To Believe Or To Believe: No Question About It: An Analysis of Hamlet's Fatal Flaw

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Shakespeare’s Hamlet is widely regarded as one of the greatest tragedies in English literature. Written near the turn of the 17th century, there were new branches of Christianity appearing and the traditional Roman Catholic hold on power was waning, throwing the whole of Europe was in religious chaos. Nonetheless, the existence of a supreme being known as God was recognized in any branches, and strict adherence to religion was necessary for all the people of that age. It is important to examine the historical setting to fully understand some of the play’s subtler connotations. The protagonist of the play, Hamlet, is one of the most famous tragic heroes in existence, but the character’s fatal flaw is that he does not believe in God sufficiently.
According to Christian doctrine, spirits that were not God originated from Hell, and ghosts were classified under demonology (Bath & Newton, 3). This fact explains why Marcellus warns Hamlet not to follow the ghost saying that “It waves you to a more removed ground./But do not go with it”(I. iv. 59-60). Hamlet displays his own recklessness and departure from a good Christian by asserting that “I do not set my life at a pin’s fee,/ And for my soul, what can it do that,/ Being a thing immortal as itself?/ It waves me forth again. I’ll follow it” ( I. iv. 65-68). His friends are still very skeptical of the ghost’s intentions and only back off when Hamlet threatens them with “By heaven, I’ll make a ghost of him that let me.”(I.iv.85) Immediately after, Marcellus utters his famous line: “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”(I.iv. 90). At this time period, ghosts were things that were not even meant to exist, but it is important to note how different characters respond to it. While Horati...

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... of all time, with a protagonist that is plagued with indecision, but spurred by a desire to avenge his father’s death. At the time of the play’s writing, religion was by far the largest influence on the lives of ordinary people, and the protagonist’s defiance of God for most of the play could only end in tragedy.

Works Cited

"Sensible Proof of Spirits": Ghost Belief during the Later Seventeenth Century
Jo Bath and John Newton
Folklore, Vol. 117, No. 1 (Apr., 2006), pp. 1-14
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30035318

Hutton, Ronald. "How Pagan Were Medieval English Peasants?." Folklore 122.3 (2011): 235-249. Literary Reference Center. Web. 18 May 2014.

"Predestination." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition (2013): 1. Literary Reference Center. Web. 19 May 2014.

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