Conscience is inner critical thinking about one’s behavior and acts of rightfulness or wrongfulness- this can affect how one deals with death and the idea of an afterlife by subconsciously guiding one to act a certain way to obtain the ‘promised afterlife’ in the Christian religion. In the time of Shakespeare- the Elizabethan era, the two main religions were Catholic and Protestant, the reader can see influences of religion throughout Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In ‘Hamlet’, the Christian concepts of one’s conscience, death and afterlife are demonstrated through Hamlet and supporting characters. Shakespeare gives these Christian concepts a larger meaning. Religion adds uncertainty and fear to a character’s decision making process. Shakespeare constantly …show more content…
His conscience was aligned with his religious beliefs which got in the way of allowing him to act on his thoughts. This sparked an inner conflict in Hamlet about what to do. When Hamlet was first told by the ghost to kill King Claudius, Hamlet overthinks the decision on throughout the book. Hamlet knows his conscience driven mind will prevent him from acting on his instincs to kill Claudius. “Thus conscience does make cowards of us all” (3.1.87) Hamlet is angry with himself that he has let his conscience come in the way. Hamlet was not only obsessed with his own conscience but the conscience of others as well. "The play's the thing, wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king." (2.2.617) Hamlet wants to know what king Claudius is thinking in terms of his conscience before Hamlet acts. Here, Hamlet is thinking with his conscience, instead of just killing Claudius like he wanted to do from the beginning, he needs to confirm the conscience of Claudius to convince his own conscience it is the right thing to do. Hamlet was constantly overthinking because he wanted a clean conscience however, this brought several internal conflicts Hamlet had to battle himself with and inevitable lead to his
In Harold Skulsky’s Revenge, Honor, and Conscience in ‘Hamlet’, he discusses that by the uncertainty of his instruction, Hamlet’s father basically leaves it up to Hamlet to make a choice with possible options for revenge. Lack of will and the code of honor are eventually disproved. Though Hamlet never disregards his promise to unlimited vengeance, he manages to lessen it by engaging from conscience and compassion, first to the code of honor, and then, having to become a doomed scourge of God. These calls lead up to Hamlet's ultimate reunion of conscience with sacred order, and label a stable religious downfall from which he is saved, through no quality of his own, by the brief insanity of his final outbreak of rage. Skulsky says, "...honor
Olivia Lynch Mrs. Butterfield AP Lit 5/1/16 When you are ready to dive into the vast world of Shakespeare, you can begin by using what is known as a critical lens. The lens that may help you understand the background details of one of Shakespeare’s plays would be the Historical lens. Although there are many different lens that you can use to interpret a story, the Historical Lens is a great lens to dive into to find what really influenced the great ideas of William Shakespeare as he wrote Hamlet including the role gender plays, the comparison of Elizabeth Tudor, and the religious incorporation throughout the play. First, we can take the Historical Lens and dive into the idea of how gender roles were highly represented in Hamlet
Hamlet at first was a little bit weary of the ghost but when the ghost told Hamlet that he was stuck in purgatory until revenge was sought out, hamlet was on board. Hamlet adored his father so when the ghost asked him to seek revenge, and when it told him to murder claudius it's all he focuses on for the majority of the novel. The effect seeking justice had on Hamlet was profound. He became obsessed with finding a proper way to kill the king. His first attempt was to put on a play where he hired actors to recreate the old king's murder to see how the queen and Claudius would react.
Hamlet was given the prime opportunity to kill Claudius when he found him on his knees begging for forgiveness. Hamlet negated not to kill him right then and there because he wanted Claudius to go to hell, not heaven. Hamlet’s lack of sanity, or his tragic flaw, in the play is definitely what caused his inability to
Hamlet was also dealing with a lot of emotions that are hard to deal with not to mention control. Hamlet was all so feeling betrayal in all of his relationships as stated before. Hamlet’s mother moved on to Claudius so fast (less than two months) that Hamlet thought she didn’t love his father the way he thought while growing up or maybe she only married him to stay queen. Then Claudius tells Hamlet to move on and that mourning for this long is unmanly and he should move on because everybody dies. That just pushed Hamlet over the top and he decided to get
The main character of William Shakespeare’s tragedy is actually a confused person that’s stuck between two choices. Some may argue that he feels guilty for his father’s death and so it’s his duty to avenge it. While others may disagree and conclude that he is just a maniac who is both violent and dangerous. Hamlet passes through the lane of hesitancy, where he hesitates to kill King Claudius. As a matter of fact, the main conflict of Hamlet is that he feels both the need to solve the crime and punish the responsible.
