Shakespeares Hamlet - Between Pagan and Christian Essay -- GCSE Engl

Hamlet betwixt Pagan and Christian Hamlet explores the borders between madness and sanity. It is also located, equal King Lear, in a frontier area between a cultural revenge ethic and Christian compassion, and between a ruthless, power-hungry self-aggrandising world and a younger generation with gentler and more conciliatory aspirations. Hamlets father, who straight torments him, was himself a sinner, otherwise he would not have to return to land as a ghost, demanding revenge. Hamlet is well aware of his fathers crimes (III.3.81). Inviting his son to strike back his death is tantamount to turning the clock back, thereby perpetuating a pagan code of honour that seems outdated in Hamlets own time. For - in line of merchandise 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 ghosts book of instructions - and why, in the most famous of his seven soliloq uies, he refrains from turning his artillery on himself. He worries that the spirit he has seen may be a devil. Obviously Christian in its origin is...