Elizabethan’s Laws Against Perpetrators of Suicide in Hamlet by William Shakespeare

In today’s society we look upon the victims of suicide with feelings of compassion for the desperation that had preceded their demise. Elizabethans, however, viewed those who committed suicide not as victims but perpetrators guilty of a criminal offense. By closely examining Elizabethan’s laws against perpetrators of suicide alongside the funeral precession of Ophelia in Hamlet, we can better understand why Ophelia received a Christian burial regardless from the fact that she committed suicide and how this would make sense to Shakespeare’s audience. By doing some close readings of the text we can see the power struggle between Church and King, a reflection of Elizabethan England through the procession. Through close examination we can see how much like in our own time those with power and authority tend to have leniency when judgment is brought on them.

Suicide was considered a heinous crime and a sin against God in early 17th century England, so much so that the laws against it was rigorously enforced. When a death was under suspicion of suicide, a coroner’s jury was summoned from a district to assist a coroner in determining the cause of a person’s death . Resembling a grand jury, the coroner’s jury reviewed evidence and stated how, when and where that person had died. “The legal choice faced by coroner’s juries deliberating on the bodies of suicides was ostensibly simple: they could find that the deceased killed himself while sane, and thus was a felon on himself (felo de se), or they could decide that he was insane and thus innocent of any crime (non compos mentis) (Michael MacDonald). If a verdict of felo de se was returned, the suicide was denied the rights to a Christian burial; the corpse would be left naked in a ditch...

... middle of paper ...

...raged at the scene; Elizabethans are all too familiar of the power-struggle between the English monarchies and the church.

Works Cited

Beauregard, David. “Great Command O’ersways The Order”: Purgatory, Revenge, And Maimed Rites In Hamlet.” Relgion & The Arts 11.1 (2007): 45-73.

Guernsey, R. S.. Ecclesiastical Law in Hamlet: The Burial of Ophelia. New York: AMS Press, 1971. Print.

MacDonald, Michael. "Shakespeare Quarterly." Ophelia's Maimèd Rites 37: 309-317. Print.

Shakespeare, William, and Robert S. Miola. Hamlet: text of the play, the actors' gallery, contexts, criticism, afterlives, resources. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2011. Print.

The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "coroner's jury (law)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 5 May 2014. .