Michealzer's Five Different Kinds Of Toleration

The political philosopher Micheal Walzer has proposed five different kinds of toleration: resignation to difference for the sake of peace; a benignly relaxed, passive indifference to difference; a principled recognition that others have rights even if they exercise them in unattractive ways; openness or even curiosity; and finally, an enthusiastic endorsement of difference (On Toleration 10-11). In critiquing Walzer’s scale, the political historian John Christian Laursen has clarified that “respect, endorsement, and celebration” are as far from toleration as is “organized, systematic, violent persecution” (“Orientation 3”). Laursen instead proposes a simpler scale, with “organized, systemic, violent persecution at one end and respect, endorsement,
After, a ghost appears who resembles Hamlet’s father and tells Hamlet to avenge his death by killing Claudius who murdered the king in order to take his crown. Throughout the rest of the play Hamlet feigns insanity and plots against Claudius until he finally murders him in the end after a tragic duel. In “Hamlet” Shakespeare points to four events that illustrate tests of tolerance. First when Hamlet is silently displeased with the situation at hand by keeping a few angry comments to himself in the first act. Second when Hamlet starts to feel guilty for not taking any action to avenge the murder of his father, and consequently decided to devise a plan to test Claudius to see if he is the true murder in the second act. Finally, the third moment is when Hamlet carries out the actual act of killing his uncle and leaving the throne to the English in the final fifth act. Taken together, these events suggest that “Hamlet” portrays how a person can experience a progression (or digression) from tolerance to intolerance towards another person’s action
I do not find Walzer’s scale adequate in describing this act and most acts in Hamlet. In this instance, the closest form of toleration I can interpret this to is the “resigned acceptance of difference for the sake for peace” (Walzer, 10). Hamlet and Claudius have very apparent differences in the way they view their current circumstances. By murmuring under his breath, Hamlet is not showing his disapproval of his uncle being the king of Denmark. Hamlet does give Claudius and Gertrude attitude in this scene, although it is not an outright confrontation and therefore, not a fully intolerant action. Hamlet did not intend to cause any trouble in this scene and by keeping quiet made this interaction comparatively peaceful to his future actions. Consequently, this is close to a resigned tolerant action. For Laursen’s scale, this action would fall in the middle space between tolerance and “organized, systematic, violent persecution” since Hamlet is not completely tolerant of his situation though he is still making silent complaints and giving his uncle attitude (Laursen, 3). Hamlet is providing minimal persecution to Claudius but not to the extent where he imposes harm on