avenge his
father’s death. But, the murderer is the new king. Hamlet
is thus confronted with the taboos of Christian hierarchical
order – to exact revenge he must slay a king who is, of
course, God’s anointed ruler. Moreover, he cannot be
completely sure of his countryman’s support as Claudius
is an elected king. Further, Claudius is accepted by the
people who have “freely gone” (Act 1. Sc. 2, Line 15)
along with Claudius’ hasty marriage to the king’s widow,
and who give “twenty, forty, and hundred ducats apiece
for his pictures in little.” (Act 2. Sc. 2, lines 588 – 389).
Perhaps more importantly, Hamlet’s anguish of indecision
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over whether or not to kill Claudius, particularly after the
evidence offered by Claudius’s reaction to the Mousetrap,
reflects a changing code of honor in which the community
of honor came to be that which centered on the crown, its
structure that of the court and city, its service that of the
state, and its mark the nobility of virtue, and the dignities
which this conferred. Hamlet hesitates to kill Claudius
throughout the play. While several factors contribute to
this delay, it is significant to note that Hamlet exacts
revenge for his father’s murder only after Claudius’s
treachery has been publicly revealed by both Gertrude
and Laertes. Hamlet’s original oath of vengeance is
fulfilled, but in such a way as to allow him to remain
honorable in a new code that requires not only honor, but
also acknowledgement of the political hierarchy and the
morality as well. Hamlet, then, stands as a transitional
character who has, on the one hand, the medieval code
of honor which requires him to kill a king to avenge his
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father’s murder and, on the other hand, a new code of
honor that requires both absolute obedience to the state
and adherence to moral virtue. It is in meeting these
codes that Hamlet is identified as both a transitional
character and a tragic hero.
In fact, a close examination of the concepts of
promise and honor in Hamlet reveals that the other major
characters in the play represent also different stages in
the evolution of a changing code of honor. Moreover, this
representation would not have been missed by a typical
Shakespearean audience that lived in late sixteenth
century in England.
Like Hamlet, Horatio also represents the chivalric,
medieval concept of honor. Horatio is utterly loyal and
obedient to the man he addresses as his “honoured lord”
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(Act 1, Sc. 2, Line 234), Hamlet.
All five of Horatio’s
oaths, all in act 1, are made in relation to Hamlet himself.
More importantly, Horatio keeps his word to Hamlet
throughout the play. Horatio uses two oaths following his
encounter with the ghost. First, he attempts to force the
ghost to articulate its nature and purpose in Denmark: “By
heaven I charge thee to speak” (Act 1. Sc. 1, Line 57-58).
After the ghost exits, Horatio, pale and frightened by his
experience, insists that “Before my God, I might not this
believe/ Without the sensible and true avouch / of mine
own eyes” (Act 1. Sc. 1 66-68). While this oath does not
seem, at first, to be related to Hamlet, it is important to
note that Horatio’s two oaths are immediately followed by
a discussion of Fortinbras’ advance on Denmark and the
danger the country faces as a result of his incursion. And,
since Shakespeare painstakingly makes it clear that
Horatio is not Danish, and his only connection to
Denmark is his friendship with Hamlet, it is clear that the
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oaths uttered by Horatio are out of a concern for Hamlet,
his “fellow student” (Act 1. Sc. 2, line 184) and friend.
Thus, after sighting the ghost a second time, Horatio
determines that Hamlet must be told of the apparition
immediately and Horatio’s decision leads him to the use
of a third oath: “Upon my life / This spirit dumb to us, will
speak to him [Hamlet].” (Act 1. Sc. 1 Lines 184 – 186).
Significantly, Horatio’s next, and last, two oaths are
uttered directly to Hamlet and at the prince’s request.
Following Hamlet’s own encounter with the ghost, Horatio
begs Hamlet to divulge what the ghost has said. Hamlet
refuses, fearing Horatio will make the conversation public.
Horatio quickly swears secrecy: “No I my lord, by heaven”
(Act 1. Sc. 5, Lines 131). Hamlet does not agree to tell
Horatio what the spirit has said, but asks Horatio once
more if he can be trusted, to which Horatio again swears,
“Ay, by heaven, my lord” (Act 1, Sc. 5, Line 136). Finally,
although Horatio never takes an oath of secrecy on
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Hamlet’s sword within the next lines, it is clear that the
stage action calls for such an oath, for after the repeated
requests of both Hamlet and the ghost itself, Horatio
expresses his willingness to swear when he invites
Hamlet to “Propose the oath my lord” (Act 1, Sc. 5, Lines
174).
The medieval code of honor was based on loyalty
and allegiance to one’s lord. So Horatio is developing
such medieval code of honor because he is a faithful man
to his lord, Hamlet. Not only does Horatio repeatedly refer
to Hamlet as his lord, and not only does he keep his word
by not divulging Hamlet’s secret until Hamlet himself
withdraws the request, but Horatio also expresses a
willingness to die with Hamlet after the prince is wounded
by Laertes’s poisoned rapier. Horatio makes absolutely
clear the notion that the code of honor is changing and
that he himself is representative of the old code when he
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attempts to drink the poisoned wine after it becomes
obvious that Hamlet’s wounds are fatal: “I am more
antique Roman than a Dane. / Here’s yet some liquor
yet.” (Act 5. Sc. 2, Lines 374 – 375). Horatio emphasizes
that he is an “antique” Roman; he lives by an older or
“Roman” code of honor that requires the ultimate
allegiance and obedience to his lord. Moreover, he
recognizes that this code is changing when he makes the
distinction between the “antique” Roman and the more
modern Dane, but nevertheless strongly adheres to the
ancient code, even ending his own attempt to commit
suicide on Hamlet’s behalf when Hamlet utters an oath of
his own: “As th’art a man / Give me the cup. Let go by
heaven I’ll ha’t.” (Act 5. Sc. 2, Lines 376 – 377).
Laertes also struggles with the changing concept of
what constitutes honor, but Laertes represents a further
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stage in the developing concept of honor. Laertes, unlike
Horatio, swears only twice in the entire text of the play:
* He swears revenge for Ophelia’s madness when
he tells her: “By heaven, thy madness shall be paid with
weight / Till our scale turn the beam.” (Act 4. Sc. 5, Lines
180 – 181).
