Hamlet Religion Quotes Page 1

Although the play's story is set in the late middle ages (before the Protestant Reformation), critics tend to agree that Hamlet is a quintessential "Protestant son." Not only does he live in Denmark, a Protestant nation by the time Shakespeare wrote the play, but he also attends school in Wittenberg, Germany. This, as we know, is where Martin Luther wrote his Ninety-five Theses in 1517 (considered to be the catalyst for the Protestant Reformation). Why does this matter? Well, the play can't seem to make up its mind about whether or not the play is set in a Catholic or Protestant world, which seems to register the kind of religious and spiritual anxiety and confusion that was brought on by the Protestant Reformation and England's official break with the Catholic Church under Henry VIII (1534).

Hmm. This is interesting. The Ghost not only claims to be Hamlet's "father's spirit," it also suggests that it's a Purgatorial ghost. (Purgatory was often imagined a fiery place where souls "purged away" their sins before going to heaven. Purgatorial spirits returned to ask loved ones for prayers that could help them to reach heaven faster.)

The problem with this is that Protestants (and we've already established that Hamlet's a Protestant) don't believe in Purgatory. At the time Shakespeare wrote the play, England was a Protestant nation that persecuted practicing Catholics. So, it's a big deal that the Ghost seems to be a Catholic.

In terms of plot, this partially explains why Hamlet is so skeptical of the Ghost's claims (that it's the spirit of his father and also that it was murdered by Claudius). This has some major consequences for the way the action of the play unfolds – Hamlet spends much of his time trying to figure out if the Ghost is trustworthy and whether or not Claudius is guilty of murder, which is one of many things that delays Hamlet's revenge.

The fact that the Ghost appears to be Catholic (while Hamlet appears to be a Protestant) isn't the only thing that makes the spirit a suspicious figure in this play (see discussion above). We should also keep in mind that Purgatorial spirits weren't in the habit of asking living relatives to murder other people (murder being a major sin for both Protestants and Catholics) to help them get to heaven. At the same time, Hamlet belongs to the generic category of "Revenge Tragedy," which doesn't exactly square with the kind of Christian ideologies that are registered in the play. All of which is to say that Shakespeare is working within and weaving together multiple literary and cultural traditions. If you want to think about this some more, check out "Genre" and also our discussion of "Tragedy."