Hamlet

Throughout Shakespeare’s Hamlet, it is clearly evident that the protagonist’s problems are far more complex than simple grief over Old King Hamlet’s death, many of which have possibly been suppressed within his subconscious for quite some time. Hamlet’s innate beliefs and morals, coupled with his search for meaning within his life, cause him to truly question who he is, what he wants to be, and how he wants to be remembered.
Hamlet’s battle with his own beliefs engenders his major moral crises. Growing up in a strictly Christian household, Hamlet’s religious indoctrination has programmed him to believe that Thou must not kill – a fundamental religious commandment which he wholeheartedly follows. However, when Hamlet finds out that Claudius murdered his father, he begins to feel incredibly conflicted between his religious beliefs and his need to abide by his “filial obligations,” thus avenging his father. This conflict between religious sentiment and filial duty becomes all the more difficult to resolve when Hamlet stumbles upon Claudius praying. Hamlet, realising that his entry is unbeknownst to Claudius, initially sees this as an opportune moment to kill his uncle. However, Hamlet pauses, thinking that to kill Claudius whilst he is in prayer would be “hire and salary, not revenge,” and would send him straight to heaven, thus doing him a grave service. Hamlet believes this to be an injustice since his father is suffering in Purgatory, and so resolves to wait in the hope of catching Claudius in the act of sin, thereby ensuring his passage to hell.
Hamlet’s moral struggle between religious beliefs and filial commitments is a catalyst for his existential crisis. His legendary soliloquy ”to be or not to be” explores his will to live as he ponders the nature of life and asks the very questions that we all think at one time or other. Hamlet contemplates why we continue to live in such a complicated world when we might “quietus make with a bare bodkin,” thus