*
Laertes’s father, like Hamlet’s, has been
murdered, and Laertes says that he will get revenge of
such an act. We can see that in his angry response to the
news of Polonius’s death:
“To hell, allegiance! Vows to the
blackest devil!
“Conscience
profoundest pit!
and
grace
to
the
I dare damnation. To this point I
stand,
That both the worlds I give the
negligence,
Let come what comes. Only I’ll be
revenged
Most thoroughly for my father.”
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(Act 4. Sc. 5, Lines 149 –
154)
Laertes is willing to ignore his conscience and to
burn in hell, the consequence of murder, in order to
avenge an act of honor in the old code, his father’s death.
He also tells Claudius that he would be willing to “cut” his
father’s murderer’s “throat I’th’church” (Act 4. Sc. 7, Line
144), when they are plaining the last plot against Hamlet.
These two promises of vengeance show us that Laertes
developed Medieval Code of Honor, but he changes his
medieval code of honor into a modern one focusing upon
his conscience in Act 5. Sc. 2, Lines 361 – 363, when he
says,
“Exchange
noble Hamlet.
forgiveness
with
me,
Mine and my father’s death come no
upon thee,
Nor thine on me.”
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While it is true that Claudius does not utter a single
oath throughout the play, Claudius stands as the epitome
of the way in which a system of honor that is entirely
politicized can be perverted. His traditional view of
monarchy is apparent in the way he manipulates those
around him into promises that suit only his purpose.
Hence, he plays on the honor of Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern when he requests that they spy on Hamlet
for him. Rosencrantz responds to this request with words
that express his understanding of the politics of honor:
“Both your majesties
Might by the sovereign power
you have of us
Put you dread pleasure more
into command
Than to entreaty.”
(Act 2. Sc. 2, Lines 27 – 30)
This courtier understands that within the new code
being honorable means acting in complete obedience to
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the state. Guildenstern, likewise, pledges his loyalty to the
sovereigns:
“But we both obey
And here give up ourselves in full bent
To lay out service freely at you feet
To be commanded.”
(Act 2, Sc.2, Lines 31 – 34)
Although Gertrude assures the courtiers that they
will be rewarded for their obedience (Act 2. Sc. 24 -25),
and notwithstanding the use of language that has
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern offer their loyalty to the
persons of the King and Queen, Shakespeare makes it
clear that these men are not mere court dandies
attempting to curry favor with the monarchy.
Hamlet:
O god, I could be bounded in a
nutshell, and count myself
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king of indefinite space, were it not I have
bad dreams.
Guildenstern: Which dreams are indeed ambition,
for the
very substance of the ambitious is merely
a shadow of a dream
Hamlet:
A dream itself is but a shadow.
Rosencrantz: Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy
and
light a quality that it is but a shadow’s
shadow.
(Act 2. Sc. 2, Lines 273 – 281)
Ambition
is
clearly
not
Guildenstern’s
and
Rosencrantz’s motivation. While it is true that these two
courtiers may simply be spouting court rhetoric in this
passage, it is significant to note that Hamlet himself
speaks for their honesty when he remarks that they have
“a kind of confession in their looks / which your modesties
have not craft enough to color” (Act 2. Sc. 2, Lines 301303). Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are not good liars;
they lack the craft to cover their deception. Rather,
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Claudius is able to manipulate both their loyalty to the
state and their loyalty to their childhood friend to gain their
cooperation in his attempt to spy on Hamlet.
Similarly, Claudius manipulates Polonius’s sense of
honor in an attempt to garner aid in dealing with Hamlet.
Polonius’s speeches are replete with oaths; he prefaces
many of his comments with an invocation to God or
heaven. Claudius, a skilled politician, uses Polonius’s
need to appear honorable to the public to enlist his
services. Thus, when Polonius reveals the love letter
Hamlet wrote to Ophelia, Polonius questions the King:
“What do you think of me?” (Act 2. Sc. 2, Lines 139);
Polonius gains honor through the questionable means of
betraying both Hamlet and Ophelia but, in his mind, doing
what is best for the state by helping to determine the
cause of the prince’s “madness.”
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Finally, Claudius overtly appeals to Laertes’s sense
of chivalric honor as the king manipulates Laertes into
killing Hamlet. Laertes reacts with hotheaded violence
upon discovering that Hamlet is responsible for Polonius’s
death. Claudius, however, uses Laertes’s chivalric sense
of honor in much the same way as he used Polonius’s
more modern concept. Claudius, attempting to use
Laertes to rid the Kingdom of Hamlet, appeals to the
chivalric honor code that rests upon loyalty to kin:
“Laertes, was your father dear to you? / or are you like the
painting of sorrow, / A face without a heart?” (Act 1. Sc. 7,
Lines 122 124). Although Claudius seems to have no
honor system of his own, he is aware of the various forms
that honor takes in a changing Elizabethan world and
skillfully uses them to accomplish his purposes.41
41
See Terry Reta A.; “Vows of the Blackest Devil: Hamlet and the Evolving Code of Honor in Early Modern England” Pages
1075 - 1080
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As a conclusion, we should not forget that if Hamlet
had taken revenge immediately, as required by the
medieval code of honor, Gertrude, Ophelia, Laertes
Polonius, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and even Hamlet
himself would have survived the events of the tragedy.
Instead, Hamlet is caught in a changing system of honor,
and it is his effort to incorporate these changes which
leads, in part to the deaths of many characters.
3.1.9 Hamlet: The Duel of honor
As we have said in chapter one, Queen Elizabeth
established some rules to have a duel of honor, and
sometimes she preferred to watch these duels. The same
occurred in Hamlet.
In Hamlet, when Laertes declares that nothing could
restrain him from acting against Hamlet, Claudius tells
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him that he will arrange a fencing match, a duel of honor,
between the two and that Laertes will use a foil with
unblunted point. In this way, Laertes plans to win against
Hamlet, becoming thus a more honorable man in killing
Hamlet. Then he would get revenge for his father’s
murder, and Ophelia’s madness and death.
