The Play Hamlet by William Shakespeare may have been written many centuries ago but it remains one of the most outstanding plays ever written during the renaissance. The play was written during a time when England was trying so much to suppress many of the traditions that people were practicing then, among them, traditional religious beliefs such as believe in ghosts. Ghosts were held in very high esteem and this may have been the main reason why Shakespeare chose to incorporate this aspect (Greenblat 16).
Greenbalt says that at the time when the play was written, there were very many rituals and customs that were associated with worship (18). Purgatory for instance was filled with so many medieval practices that were considered rather outdated by England at the time. Now that renaissance was stepping in to suppress those practices, Shakespeare used the ghost of king Hamlet to highlight the traditional cultural beliefs that were practiced at the time. As a revenge tragedy King Hamlet’s ghost came back to bring to Hamlet’s attention the reasons behind his death.
Through the power and strength seen through the ghost can the era be understood. This implies that the living could communicate with the dead. There is fear surrounding the dead and it is for this reason that Hamlet seeks to avenge his father’s death lest something happens. King Hamlet may have not asked for Hamlet to revenge the death but Hamlet, and society may have believed that it was imperative that the murderer be avenged (MacCary 8).
Now that the renaissance audience to which Hamlet was presented could definitely have evoked mixed feelings about ghosts and such traditions, indeed the ghost goes beyond the renaissance medieval eras to explain the cultural practices and beliefs of the time. The moral universe gets introduced to moral decadence that was exhibited by that era that is felt to this day. The supernatural then held a great influence on people’s actions.
Works Cited
Greenblatt, Stephen. Hamlet in Purgatory. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.
MacCary, Thomas. Hamlet: A Guide to the Play. Westport: Greenwood Press. 1998.
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Ed. David Bevington. New York: Bantam, 1980.
