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What is Hamlet loyal to? - Coggle Diagram
What is Hamlet loyal to?
The Ghost or God?
The Ghost
When Hamlet meets the ghost, he seems intent on carrying out his wish to 'revenge this most foul and unnatural murder'
it is unnatural because it goes against the Divine Right of Kings and disrupts the Great Chain of Being
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Hamlet immediately trusts the ghost, and Bradley concurs that 'we are meant in the play to assume he ought to have obeyed the ghost'
however, we do not know if the ghost is truly trustworthy, due to the Reformation:
Using a ghost in tragedy at this time was a tired convention, yet Shakespeare subverted expectations by making the ghost not from Tartarus, but a Christian ghost
however, due to the context of the Reformation at the time, Shakespeare could not clarify the religion of the ghost, lest he alienate his audience
Hamlet acknowledges the ambiguity of the ghost when he asks 'be thou a spirit of health or a goblin damned' which uses dichotomies in religious lexis to reflect the contrast in real life
the ghost speaks of a place like purgatory when he mentions 'sulphurous and tormenting flames' which is a catholic belief
but Protestants believed that ghosts were manifestations of the devil, and this ghost could be 'tempting him to murder an innocent man' (Bradley)
therefore, both audiences and Hamlet are unsure of whether to trust the ghost, so it is difficult to suggest that Hamlet is loyal to him
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to Denmark
the theory of body politic states that the health and status of the king has a direct effect on the country
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this is represented by the first line of the play, in which the guards ask 'who's there?' which introduces an element of insecurity and instability in the nation
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perhaps Hamlet wanted to rectify this, which is reinforced by McRae's interpretation:
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he enlists renaissance iconography to support his view, as it was believed that ideal kings had an equal balance of head, heart and hand: intellect, feeling and fighting ability. These are represented by books, flowers and swords, respectively.
McRae believes that Hamlet does not delay in the play, but is so loyal to Denmark that he gradually becomes the ideal king that Denmark needs
this is represented in his soliloquies, in which he speaks of 'words, words, words' when talking to Polonius, laments Ophelia's death when she was shrouded in 'fantastical garlands' and hit Laertes with 'a hit, a hit, a palpable hit'
thus, by the end of the play, Hamlet becomes a 'most noble' king according to Fortinbras, as he has developed all of these qualities, in equal balance
this showcases how he was loyal to Denmark, and became the king it needed, before tragically being killed
Shakespeare did this in order to exploit the 'intellectual, spiritual chaos' (McRae) of the time, in which the primary question was 'who could follow Elizabeth?' (McRae)
there was a lot of uncertainty in the country as Elizabeth had not named an heir, and had come close to death due to smallpox
Hamlet had put the time back in 'joint' by assuring that Denmark would have a good leader, in Fortinbras
However,
Hamlet said that 'Denmark is a prison, in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons'
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moreover, this metaphor suggests that the people within Denmark are of a bad character, as they have committed crimes and have thus been put in prison. this emphasises the sense of distrust in the kingdom
in this time, prisons were used as holding cells before execution instead of places of imprisonment. this may suggest that Hamlet can see he is in danger of death, and does not trust anyone
Alternatively, Knight suggests that 'Hamlet is the poison in the veins of the community', as he recognises this corruption and his indecision allows it to persist
so we could argue that hamlet is in fact not loyal to the kingdom, but just to himself and his own fear for his own life.
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Nothing, he is mad
Hamlet is immediately recognised as suffering from melancholia - an intelligent madness caused by an imbalance of the 4 humours
this is showcased in Hamlet's first soliloquy in which he says 'Everlasting had not fixed his canon 'against self-slaughter'
Hamlet begins his madness as a 'craft', but critics have long debated whether he was truly mad or not
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it is unsure whether Shakespeare would have been familiar with Bright's text, but critics have suggested it is likely