William Shakespeare s Hamlet As A Play That Contains...

â€Å"To be, or not to be: that is the question† (Shakespeare 3.1.56). Audiences know Shakespeare’s Hamlet as a play that contains frequent meditations on suicide, yet despite suicide’s obvious religious connections, audiences do not often consider how religion as a whole functions within the play. This lack of awareness partially results from the subtlety of many of Hamlet’s religious elements. Through his religious references and the resulting emphasis on the gravity of the sins of murder and suicide, Shakespeare clarifies the contradictory attitude given to these sins and illuminates that the characters practice religion inconsistently and hypocritically because their concern is ultimately for their reputation in a Christian world rather than truly for their religion. Shakespeare relies on allusions to demonstrate to his audience that Christian morals rule the world of Hamlet and that steep penalties exist for those who disobey these rules. For example, during one of Ophelia’s grief fueled rants in Act 4, she tells Claudius: â€Å"Well, God dild you! They say the owl was a/baker’s daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but/know not what we may be. God be at your table!† (Shakespeare 4.5.42-44). Although Ophelia’s remark clearly references religion, as evidenced by her references to God, the exact meaning of her words requires knowledge about her biblical allusion. She references a religious tale about a baker’s daughter who God turned into an owl for refusing to give bread. ThisShow MoreRelated The Politics of Contemporary Approaches to Shakespeare Essay3166 Words   |  13 PagesAbstract Postmodern performance of Shakespeare, particularity in film, is characterized by a subjective experience within the play not an objective experience from the play. Under postmodernism, Shakespeare undergoes theorizing, deconstruction, displacement or death of the author, textual criticism, and cultural and political relativism but fails to produce solid answers. Postmodern Shakepseare does not offer new meanings but new and more possibilities for contemplating meaning. This fails bothRead MoreDeveloping Management Skills404131 Words   |  1617 Pagesbuilt-in pretests and posttests, focus on what you need to learn and to review in order to succeed. Visit www.mymanagementlab.com to learn more. DEVELOPING MANAGEMENT SKILLS EIGHTH EDITION David A. Whetten BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY Kim S. Cameron UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Prentice Hall Boston Columbus Indianapolis New York San Francisco Upper Saddle River Amsterdam Cape Town Dubai London Madrid Milan Munich Paris Montreal Toronto Delhi Mexico City Sao Paulo Sydney Hong Kong Seoul SingaporeRead MoreStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 Pagesand permission should be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. To obtain permission(s) to use material from this work, please submit a written request to Pearson Education, Inc., Permissions Department, One Lake Street, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458, or you may fax your request to 201-236-3290. Many of the designations by manufacturers