Hamlet

Set against the shifting philosophical and theological parameters of the Elizabethan world, Shakespeare’s Kydian tragedy “Hamlet” attempts to rationalise the moral and religious uncertainty instigated by the emergence of Renaissance humanism and protestant reformation. This conflict resonates through the dramatic representation of the eponymous characters struggle to reconcile the moral absolutes of Catholic dogma with the consequences of corrupt nature of the human condition, advocating our willingness to act as a means of resolution.

Emerging from renaissance humanists to respond to the ethical absolutes of Medieval Christian society, Hamlet reflects a contemporary philosophical search for moral clarity within a shifting ontological paradigm. Shakespeare’s dramatization of  the eponyms struggle to reconcile the absolutes of Catholic orthodoxy with his moral dilemma, ‘Hamlet’ captures the confusion and existential ambiguity of modern man As Hamlet weighs up the consequences of his actions against the restriction of the “everlasting canon’ sets Hamlet’s earthly desire for “self slaughter” and filial revenge, against the theological doctrine of the Catholic church and shapes his actions and his philosophical inquiry into the corrupt nature of his contemporary world. In his existential examination of the Christian court, Hamlet struggles with its corrupt nature that is immersed in a culture of deceit. His metaphorical description of the it as an “un-weeded garden”, full of “things rank and gross” in nature or a “sterile promontory” resonates its stagnant decay and moral putrefaction, presenting the court as a metonym for dishonesty and vice, simultaneously revealing traditional Christian treatment of sin as ultimately insufficient.  Thus, this world accelerates Hamlet’s cynicism and sneering condemnation, engendering his ongoing struggle with the fundamental dichotomy between individuals and their search for clarity with the corruption of the human condition and moral absolutes of Catholic doctrine.

Reflecting the tension between the epistemological and ontological parameters that shaped Shakespeare’s world, Hamlet engages in a process of philosophical inquiry, seeking to understand mans relationship with the ambiguities of existence.

Use the scaffold – Technique+example+connect+effect – start with context –As Hamlet muses on the nature of man ….(this is context) his metaphorical assertion that,(this is technique)  “death makes cowards of us all”,(example) (again we need something to tell us what the next technique is describing) and the afterlife as an “undiscovered country”, (now we have effect but we need a connecting verb first) challenges (this is the connecting verb) orthodox Christian representations of heaven and hell,(now we need to connect his to the next idea so we need a little subclause) where his “dread of the unknown”  (and again effect) forces us to confront the vicissitudes of existence. (now we need a sentence that sums up this analysis) Suspended thus, Hamlet laments the state of humanity in a world where we now have to seek our own moral compass. (We now move on to new analysis) Unresolved his ‘to be or not to be’ soliloquy reflects a perpetual questioning of the moral uncertainty of Hamlet’s world. (to connect the next sentence conceptually we need to start with the same conceptual idea) This moral uncertainty is  mirrored in the interrogative mood (technique) of the play laced with questions, asking ‘Am I a coward?” and “What is man?” (example) echoing (verb) the inscrutable and enigmatic world in which humans had to orient themselves for the first time. (effect)