The Relationship between Hamlet and the Bible. Essay -- GCSE Coursewor

The Relationship mingled with Hamlet and the Bible. It may appear that anything could be twisted into a typological pattern. much(prenominal) interpretations appear to suffer from the structuralist faults of skating too lightly over effective texts, ignoring details that cannot be forced into a preconceived mold, and robbing narratives of their concrete shapes through abstraction. I would stress that there is more than to Shakespeare than typology, but I would in any case insist that typology is often an important part of his drama. To make this claim plausible, however, requires more detailed attention to the text of his plays. In what follows, I will refer attention to the textual and dramatic details that justify a typological information of Hamlet. Claudiuss murder of King Hamlet, the act catalyzing the drama of the play, is presented as a sine of primordial character and cosmic implications. Claudius confesses that his fratricide parallels the murder of Abel O, my o ffense is rank, it smells to promised landIt hath the primal eldest curse upon t,A brothers murder (3.3.36-38). Hamlets description of his mental condition at the germ of the play pushes the imagery back to the beginning of biblical history How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this worldFie on t Ah fie Tis an unweeded garden, That grows to seed things rank and gross in naturePossess it still (1.2.135-37). Claudius has not only committed fratricide, but regicide. The king being curiously the image of God, regicide is a kind of deicide. At least, it is an act of rebellion against churchman authority. Claudius is thus not only Cain but Adam.(7) Claudiuss sin has, for Hamlet at least, turned Denma... ...y identical to all the other links. (A Theater of Envy, p. 273). Works Cited Erlich, Avi. 1977. Hamlets off Father. Princeton Princeton University Press. Fineman, Joel. 1980. Fratricide and Cuckoldry Shakespeares Doubles. In Representing Shakesp eare New Psychoanalytic Essays, edited by Coppelia Kahn and Murray M. Schwarz. Baltimore and capital of the United Kingdom The Johns Hopkins Press, 70-109. Fleissner, Robert. 1982. Sullied Or Solid Hamlets Flesh Once More. Hamlet Studies 492-3. Fowler, Alastair. 1987. The lands Within the Play of Hamlet. In Fanned and Winnowed Opinions Shakespearean Essays Presented to Harold Jenkins, edited by John W. Mahon and Thomas A. Pendleton. London and New York Methuen. Freud, Sigmund. 1953-74. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works. 24 vols, trans. pack Stachey. London Hogarth.