Ambiguity And Religious Differences In The Shakespearian Play

To fully appreciate a play, one must put it into the cultural contexts of its time. One of the integral aspects of a piece of literary work is its religious base. Whether it is Christian, atheist or Daoist, religious contexts usually make a difference in the work. Hamlet is the same. The Shakespearian play is rather ambiguous with what form of Christianity it follows, uses religion to set up the tone of a character, and has religion as a major theme. Hamlet is rather vague on what specific Christian belief it references. There are two major denominations that are thought to be the one used to light the actions in the play. The first denomination is the Elizabethan era of Shakespeare himself, where Protestantism was the official religion once
Hamlet is portrayed as very religious. He was considering suicide after the death of his father, which lead to his famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy. However, he did not follow through on the thought, instead saying: “Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d/ His canon ’gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God!” (1.2. 131-132). Also, Hamlet had a chance to end the story before the immense tragedy that is the end of the play, simply by taking advantage of Claudius’s time in prayer. Instead, a bit of his madness slipped through, as Hamlet believed that to kill Claudius while the man is in prayer would send him to Heaven, and himself to Hell. While not strictly correct, this idea is definitely based in religion. Perhaps the biggest example of setting a character’s tone by religion is the case of the marriage between Claudius and Gertrude. This marriage is seen as incest since they were already brother and sister by law. This belief is not present in some religions but is prevalent in others. This marriage sets a definite tension to the beginning of the story, where the happy mood of the wedding and party is at odds with the mourning of the late king. The religious aspects are sprinkled all around the characters, and each time it assists in setting the mood for that character in the