In the Tragedy of Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, some of the most significant events are mental or psychological events that make the audience feel and have an emotional connection with the characters. These significant events can be awakenings, discoveries, and changes in consciousness that set off a mental or psychological effect to the readers. The author, Shakespeare, gives these internal events to characters such as Ophelia, Gertrude, and Hamlet throughout the play to give the sense of excitement, suspense, and climax usually associated with external action. Ophelia is the daughter of Polonius and the sister of Laertes who both tell her to stop seeing Hamlet. To Polonius, Ophelia is an eternal virgin who is going to be a dutiful
Hamlet is presented with several opportunities to pursue his vengeance, but delays each time for multiple reasons in which reveal his true nature. There are many reasons Hamlet restrains from killing Claudius. Firstly, Hamlet does not know whether the ghost should be believed or if it is just the devil in disguise trying to trick him. This is a valid reason because if the ghost is the devil, then Hamlet’s soul will be damned to the Hell. Hamlet’s
Throughout Hamlet, Prince Hamlet is faced against many situations that question his mental stability and ability to make decisions. His indecisiveness comes from the way he reacts to the situations he is put in and the way his mind presents these situations to him. The most important indecisive moments are Hamlet’s suicidal thoughts, his father’s ghost, and his vengeance to Claudius. When Hamlet is told by a ghost that has a resemblance of his father that Claudius had killed him, he vows to take vengeance and revenge his father’s death.
To be or not to be morally ambiguous is to have the lack of coherence in making moral life decisions. In Shakespeare's play Hamlet, the main character Hamlet goes through a great transformation. Hamlet seeks revenge toward Claudius who he believes killed his father for the throne. In many of Shakespeare’s play there is always a hero and a villain, but in Hamlet, Hamlet plays a pivotal role because he can be viewed as both the hero and the villain. Hamlet is seen as a morally ambiguous character due to the decisions he makes throughout the plot of the novel that ends up leading him to his demise.
He has a doubt about what the ghost told him and instead of acting instantly to ravage his father’s murder, he starts to figure out about whether Claudius was guilty or not, as he says “I’ll have grounds more relative than this” (2.2.565) which shows that he is looking for enough evidence to kill Claudius. But Hamlet is a great
Hamlet's overthinking and inaction led to several unnecessary murders. Hamlet knew that Claudius is guilty, yet he still wants to make sure, therefore Hamlet made a play that played out the exact way that Claudius had killed King Hamlet. Hamlet had done this in order to watch how Claudius reacts to make sure that Claudius is the one who murdered his father, “I’ll observe his looks, if he do blench, I know my course” (Ham.2.2.583-585) “Now might I do it pat, now’a is a-praying. And now I’ll do’t” ( Ham.
When he learns Claudius is responsible for the death of his father, he intends to reveal this newfound information to not only Gertrude, but the rest of the characters. He is smart enough to know that she will not believe him based solely on his encounter with the ghost, and must create a trap where Claudius will reveal his guilt on his own. When the players arrive at the castle, he alters their script to mimic the king’s murder and “catch the conscience of the king” (II.ii.567). During the performance, Claudius shows signs of guilt and worry, making Hamlet’s plan a success and proving his
The religious preferences and philosophy of the English Renaissance affected Shakespeare’s writing. The battle for a man’s soul comes from the Christian idea of God in heaven conflicting with Satan in the world. Shakespeare views evil as more than only bad deeds; it breaks the holy order that God instituted to hold the universe together (Miller). Expanding
Due to himself being too idealistic and restrained, he does not take decisive actions even after using the planned play to test the Claudius's conscience that could possibly expose himself and left himself in unfavorable circumstances. Hamlet’s inability to act is caused by his overanalysis of the situations that further render him from not carrying out actions in response. If Hamlet is not indecisive, he would not be uncertain about the evidence regarding to his uncle’s crime, he would not be delaying his revenge, he would not be having emotional breakdowns and become a tragic figure. Hamlet’s personality ‘borns’ and develops under his royal position and the growing