Hamlet: Protestant Or Protestant?
Debora Pineda Gomez
English 1330 OA
Professor Mattix
Argumentative Essay #3
December 3, 2015
¬Hamlet: Protestant or Catholic In the play Hamlet, William Shakespeare does make it quite difficult to identify Hamlet’s religious views, but he does provide many clues which are evident as Protestant. For example, Hamlet lives in Denmark, which is a Protestant region, he went to a university where the Protestant Reformation began, and also his beliefs in certain things throughout the book are proof that Hamlet is, indeed, Protestant. The play, Hamlet, takes place in Denmark which has been a Protestant region since 1536, when the Reformation began. According to TRUTH.INFO, the nation started getting divided in the early 1500s when a group of people began to protest against some of the teachings and beliefs which were being taught in the Catholic Church (TRUTH.INFO, History). This protest caused many to leave the Catholic Church and led them to …show more content…
For example, when the ghost appeared to Hamlet, he thought that it was a “goblin damned”. The ghost claimed that he came from purgatory as he said, “I am your father’s spirit,/ doomed for a certain term to walk the night/ And for the day confined to fast in fires/ Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature/ Are burnt and purged away” (I.5, Line 9-13) Protestants did not really believe in purgatory and it was greatly debated during and after the Reformation. In Shakespeare Online Study Tools it is written that “some theologians, Luther among them, believed that, after a person’s death, the soul ‘slept’, to reawaken at the day of Judgement.” (Shakespeare Online Study Tools, Concepts of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory in Hamlet). Protestants absolutely denied the idea of purgatory and instead believed that salvation was based on faith and on God’s mercy. Also, they believed that ghosts were only demons trying to tempt them into
English 1330 OA
Professor Mattix
Argumentative Essay #3
December 3, 2015
¬Hamlet: Protestant or Catholic In the play Hamlet, William Shakespeare does make it quite difficult to identify Hamlet’s religious views, but he does provide many clues which are evident as Protestant. For example, Hamlet lives in Denmark, which is a Protestant region, he went to a university where the Protestant Reformation began, and also his beliefs in certain things throughout the book are proof that Hamlet is, indeed, Protestant. The play, Hamlet, takes place in Denmark which has been a Protestant region since 1536, when the Reformation began. According to TRUTH.INFO, the nation started getting divided in the early 1500s when a group of people began to protest against some of the teachings and beliefs which were being taught in the Catholic Church (TRUTH.INFO, History). This protest caused many to leave the Catholic Church and led them to …show more content…
For example, when the ghost appeared to Hamlet, he thought that it was a “goblin damned”. The ghost claimed that he came from purgatory as he said, “I am your father’s spirit,/ doomed for a certain term to walk the night/ And for the day confined to fast in fires/ Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature/ Are burnt and purged away” (I.5, Line 9-13) Protestants did not really believe in purgatory and it was greatly debated during and after the Reformation. In Shakespeare Online Study Tools it is written that “some theologians, Luther among them, believed that, after a person’s death, the soul ‘slept’, to reawaken at the day of Judgement.” (Shakespeare Online Study Tools, Concepts of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory in Hamlet). Protestants absolutely denied the idea of purgatory and instead believed that salvation was based on faith and on God’s mercy. Also, they believed that ghosts were only demons trying to tempt them into