Act 1 themes (10 main themes)

• [x] Religion
• [x] Appearance and reality
• [ ] Honour and masculinity
• [ ] The supernatural
• [ ] Love (all of its guises)
• [ ] Honor and duty
• [ ] Women and sexuality
• [ ] Parent and child relationships
• [ ] Revenge
• [x] Honour and morality

Religion

Text

• “Does not divide the Sunday from the week” (Act 1.1)-Marcellus
  • The reference Marcellus makes to the labourers implies that the new King, Claudius, has had his men working on the Sabbath. This is against the commands of religion and is the first hint that there’s something wrong in Denmark now.
• “It faded on the crowing of the cock.” (Act 1.1)-Marcellus
  • The ghost disappears when the crock crows. This is a biblical allusion to the death of Christ (being betrayed before the crock crows), suggesting that the ghost is not heavenly after all.

Critics

“Shakespeare writes as if The Reformation hasn't even happened” A. P Nuttall

• The Reformation was the start of Protestantism and the split of the Western Church into Protestantism and what is now the Roman Catholic Church.

“From the moment we hears about the ghost in the first scene, Shakespeare is raising questions about the nature of Christianity” Graham Bradshaw

“[Hamlet’s] religious passion affects his desire for revenge” O.A Alsaif

• In addition, religious passion influences the time of the killing; Hamlet does not kill his uncle when he is asking for forgiveness in the church (Hamlet, III 3, 37-49), because he does not want to send him to heaven. However, his religious passion affects his desire for revenge. He could have sent Claudius to his death without the opportunity to atone for his sins, as Claudius did with his brother. (‘The significance of religion in Hamlet’ by Omar Abdulaziz Alsaif)

Production

<aside> 🎭 In Richard Eyre's production at the Royal Court in 1980 there was no Ghost to be seen. Instead its terrifying speeches were wrenched out of Jonathan Pryce's Hamlet as he writhed in the grip of a psychic possession. This required the bold decision to cut the opening scene, with its careful confirmation of the Ghost's objective reality.

• (Because ghosts do not have a place within Protestant Christianity) </aside>

Appearance and reality

Text

• Horatio “may approve our eyes” (Act 1.1), “I might not this believe / Without the sensible and true avouch / Of mine own eyes”. (Act 1.1)-Horatio
  • Seeing and believing synonymous. Horatio only approaches Hamlet after approving Bernardo & Marcellus’s truth and seeing the ghost for himself.
• “To be or not to be—that is the question” (Act 3.1)-Hamlet
  • Contemplation of death, outcome ends in both indecision and inaction demonstrating that inertia is truly Hamlet’s hamartia.
  • The first six words of the soliloquy establish a balance. There is a direct opposition – to be, or not to be. Hamlet is thinking about life and death and pondering a state of being versus a state of not being – being alive and being dead.

Critics

“The play within a play tends to dissolve the normal barriers between the fictive and the real” M. Mack

• Play within a play: "The Murder of Gonzago” or “The Mousetrap” put on by Hamlet to entrap Claudius in Act 2.2

“Hamlet was behaving as dreams do in reality, concealing the true circumstances under a cloak of wit and unintelligibility” Freud

“Hamlet’s life is filled with many identities. However at the end of the play he realises he has no true identity as a person.” I. Ghose

Production