Shakespeare's Hamlet - Between Pagan and Christian

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Hamlet: Between Pagan and Christian

Hamlet explores the borders between madness and sanity. It is also located, like King Lear, in a frontier area between a pagan revenge ethic and Christian compassion, and between a ruthless, power-hungry adult world and a younger generation with gentler and more conciliatory aspirations. Hamlet's father, who now torments him, was himself a sinner, otherwise he would not have to return to earth as a ghost, demanding revenge. Hamlet is well aware of his father's crimes (III.3.81). Inviting his son to avenge his death is tantamount to turning the clock back, thereby perpetuating a pagan code of honour that seems outdated in Hamlet's own time. For - in contrast to Lear - Hamlet is a Christian of sorts, a fact that hampers rather than helps him in his mission. His Christianity is one of several reasons why he hesitates to carry out the ghost's instructions - and why, in the most famous of his seven soliloquies, he refrains from turning his weapon on himself. He worries that the spirit he has seen may be a devil. Obviously Christian in its origin is...

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