Hamlet

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Pelin Ozbay
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Hamlet Essay
Christianity and Hamlet
Ecclesiastes 7: 17 said “Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time?” Suicide is an important part in the bible. It is one of the things that is considered a sin in Christianity. The bible has lessons and commandments for Christians to follow and those lessons are represented in books. In the early 1600’s religion was an important part of people’s lives and writers incorporated it into their writings. William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet in the early 1600’s and he wrote about religion while he was writing about a prince’s revenge on his uncle. His uncle killed his father and he was prepared to take revenge. Hamlet and Christianity are both about the good, the bad and the afterlife which makes Hamlet a Christian play.

“You shall not murder.” That is one of the Ten Commandments in the bible. Murder, suicide and revenge are all in the bible. The bible states that you should not murder, take your own life and get revenge on someone. Hamlet is however based on murder, suicide and revenge. Hamlet’s uncle murdered his own brother in order to take the crown. Murder is a sin and Claudius knows what he has done is wrong. His “offense is rank, it smells to heaven; It hath the primal eldest curse upon’t/A brother’s murder”(3.3.40). The sin he has committed is one of the greatest sins; killing a brother. It is one of the first curses as said in Genesis (4.10-12). This is a sin that is mentioned in the bible and that is committed in Hamlet. In one of his soliloquies Hamlet knows that God is “canon ‘gaisnt (self-slaughter!) O God, God, How (weary,) stale, flat and unprofitable/ Seem to me all the uses of the world!”(1.2.136) Hamlet considers killing himse...

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... will get you to hell. Doing good deeds and asking for forgiveness and praying will get you to heaven. If you commit one of the oldest curses like murdering your own brother like Claudius did, your afterlife is different and more complicated than others. If you kill yourself like Ophelia did you are definitely going to hell because taking away what God created is a sin. In Christianity there is no questions about the after life. There is purgatory but there is also heaven and hell. Depending on how you spent your living years you will either go to heaven or hell. In Hamlet these commandments and these truths are represented. In the choices the characters like Claudius and Hamlet make, they consciously know it is either right or wrong. They relate their choices to the bible and Christianity and the actions each character takes makes Hamlet a Christian play.

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