Osric communicates to Hamlet that the duel will take
place before the Queen and the King as in Elizabethan
times. Horatio tells Hamlet to postpone the duel, but
Hamlet answers that he is ready to fence because he is
an honorable man. As in Elizabethan England, a table for
the duel is prepared. Osric acts like the spokesperson,
and with and some attendants gave foils and gauntlets for
the duel. Then the king puts Laertes’s hand on Hamlet’s
hand. Hamlet asks Laertes pardon for having wronged
him, but Laertes does not accept the apology until he can
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prove his honor. Here are some lines from what Laertes
says to Hamlet:
“I am satisfied in nature,
Whose motive in this case should stir me
most
To my revenge; but in my terms of honor
I stand aloof and will no reconcilement
Till by some elder masters of known honor
I have a voice and precedent of peace
To keep my name ungored. But till that
time
I do receive your offered love like love
And will not wrong it.”
(Act 5, Sc. 2, Lines 259 – 267)
In this passage, Shakespeare developed in Hamlet
an external code of honor; one of them, Hamlet or
Laertes, is going to be considered the more honorable
man; something that existed in the external code of honor
as we have said in the previous theme. But in the play,
we cannot see who the winner is. Everything that
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Claudius has prepared has failed. When Hamlet is
winning the duel, Gertrude drinks the poisoned cup that
Claudius has prepared for Hamlet. Laertes then wounds
Hamlet with the poisoned rapier. In the scuffle that
follows, Hamlet forces an exchange of rapiers, and
Hamlet wounds Laertes. As Gertrude dies, Laertes,
himself, dying, discloses his and Claudius’s plot against
Hamlet, and then Hamlet kills Claudius.
Hamlet participates in the duel of honor thinking that
it is trustful, but he missed. Claudius does not want to
prove Laertes’s honor; the only thing he wants is to kill
Hamlet. So the duel of honor brings as a consequence
the death of the main characters of the play: Gertrude,
Claudius, Laertes, and Hamlet.
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3.1.10 Hamlet: Crime and Punishment
In the first chapter we described several crimes and
several punishments that people of the upper and the
lower classes suffered during Queen Elizabeth’s time.
But what characters are punished in Hamlet? And what
crime do they commit to be treated in that way?
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern received punishment
in Hamlet. In Act 5, Sc. 2, Hamlet explained to Horatio
that during the trip to England he had found a letter in
which King Claudius had commanded the King of
England to kill him as soon as he got to England. But, as
he discovered, he had the opportunity to revenge to get
revenge on these unfaithful friends. So, he wrote new
instructions, requesting that Claudius’s servants who had
brought the communication, be executed as soon as they
arrived in England.
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With these facts, Shakespeare shows us the
punishment that people of his time received when they
committed any offence of treason to the state. Things like
these occurred most often in the upper class of Queen
Elizabeth’s time.
3.1.11 Hamlet and the Shakespearean Theatre.
A final topic that we can associate with Hamlet and
the Elizabethan world is theatre. Hamlet contains much
evidence of Shakespeare’s interest in the theatre. The
arrival of the players and the performance of The Murder
of Gonzago tell us about England’s Golden Age in
literature. Shakespeare uses this performance as crucial
to the plot, when Hamlet proposes to “catch the
conscience of the king” (Act 2. Sc. 2 Line 134) with the
play.
References
to
playing
and
acting
resound
throughout the play in dramatic images. With its
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preoccupation with appearance and reality, with pretence
and seeming, Hamlet echoes the nature of drama itself.
For this reason, some critics describe Hamlet as
“metatheatre,” and focus their attention on what they see
as the play’s self-consciousness about the theatre.
A striking theatrical example occurs in Hamlet’s
exchange with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (Act 2, Sc.
2, Lines 360- 391). Hamlet asks why the players are
forced to travel, and why their reputation has declined. He
is told it is because of “an aerie of children, little eyases,
that cry out on the top of the question,” a nest of child
actors, as noisy as unfledged hawks. This was a
company of boy players, very active around the time of
Shakespeare when he was writing Hamlet, who enjoyed
great success in London. For a short time these “little
eyases”
threatened
the
livelihood
of
some
adult
professional acting companies which were forced to tour
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because they could not attract London audiences. The
same episode is also thought to be about the wars of the
theatres in which the rivalry between adult companies led
to intense mocking of each other, or “much throwing
about of brains” as Guildenstern describes it in Act 2. Sc.
2. Line 381.42
In this way, we have analyzed and explored the
function of the social concepts that took place under the
reign of Queen Elizabeth and during the lifetime of
William Shakespeare, and we have seen at the same
time how they have been developed by William
Shakespeare in The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of
Denmark.
42
See Gibson Rex: Shakespeare – Hamlet: Cambridge Student Guide; Pages 72 - 73
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Chapter IV
View of Hamlet in our days
4.1 Hamlet: A Resonant Tragedy in our Days
Hamlet was performed for the first time in England
around 1601, and today it is staged in countries all around
the world. Its language and images have become famous
and familiar: The speech, “To be or not to be,” when
Hamlet was doubting what to do; the “Alas poor Yorick,”
speech when Hamlet was contemplating the skull.
Why has the play held such fascination and appeal
for over 400 years? In spite of all the billions of words
written about it, and all its performances, Shakespeare’s
Hamlet remains as enigmatic as Leonardo da Vinci’s
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Mona Lisa.43 Just as people for centuries have tried
without success to solve the riddle of the Mona Lisa’s
smile, so Hamlet has also been endlessly interpreted. But
the play has resisted all attempts to pluck out the heart of
its mystery. Hamlet’s openness to all kinds of possible
interpretations makes it the most theatrical of plays. It is
itself vitally concerned with theatre, full of language of
acting, and of characters who dissemble, pretending to be
what they are not.
If we take some criteria of the experts, we will find
two important reasons why Hamlet is read nowadays. In
the first instance, Hamlet is considered a “masterpiece” of
English Literature and, the secondly, it is a “classic.”
The former reason tell us that only because it is
masterpiece, we read it, and the latter states that the
43
See Gibson Rex: Shakespeare – Hamlet: Cambridge Student Guide, page 4
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message of the story has been valid across time; the
relevant themes of Hamlet continue to resonate today.
