Religion and Biblical Allusions in Hamlet
Apart from the obvious religious concerns in Hamlet (think the ghost and what it represents, the burial of Ophelia, suicide etc), there are many other religious ideas that dominate the play.
The king’s death, related in the play by the ghost, invokes the Garden of Eden of Genesis. The king is asleep in the "orchard" (garden) and is supposedly bitten by a snake when Claudius poisons him. The act of brother killing brother recalls another story from Genesis, Cain killing Abel, which Claudius echoes in the famous prayer scene (3.3). This echoes in Hamlet’s declaration that the world is "an unweeded garden" and is part of the background that heightens Hamlet’s reasoning when he is debating whether to kill Claudius as he is "praying" and is significant in the drama’s distinctions between appearance and reality.
The method Claudius chooses to kill his brother provides a central metaphor for the kingdom being "poisoned"; poison and its effects provide much of the most effective language in the play, from "unweeded garden" (1.2.135) and "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark" (1.4.90) of Act 1 to the poisoned pearl of Act 5. But the dramatic uses of poison are even more striking. From the murder of the king to the "poisoned" plot of Laertes and Claudius, from the poisoned mind of the mad Ophelia to the poisoning of Hamlet and the death of Claudius by poisoned sword and poisoned pearl, Shakespeare has wonderfully illustrated the consequences of the ambitious murder of Kind Hamlet by Claudius.
The king’s death, related in the play by the ghost, invokes the Garden of Eden of Genesis. The king is asleep in the "orchard" (garden) and is supposedly bitten by a snake when Claudius poisons him. The act of brother killing brother recalls another story from Genesis, Cain killing Abel, which Claudius echoes in the famous prayer scene (3.3). This echoes in Hamlet’s declaration that the world is "an unweeded garden" and is part of the background that heightens Hamlet’s reasoning when he is debating whether to kill Claudius as he is "praying" and is significant in the drama’s distinctions between appearance and reality.
The method Claudius chooses to kill his brother provides a central metaphor for the kingdom being "poisoned"; poison and its effects provide much of the most effective language in the play, from "unweeded garden" (1.2.135) and "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark" (1.4.90) of Act 1 to the poisoned pearl of Act 5. But the dramatic uses of poison are even more striking. From the murder of the king to the "poisoned" plot of Laertes and Claudius, from the poisoned mind of the mad Ophelia to the poisoning of Hamlet and the death of Claudius by poisoned sword and poisoned pearl, Shakespeare has wonderfully illustrated the consequences of the ambitious murder of Kind Hamlet by Claudius.