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Hamlet As Scourge and Minister Hamlet purges Denmark as its scourge and minister by sending the miscreants of his society to hell and evincing the misdeeds of those who merit salvation. He possesses all the criteria to accomplish this mission. The protagonist has exposed his moral competence and has shown his concern of he nation s fate. Celestial forces condone his methods of restoring justice in Denmark. Hamlet endeavors to correct the flaws of those who agent deserving of his wrath, but those who are truly evil are sentenced to damnation by him.
As the scourge and minister Hamlet must send Claudius, the supreme ruler of Denmark, to hell. Hamletcannot commit the regicide that he is destined for, unless he is assured that Claudius soul will perish. For that reason Hamlet struggle arises because he must be certain that his enemies are condemned. Hamlet, as the divine providence of Denmark, must have morals and an intellect. He must have the classic virtues: courage, temperance, prudence and justice (Elliott xxviii).
Hamlet must have assurance of his interpretation of good and evil before he is able to judge others. The hero of Shakespeare s greatest play possesses Christian virtues and an understanding oils teachings. Firstly he was a religious man in the best sense ofthe word, and he was a man with a highly developed moral sense. Conscience and grace dominate and control the mind of Hamlet. Allusions to them are scattered up and down the play (Brock 3). Hamlet s knowledge that his mother was committing incestuous acts alludes to his awareness of scripture teaching.
His circumference was vast; but his nature was not centrifugal. It revolved upon a religious moral center (Elliott xxviii). Shakespeare also demonstrates Hamlet s morality in the prince second soliloquy. Hamlet s questions display the use of his intellect to ponder the possibilities of this situation. As a result of Hamlet s intellectual competence, he can decide theatre of others. His advanced education at Wittenberg and the portrayal of a learned man confirms his intellectual capabilities.
Hamlet has an intellect that better understands the function of those three qualities heed, judgment, discretion for true temperance (Elliott 48). Hamletpossesses the combination of intellect and virtues as the scourge and minister of Denmark. Hamlet s unique connection with Denmark is an integral aspect of his crusade. This bond creates an appearance of Hamlet the defender of Denmark. As the defender, he must eliminate all threats to the goodness of the land he resides in.
His uncle Claudius is the ultimate threat. Hamlet is obliged to bring forth justice to the nation. But divine law has fixed him in this society to which he belongs and for whose welfare he is deeply concerned (Elliott 12 - 13). On the contrary to Hamlet as abel-centered individual with the single ambition to ascend the throne, he is concerned with the well being of the nation and his immediate associates.
He attempts to save his mother Gertrude and Ophelia. The spectator now invokes the prince s higher nature, his justice and temperance; emphasizing public instead of personal motives (Elliott 30). Hamlet confronts the evils of Denmark alone. It is a play about corruption (Knights 180).
The corruption present in Denmark forces Hamlet to face adversity single-handedly. His mission is solitary because he does not accept any assistance from anyone. The usurpation is a social sin because it affects the entire nation. As for Hamlet himself, what paralyses him is an overwhelming sense of evil not only in Claudius or his mother but in almost the whole world constituted by the court of Denmark (Knights 174). The extensive ramifications of this deed cannot be resolved bone man alone. However, Hamlet stands alone as the defender of Denmark.
Hamlet s conscience compels him to rectify his situation. The protagonist is undergoing many inner conflicts. He cannot decide the meaning of his mission. He knows that he must engage regicide but something hinders him from committing it. Hamletunderstands that he is the judge of his actions but he cannot comprehend where his hindrance lies. Hamlet is not about a man whose character is an enigma be unraveled, it is about a man who suffers ascertain kind of experience, and the man and the experience go together (Knights 180).
The situation is clear. Hamlet has to kill the king or be killed by him. The circumstances that surrounds Hamlet forces him that. The rights of Denmark have been violated and the nation since must restore justice. Like many of the historical princes and magnates of the sixteenth century, Hamlet was forced by the circumstances of his time to agonizing struggles with his conscience (Frye 74). Hamlet s conscience is the driving force his campaign.