Taking Hamlet only as a “classic,” there are many
reasons why Hamlet is still important in our days. One of
the possible reasons is the way Shakespeare uses the
character of Hamlet to exemplify the complex workings of
the human mind. The approach taken by Shakespeare in
Hamlet has generated countless different interpretations
of meaning, but it is through Hamlet’s struggle to confront
his internal dilemma, deciding when to revenge his
father’s death, that the reader becomes aware of one of
the more common interpretations in Hamlet; the idea of
Shakespeare attempting to comment on the influence that
one’s state of mind can have on the decisions they make
in life.
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These critics say that Shakespeare uses the scenes
in Hamlet to demonstrate the effect that one’s perspective
can have on the way one’s mind works, revealing in that
way the complex state of the human mind, made up of
reason, emotion, and attitude. The reader is encouraged
to make a judgment or to form an opinion about some
fundamental aspects of human life. The problems that
face Hamlet are perhaps best viewed as statements of
the types of problems that all people must face as they
live their lives each day. The magnitude of these
everyday problems is almost always a matter of individual
perspective. Each person will perceive a given situation
based on his/her own state of mind. Critics have
mentioned this theme as a fundamental one that has kept
the tragedy alive in our days. Whoever reads Hamlet feels
the desire to give or express their feelings or thoughts
about the tragedy.
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Others say that Hamlet is a play categorized by its
nature as a Revenge Tragedy, a categorization that was
established in the 16th century at the same time as its
production at the Globe Theater in London. Modern
society continues to see Hamlet as a tragedy of revenge.
Hamlet, for many people in our Ecuadorian society, is
even associated with Ecuadorian Political affairs, which
are full of corruption, ambition, envy, hate, and treachery.
The selfishness, greed, and lies of many politicians who
are looking for power and money is similar to the political
affairs of Denmark in the play. We can even say that
some politicians would resort to crimes of revenge such
as those in Hamlet. An example of what we’re talking
about, of course, is the assassination of Jaime Hurtado
which occurred in Quito on February 17, 1999.44
This assassination was seen by Ecuadorians as the
same kind of political revenge that we have in the murder
44
See the newspaper “El Mercuerio,” February 18 and 26, 1999.
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of old King Hamlet. Other examples are when Alfredo
Palacios betrayed Lucio Guitierrrez to become President
of the Republic. Other examples occurred recently: Lucio
Guitierrez’s treatment of his ex-wife, Ximena Bohorquez,
when he refused to support the Constitutional Assembly.
Jorge Cevallos when he didn’t reinstate the members of
his Party; Gloria Gallardo, Silka Sanchez, etc, when they
were removed from the National Congress. Although in
the case of Ecuadorian politicians, usually the revenge
has been not carried out to a tragic end. It has, however,
been carried out to the extent that there were certain
threats of death. Jorge Cevallos was threatened with
death by his ex-colleagues for several times.45
Revenge may be seen also as a type of madness
that brings many consequences, and we witness it
everyday on television. If we take examples from the
45
See the newspapers: “Hoy,” August 01, 2007. “El Comercio,” August 04, 2007
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USA, we will find many. The deadliest shooting occurred
in Virginia Teach University on April 16, 2007.46 This was
a kind of revenge committed by a man that was
influenced by a type of madness.
Other people say that not only revenge is seen in our
days. Many other situations are present in contemporary
society. Marriages to get power and money are very often
heard of; suicide for love is also popular nowadays.
Other examples can be found to show the Tragedy
of Hamlet is relevant to our modern life. Hamlet’s “To be
or not be” speech is full of questions that many people
ask themselves frequently: “Why am I here?” “What is life
all about?” “What should I do with my life?” “Is this all
there is?” These questions concerning our existence are
also made by all people, and maybe this is another
46
See newspaper “El Mercurio,” April 18, 2007
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reason why people read Hamlet; they are trying to look for
an answer to life’s questions in Hamlet.
4.1.1 Reactions when reading Hamlet
Hamlet,
a
tragic
story
written
by
William
Shakespeare, has brought many different reactions to
readers. Many people, for example, say that when they
read the first scenes of Hamlet, they feel nervousness,
fear, curiosity, and interest in knowing how the tragedy
will end. Suspense and mystery are what draw the
readers’ attention to this play.
Other people say that the story is very interesting to
read, but the difficulty of understanding the language of
Shakespeare’s poetic drama is a big problem which they
have to face. They say that a person who wants to read
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Hamlet needs to develop the skills of untangling unusual
sentence
structures
understanding
poetic
and
of
expressions,
recognizing
omissions,
and
and
wordplay. At the same time the plot stirs up interest in
readers, Shakespeare’s language alienates readers from
it. These difficulties are often solved by watching the films
about Hamlet because in this way the audience can hear
the actor speaking and articulating which gives more
meaning to the words.
4.1.2 Hamlet and its Moral Themes
Hamlet, as any other story, has moral themes or
ideas that give us a message. Here are some morals that
people learn while reading Hamlet.
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¾ Hamlet shows us the different levels or ways of
thinking that human beings are capable of in certain
situations that one might be involved in.
¾ Hamlet helps us to note that ambition often brings
hate and death among relatives.
¾ Hamlet makes us think about the behavior of our
brothers, sisters, and close friends. We shouldn’t
trust in them at all times.
¾ People should not try to get revenge by their own
hands.
¾ Hamlet teaches us to look for clues to mysterious
things that happen around us.
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¾ Revenge is not the best solution to our problems.
¾ People shouldn’t wish bad things on others, for these
bad things might happen to themselves.
¾ Each crime has its punishment.
¾ People should be honest with all kinds of people.
¾ People shouldn’t try to get revenge because it
damages our soul and body.
¾ Evil people always end up in bad ways.
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¾ Hamlet reflects how greed can complicate the life of
people and others who are near them.
¾ We should live correctly and we have to be careful
about what is happening around us.
¾ If one kills another, s/he will die, killed by another,
too.
¾ Hamlet teaches us to take into account moral values.
¾ We need to be strong to overcome bad moments.47
47
The morals themes are taken from a research applied to students of English Language and Literature School of Cuenca
University.
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As we can see, all morals reflect something of real life
and these morals or ideals from Hamlet are important
features that have kept the tragedy alive over the
centuries.
