Hamlet and the Bible

Paper Summary:

The paper identifies the religious symbols in "Hamlet" that include the biblical references about revenge and the ghost of Hamlet's father. The paper notes that whether Shakespeare's plays are actually riddled with religious symbolism is still much contested. The paper suggests that perhaps Shakespeare produced a bloody and violently gory play just for the sake of entertaining the masses and today's scholars are seeing much more mystery and religious or anti-religious ghosts where there are none.

From the Paper:

"Shakespeare most often based his plays on a real or imagined person or event in history, which made a good "story" because of a fatal flaw or interesting twist of fate. Yet, especially in some plays, there are a also a number of elements and allusions that refer to the Old or New Testament. As Shakespeare scholar Mabillard relates in her essay "Biblical Imagery in Macbeth": "Shakespeare's debt to Scripture is profound; biblical imagery is woven into every play. No writer has integrated the expressions and themes found in the Bible into his own work more magnificently than Shakespeare." This comes as no surprise considering religion was thought by some to be an important factor in Shakespeare's upbringing and education. Some scholars, in fact, say that he was once seriosuly thinking about training as a priest at a seminary in Douai in northern France where a college was established for English Catholics."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Mabillard, Amanda. "Biblical Imagery in Hamlet" 15 April, 2008http://shakespeare.about.com/library/weekly/aa063000a.htm?once=true& .
• King James Bible. 15 April, 2008. http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/
• Old Testament. 15 April, 2008 http://scriptures.lds.org/ot/contents
• Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. New York: Chelsea House, 1986.

More papers on Hamlet and the Bible:

• Analytical Essay # 120598 : "Hamlet: Mythical and Biblical Allusions"
• Analytical Essay # 47144 : "Hamlet" and "The Glass House"
• Book Review # 121831 : "Marx and the Bible"

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