4.2 Hamlet: A New Perspective
Hamlet is one of the tragedies that has developed a
reputation as the most intellectually puzzling of William
Shakespeare’s tragedies, and it has already attracted
more commentaries than any other tragedy in English
Literature. A modern perspective has been given to the
tragedy with the appearance of the cinema in 1895.
From this date, Hamlet has been one of the most
frequently performed of Shakespeare’s tragedies. Many
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films have been produced to help the reader to
understand the puzzling scenes of the tragedy.48
If we only check the list of recent films produced, we
will find six films produced by different directors, on
different dates, and with different perspectives, and we
will notice the presence of very well-known actors, too:
9 In 1948, Laurence Olivier directed Hamlet, starring
Laurence Olivier as Hamlet, Jean Simmons as
Ophelia, Eileen Herlie as Gertrude, and Basil
Sydney as Claudius.
9 In 1964, John Gielgud directed Hamlet, starring
Richard Burton as Hamlet.
48
See Mowat Barbara and Paul Westine; Hamlet by William Shakespeare; Pages 307, 310, 315
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9 In 1991, Franco Zeffirelli directed Hamlet, starring
Mel Gibson as Hamlet, Glenn Close as Gertrude,
Alan Bates as Claudius, Helena Bonham-Carter as
Ophelia, and Ian Holm as Polonius.
9 In 1996, Kenneth Branagh directed Hamlet, starring
Kenneth Branagh as Hamlet and the pre-titanic Kate
Winslet as the doomed Ophelia.
9 In 1999, Kevin Kline directed Hamlet, starring Kline
as Hamlet.
9 In 2000, Michael Almereida directed Hamlet, starring
Ethan Hawke as Hamlet.49
49
See Mills John A.; Hamlet on Stage: The great Tradition; Pages 189, 209, 233, 251, 263
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From this long list, we have to emphasize that only
two movies are the most preferred by critics: these are
the films directed and starred in by Laurence Olivier50 and
the film directed by Franco Zeffirelli starred in by Mel
Gibson. This preference is because these two films
present a very close version of the original written story of
Hamlet. The other films are similar, of course, but they
have been set up on a modern stage.
The films produced of Shakespeare’s Hamlet have
helped, in a certain way or other, the tragedy to survive
and have encouraged new people to be involved in the
themes of the tragedy. Of course, we are not talking
about readers, critics, or literary people, we are talking
about people who are in other mediums. Thanks to the
films, people have learned that there existed a story about
a Prince of Denmark who couldn’t make up his mind.
50
Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet is four-oscar winning – best movie, best actor, best decoration and best dressing.
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Psychologists and pedagogues might have been the first
people interested in the tragedy of Hamlet as they would
have wanted to evaluate and analyze the state of mind of
the young Prince as well as the behavior of the other
characters.
All the relevant themes of the tragedy have been
discussed, analyzed, and compared to our real and
modern world. New perspectives about the tragedy are
born from such analysis and comments. For example, Dr.
Ion Youman says that “Shakespeare’s characterization of
Hamlet is so skillful that both sides, the “really mads” and
the “pretending to be mads,” have their adherents. The
debate goes on, over the centuries; sometimes one
theory is prevalent, sometimes the other.”51
51
Youman Ion; English Literature through Beowulf to Milton; Page 214
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Therefore, the development of the characters, the
mystery of the death, and the questions over Hamlet’s
madness have entertained people back in time as well as
today, and new perspectives and new comments about
the tragedy that have been incorporated and that will be
incorporated with the future generations will keep Hamlet
alive for ever and ever.
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Conclusions
Throughout the development of this thesis, we have
been able to show how the majority of the Social
Concepts that took place during the time of William
Shakespeare are manifested in one of his great tragedies,
Hamlet. And so we bring this thesis to conclusion in the
hope that whoever takes the time to read it will come
away from it with a clearer comprehension and
understanding of its main theme, the social concepts in
the time of William Shakespeare and their manifestations
in Hamlet.
Thus, from this research, we have seen that eleven
social concepts are the ones that influenced William
Shakespeare to compose Hamlet. As a result of this work,
we have drawn the following conclusions:
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-
The Political System in England at the time of
Shakespeare was similar to Hamlet’s Denmark. Both
countries have a ruler, Queen Elizabeth and King
Claudius, respectively who ruled from a castle: Queen
Elizabeth from Richmond Palace and Claudius from
Elsinore. Both were problematic countries and were
threatened from a foreign invasion. In both societies, the
right-hand man of the monarch believed that order could
be maintained by close surveillance. Old Polonius had the
characteristics of William Cecil, Elizabeth’s chief minister
of state.
-
Another social concept of England developed in
Hamlet
is
the
religious
beliefs
of
Catholics
and
Protestants. Catholic beliefs are evident in Hamlet’s and
Horatio’s reactions when they saw the ghost, in the
apparition of the ghost (supernatural) and the notion of
purgatory, in Polonius’ blessing, in the king’s prayer, in
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Hamlet’s answer to the king’s prayer, in the gravedigger’s
conversation, and in the Priest’s idealistic words about
Ophelia’s death. The soliloquy, “To be or not to be,” when
Hamlet is asking the question, “How long will a man lie
in’th earth ere he rot?,” and when he is contemplating the
skull of
“poor Yorick,” on the other hand, are
manifestations of Protestant beliefs of the Elizabethan
world in Hamlet.
-
The theme of sovereignty with respect to Queen
Elizabeth and Queen Gertrude is important, as we have
seen. Elizabeth kept the idea of sovereignty without
marrying and so she was sovereign in England. Queen
Gertrude, on the other hand, lost her sovereignty by
marrying Claudius.
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-
The idea of pre-arranged marriage in Elizabeth’s
society is also part of Hamlet. Claudius kills his own
brother to marry Gertrude. So, he became the king of
Denmark, obtaining a high social position among the
nobles of Denmark. Through this marriage, he received
what he wanted, power and the rule of Denmark.
- The theme of incest is another social concept that was
seen in Elizabethan society and it is in Hamlet as well.
Years before, Elizabethan society saw an incestuous
marriage between Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII.
Catherine had been married to Henry’s brother, Arthur. A
similar situation occurred in Hamlet. Gertrude married
Claudius, her former brother-in-law. This marriage was
qualified as “incestuous” by Elizabethan standards.
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- Elizabethan revenge is also present in Hamlet. Stories
about revenge were very common among Elizabethans,
as is the case of the real story of King James of Scotland
whose father had been murdered, while his mother, the
murdered man’s wife, Mary Queen of Scotland, married
the murderer. James promised to get revenge for his
father’s murder. Similarly, the story of Hamlet had the
same characteristics; Hamlet wanted to get revenge for
his father’s murder.
-
Revenge is one of the main themes of the tragedy.
Revenge brought as a consequence the need of the
characters Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras to protect their
family’s honor. The people of the court of England
focused on honor as important in blood and lineage, and
they protected their families’ honor in every way. In this
way, Hamlet and Laertes looked for revenge to preserve
their family honor, but they only found death. Fortinbras
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emerges as the real victor. He avenged his father’s death,
recovered the lost lands, become the new king of
Denmark, and preserve the family honor.
-
Concernig family honor, a person during Elizabethan
England looked for ways to be honorable. Honor was
moving from an external code to an internalized concept.
In the behavior of Horatio, Laertes, Claudius, and Hamlet,
we can also see different points of view with respect to
the concept of honor by their use of promise:
Hamlet develops a changing honor system, an
external or Chivalric Code of honor and an
internalized new code of honor. To make sure of
what the ghost had told Hamlet, Hamlet prepared
the mousetrap.
Horatio is also honorable. He uses the chivalric code
of honor. He is loyal and obedient to Hamlet’s word.
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But he changes his code of honor when he tries to
kill himself after Hamlet is wounded by Laertes.
Claudius, on the other hand, appears honorable only
by his high status, as King of Denmark, but in reality
he is the one who manipulates the honor of the other
around him, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
Laertes’s honor also changes during the play. His
chivalric code of honor, the promise of his revenge
on his father’s murder and Ophelia’s madness,
changes during the duel into a more modern concept
of honor at the moment that he recognizes that
Hamlet is not guilty of such wrong.
-
The duel of honor was another aspect that was very
common
among
Elizabethans.
And,
of
course,
Shakespeare included it in the last scene of Hamlet. A
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duel was set to see which of these two men, Hamlet or
Laertes, was the most honorable. In this duel, we can not
see who is the most honorable man for the duel ends with
the death of both Hamlet and Laertes.
-
Hamlet
contains
much
evidence
also
of
Shakespeare’s interest in the theatre. The arrival of the
players and the performance of The Murder of Gonzago
tell us about England’s Golden Age in literature. These
players were a company of actors that were very
successful in London during Shakespeare’s time. So
Shakespeare included a play in Hamlet, too.
Through this thesis we have discovered that certain
aspects in the tragedy have been totally different from the
ideas that we had at the beginning of this thesis. Not all
the tragedy of Hamlet is about William Shakespeare’s
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social concepts. He had other influences or he composed
Hamlet basing his on other stories that existed years
before him, or something like that.
Finally, we will end by saying that Hamlet,
considered a “masterpiece” of English Literature and a
“classic,” continues being a resonant tragedy in our days.
It is because its topics and themes are valid across time.
Films
about
the
tragedy
have
helped
people
to
comprehend better the vocabulary of tragedy, and at the
same time, have involved all kinds of people in discussion
and analysis of the themes of Hamlet, making Hamlet a
story of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
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Appendix
1.- Helpful Vocabulary in reading passages from
Hamlet
Page 54
Page 85, 86
Doublet: close-fitting jacket
A weak supposal of our worth: a
low opinion of my ability
Unbraced: unfastened
Colleague: in league with
Fouled: dirty
Down-gyved to his ankle: fallen
Advantage: superior position
down around his ankles like gives
or chains.
Page 87, 88
To make inquire of: ask questions
Page 56
about
Stay: way
Inquire me: inquire on my behalf
I
will
be
faithful:
will
read
accurately
I
am
ill
What means: what is their supply
of money
at
these
numbers:
unskilled at writing verse
Keep: live
Encompassment and drift of
Reckon my groans: count my
question:
lover’s sights
conversation
Whilst this machine is to him:
Come you … touch it: you will
while I still occupy this body
come closer than you would by
roundabout
specific questions.
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Reach: mental ability
Windlass
…
bias:
life of “a fugitive and a vagabond,”
indirect
approaches, a windlass being an
was laid on him for his murder of
his brother, Abel (Genesis 4.10-12)
indirect course on hunting, the
Whereto
bias being the curve that brings
purpose does mercy serve except
the ball to the desired point in the
to
game of bowls.
condemnation?
…
confront
offense?:
the
what
face
of
Forestalled …down: the twofold
force of prayer is that we not be
Page 91, 92
“let into temptation” and that we be
Look at thou character: see that
you inscribe
Th’ offense: that which has been
Familiar: friendly
Unfledged
courage:
gained through the crime
spirited
youngster
Censure:
“forgiven our trespasses”
Currents: course of events
Offense’s
synonymous
with
judgment
Habit: Clothing
Are … in that: the French show
golden
gilded
hand
of
hand:
the
the
offender,
“gilded” through money illegally
obtained.
Shove by: trust aside
their refinement chiefly in the way
‘Tis not so above: this is not the
they choose their apparel.
case in heaven
Husbandry: management of one’s
There is no shuffling: in heaven,
money
one
cannot
escape
through
evasion
Page 92, 93
Primal eldest curse: The first
The action … in evidence: In
God’s court, the legal action must
be brought in accord with the facts;
curse, which condemned Cain to a
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we are forced even to testify
against ourselves.
Page 96
Rests: remains
Straight: straightway, immediately
Limed: trapped, like a bird caught
in birdlime
Crowner: coroner
Sat on her: conducted a formal
Engaged: entangled
inquest into her death
Make assay: put forth all your
efforts
Finds it: decided that her death
warrants
Doubtful: suspicious
Page 94, 95
But that … order: except for the
Would be scanned: needs to be
fact
examined
overrides the rule of the church
Hire
and
salary:
something
Claudius should pay me for
of
the
world
(See
Ezekiel 16.49: “Pride, fullness of
bread,
and
the
ground
king’s
…
command
trumpet:
in
unhallowed ground been buried
Grossly, full of bread: in the full
enjoyment
In
that
abundance
of
until
the
Judgment
(See
Corinthians 15.51-52. “…for the
trumpet shall sound and the dead
shall be raised incorruptible.”
idleness.”
For: instead of
Audit: final account
Shards: bits of pottery
Heavy with him: his spirit is in a
Crants: garlands
serious condition
Day
Strewments: flowers strewn on a
Him: Claudius
grave
Know thou more horrid hent:
Bringing … burial: being brought
wait for a more horrible occasion
to the grave, her last home, to the
sound of the bell
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Native hue: natural color
Page 97, 98
Cast: shade
Rub: obstacle (a technical term
Pitch: height
form the game of bowls where a
“rub”
is
any
obstruction
that
hinders or deflects the curse of the
bowl.)
Moment: importance
With this regard: on this account
Their currents turn awry: the
Shuffled off this mortal coil:
great enterprises are like rivers
untangled ourselves from the flesh;
that, turned aside form their main
also detached ourselves from the
channels, lose momentum and
turmoil of human affairs
become stagnant
Makes calamity of so long life:
Soft you now: an exclamation to
makes us put up with unhappiness
interrupt speech (wait a moment,”
for such a long time
“hold,” “enough”)
Despised: unrequited
Office: those in office
Page 103
His quietus make: settle his own
A vice of kings: a buffoon of a
account
king
Bare bodkin: a mere dagger
Cutpurse: thief
Fardels: burdens, loads
Undiscovered: unexplored
Page 103
Boun: frontier
Contraction: the marriage contract
Puzzled: paralyzes
Rhapsody: jumble
Conscience:
consciousness
knowledge,
This … mass: the earth
Against
the
doom:
when
Judgment Day comes
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Is
thought-sick:
Heaven
is
Throughly: thoroughly
thought-sick
Page 125
Page 104
Sullied: stained, defiled
In the full bent: fully, totally
Page 128
In nature: in terms of my natural
Page 105, 106
Hercules: in Greek mythology, a
affection for my father and for my
sister
hero of extraordinary strength and
Will
courage
ungored:
Had … eyes: had stopped turning
her eyes red
Post: rush
Luxury: lust
no
reconcilement
…
will
no
accept
reconciliation until experts in those
questions give a decision that may
serve as a precedent for making
peace, thus freeing my reputation
from a chafe of dishonor
Voice: authority
Page 123
Name
ungored:
reputation
unwounded
Both … negligence: I don’t care
what happens to me in this world
or the next
G
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2.- Research applied to the students of English
Language and Literature School of Cuenca University.
Hamlet: A Modern Perspective
1.- What do you know about Hamlet?
……………………………………………………………………
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2.- What was your reaction when you read Hamlet?
……………………………………………………………………
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3.- What themes do you consider relevant in Hamlet?
……………………………………………………………………
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4.- Why do you consider that they are relevant in the
tragedy?
……………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………….
……………………………………………………………………
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……………………………………………………………………
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5.- Why do you think that this play keeps being read in our
days?
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6.- What do you think that Hamlet teaches us?
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7.- What themes of our society could be associated with
Hamlet?
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…………………………………………………………………
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……………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………….
3.- Results of the questionnaire on Hamlet.
64 students from the School of English Language and
Literature of the University of Cuenca participated in this
survey.
Hamlet: A Modern Perspective
1.- What do you know about Hamlet?
With respect to this question, most of the people
researched said that,
™ Hamlet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare.
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™ Hamlet is a work that is considered a masterpiece of
English Literature.
™ Hamlet is a story about a prince called Hamlet who
had to get revenge for his father’s murder.
™ Hamlet is a story in which the indecision of the main
character caused the deaths of innocent people.
™ Hamlet is a story of all time.
2.- What was your reaction when you read Hamlet?
To this question, there were different answers, but four
are the most common among them. Here follows a
description of them. Other themes
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These percentages were made from a total the 64
students who participated in the survey (64=100%)
3.- What themes do you consider relevant in Hamlet?
For this question, we have five common answers. We
also have a short description of answers in percentages.
Other themes2
1
9 % of the students felt other reactions when they read Hamlet such as anger, annoyance, resentment, fury, or antipathy, etc
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These percentages were made from a total the 64
students who participated in the survey (64=100%)
2
6 % of the students mentioned other relevant themes such as the supernatural, incest, envy, honor, doubt, anger, marriage,
unfaithfulness, etc
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4.- Why do you consider that they are relevant in the
tragedy?
Most of the students said that the relevant themes
showed in Hamlet reflect the real situations that the author
experienced in his time. Also, they said that these themes
are important because we deal with these topics today,
making Hamlet a story of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
5.- Why do you think that this play keeps being read in
our days?
The researched people say that Hamlet is read for two
reasons. Some people say that we read it only because it is
considered a “masterpiece” of English Literature. Other
people say that we read Hamlet because it is a “classic” of
all time. Both groups say the message of the story has been
valid across time; the relevant themes of the tragedy
continue to be important today.
6.- What do you think that Hamlet teaches us?
To this question we received some good answers and
good moral themes. To see these answers, we have to
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check one of the themes of Chapter IV, Hamlet and its
Moral Themes, page 137.
7.- What themes of our society could be associated
with Hamlet?
For many of people researched, Hamlet can be
associated with Ecuadorian Political affairs, which are full of
corruption, ambition, envy, hate, and treachery. Other
people say that revenge is also seen in our days as a type
of madness. The deadly shooting that occurred in Virginia
Tech University on April 16, 2007, was given as an
example. Other themes such as marriages to get power and
money, suicide for love, or questions concerning our
existence were also mentioned.
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4.- A Gallery of Photos from Hamlet
Gallery
The Castle of Elsinore in Hamlet
Horatio communicating Hamlet about the Ghost’s apparition
Polonius giving his blessing to Laertes (Ophelia followed
them closely)
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Claudius announcing to the
court that he had married
his brother’s wife, Gertrude
Hamlet, taking an oath,
makes his friends promise
not to tell anyone about the
ghost’s appearance
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Polonius reading Ophelia’s letter to Claudius
The players acting in the
“Mousetrap”
Claudius asking God for pardon
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On the ship, Hamlet finds a
letter wherein his uncle
requests his execution as
soon as he arrives in
England.
Laertes asked Claudius “Where is my father?”
when he arrived from France.
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“There’s a daisy. I would
give you some violets, but
they withered all when
my father died. They say
he made a good end.”
(Act 4. Sc.
5, Lines 207-209)
These words are
pronounced by Ophelia in
her lunacy
Hamlet contemplating the skull of Yorick
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Ophelia’s funeral
Saying “sweets to the sweet, farewell!” Gertrude
scatters flowers over Ophelia’s dead body
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Claudius and Laertes planning the last plot against
Hamlet
The poisoned wine that Claudius prepared for Hamlet
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Laertes wounds Hamlet with the poisoned sword in the
duel
In scuffling, Hamlet and
Laertes change rapiers,
and Hamlet wounds
Laertes with the same
poisoned sword.
“Look to the Queen there, ho!,” Osric says when the
Queen falls
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“...the drink, the drink! O,
my dear Hamlet!” were
the last words of the
Queen
After Hamlet kills Claudius,
he dies asking Horatio to tell his story to future
generations
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The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Shakespearean Tragedy-Lectures on Hamlet, Othello,
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The Works of William Shakespeare
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1937
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Hamlet, William Shakespeare
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Shakespeare Hamlet, Cambridge Student Guide
280
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Series Editor: Rex Gibson
Cambridge University Press
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GRAVILLE, Harley and HARRISON G.B.
Introducción a Shakespeare
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The Pelican Shakespeare, Hamlet
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The Age of Shakespeare
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281
UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA
FACULTAD DE FILOSOFÍA, LETRAS Y CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIÓN
ESCUELA DE LENGUA Y LITERATURA INGLESA
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University of Nebraska
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Noble’s Comparative Classics Julius Caesar and
Elizabeth the Queen
Jamaica High School
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Hamlet by William Sakespeare
Folder Shakespeare Library
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282
UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA
FACULTAD DE FILOSOFÍA, LETRAS Y CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIÓN
ESCUELA DE LENGUA Y LITERATURA INGLESA
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The Holy Bible
Revised Standard Version
283
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Published by Thomas Nelson & Sons
NEW York
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YOUMAN, Ion
English Literature from Beowulf through Milton
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Virtual Libraries
Questia – the online Library of Books and Journals
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BERTRAM, Joseph
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Conscience and the King: A study of Hamlet
London, 1953
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BROWN, Watson Curstis
Shakespeare and the Renaissance Concept of Honor
Princeton University Press
Princeton, New Jersey
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DOVER, Wilson J.
What happens in Hamlet?
New York: The Macmillan Company
Cambridge, England - At the University Press 1935
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FENDT, Gene
Is Hamlet A RELIGIOUS DRAMA? An Essay on a
Question in Kierkegaard
Marquette University Press – The Association of Jesuit
University Presses
Andrew Tallon, Series Editor
285
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ESCUELA DE LENGUA Y LITERATURA INGLESA
http://www.questia.com/read/56273624
FRYE, Susan
Elizabeth I: The Competition for Representation
Oxford University Press
New York, 1993
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LEVIN, Carole
Elizabeth I and The Politics of Sex and Power
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia
1994
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MILLS, John A.
Hamlet on Stage: The Great Tradition
Greenwood Press
Westport, Connecticut London, England
1985
286
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http://www.questia.com/read/14269438
O’Dell, Leslie
Shakespearean Scholarship: A guide for Actors and
Students
Greenwood Press
Westport, Connecticut London, England
2002
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SPENCER, Beesly Edward
Queen Elizabeth
London Macmillan and co. and New York 1892
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WELSH, Alexander
Hamlet in His Modern Guises
Princetown University Press
2001
http://www.questia.com/read/100493754
WRIGHT, Louis B.
Middle – Class Culture in Elizabethan England
287
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Chapel Hill
The University of North Caroline Press
1935
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J s t o r – the Scholarly Journal Archive
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AGUIRRE, Manuel
“Life, Crown, and Queen: Gertrude and the theme of
Sovereignty”
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QGA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-7
ROSENBLATT, Jason P.
“Aspects of the Incest problem in Hamlet”
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00373222%28197822%2929%3A3%3C349%3AAOTIPI%3E2.
0.CO%3B2-3
TERRY, Reta A.
“Vows to the Blackest Devil”; Hamlet and the Evolving
Code in Early Modern England”
288
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http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00344338%28199924%2952%3A4%3C1070%3A%22TTBDH
%3E2.0.CO%3B2-R
WOOD, Robert E.
“Space and scrutiny in Hamlet”
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2.0.CO%3B2-F
Other Internet Sources
“Appearance Vs reality in Hamlet”
http://www.field-ofthemes.com/shakespeare/essays/Ehamlet3.htm
“Chivalry and the Code of Honor”
http://nj.essortment.com/chivalriccode_rxnf.htm
“Elizabethan Period”
http://www.springfield.K12.il.us/schools/springfield/eliz/intr
oelizperiod.html
“Honor in action during the Elizabethan Period”
289
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http://www.usafa.af.mil/jscope/ISME2007/Papers/CDR%2
0Reed%20Bonadonna%
“Introduction to the Shakespearean Period”
http://www.enotes.com/williamshakespeare/shakespeare-an-introduction
“Madness in Shakespeare’s Hamlet”
http://www.field-ofthemes.com/shakespeare/essays/Ehamlet6.htm
“Marriage in the Elizabethan period”
http://ise.uvic.ca/library/SLT/society/marriagehtml
“Political and Economical Concerns”
www.essay.org/school/english/elizabeth.doc
“Religious Concerns in Shakespeare’s time and in
Elizabethan England”
http://ise.uvic.ca/library/SLT/history/Catholics.html
Microsoft Encarta
Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2007. © 1993-2006 Microsoft
Corporation.
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Microsoft®Encarta2006. ©1993-2004 Microsoft
Corporation.
Encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761576241_/Chivalriy.ht
ml - 36k -
Extra Sources
The movie of the Hamlet produced by Franco Zeffirelli
The movie of the Hamlet produced by Laurence Olivier
The movie of Elizabeth starred in by Cate Blanchett
The movie of Shakespeare in Love starred in by Joseph
Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow.
291