It tells him when an injustice has occurred and disturbs him until he has corrected the situation. He who was born to set it right is religiously aware of his tragic need of being set right himself: I do repent. The heavens are scourging and ministering to, the guilty prince himself along with his guilty kingdom (Elliott 123). Hamlet s action toward the king are justified by the publican God. Not only did princes and magistrates have the right to destroy a tyrant but they had the duty so (Frye 264).
Claudius is a tyrant because he is not the just ruler who acquired the throne in a wicked manner. Hamlet possesses the virtue of honor. In order to maintain this, Hamlet must ascend to the throne. Hamlet must face the destiny that God has chosen for him. Loyalty to God and the heart s independent moral imperatives, and loyalty to the status derived from the family and maintained by the individual following the imperatives of kin issuing from the heart which the ancestors fashioned (Dodsworth 68). Hamlet s responsibility is to retain his devotion to God and his family.
The connection between God and Hamlet symbolizes the goodness in Denmark s hero. Young Hamlet is ushered in by this morning, and he will partake of the god of day s nobility and truth (Elliott 8). Hamlet is the morning in which he is associated with light. Hence, Hamlet is good. On the other hand Claudius is evil in which he is symbolized by complete darkness.
Claudius is a seductive thing of night: dark and ugly, fleshly and ill-shaped (Elliott 9). Since Hamlet is associated with heaven, his actions are justified by God. He has reason to believe that he is the scourge and minister because God has granted him the power. My text will show that towards the end heaven makes himself feel that heaven condones his conduct (Elliott xxii). Hamlet s intense desire to rectify his state motivates him express his thoughts to his people of Denmark, particularly Gertrude and Ophelia. These women are the core of Hamlet s ministry.
Denmark s prince loves Ophelia and he must help herself salvation in order for their love to blossom. In the first scene of Act 3, Hamlet lectures to Ophelia how marriages are corrupt and filled with impurity in Denmark. He recommends her togo to a nunnery in order to save herself. Hamlet is contrasting what happens to even the purist married woman who has necessarily involved herself inthe squalid business of sex with the spotless life ofa nun; if you marry, he says, you can t escape nastiness: so avoid marriage by taking vows of chastity (French). Hamlet s constant care for Ophelia implies his concealed love former. Hamlet is or was in love with Ophelia and she with him (Kitto 250).
Ophelia plays a significant role in Hamlet site as a genuine inspiration. Hitherto his intense yearning those things right in Denmark has been governed by princely prudence aided by his love for Ophelia, she being a true image ohio unselfish patience (Elliott 25). In the situation with Gertrude, Hamlet attempts to make her aware of the incestuous acts that she has committed. Hamlet longs, passionately and bitterly, to break down her defenses (Elliott 96).
Filled with great frustration, Hamlet willingly announced to Gertrude her wrongdoing. Hamlet: Nay, but to live In the rank sweat of an enslaved bed, Stewed in corruption, honeying and making love over the nasty sty! As a result of this direct statement from her son, Gertrude finally realizes her misdeeds. Hamlet is the scourge of Denmark because he provides the ultimate punishment by sending evildoers to hell. His goal take certain that his adversities perish. For the execution of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, on the other hand, he has no regrets (Frye 259).
Hamlet denounced them by calling them serpents and sponges. He could not trust Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Therefore, Hamlet fulfilled his duty of terminating the deceitful couple. Claudius was to receive a similar fate. Has sent these men to eternal damnation as he intended. However Hamlet lamented over the deaths of Polonius and Laertes because he could have saved them.
Hamlet s problem result s from his goal to send his foes tell. Hamlet has established his mission and has successfully carried out important aspects of it. He has relieved Denmark ofthe mendacious duo of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, explained this mother Gertrude her incestuous acts, and has warned Ophelia of the evils in Denmark. Hamlet had intellectually devised a plan which he understood the difference between right and wrong. Hamlet s conscience and emotion were prime factors to his ambitions to ascend the throne. These internal elements led Hamlet to commit regicide.
As the scourge and minister of Denmark, Hamlet must either reform persons or expel them to eternal damnation. Literature s most famous character had accomplished his duty and restored justice in Denmark. Brock, James Harry Ernest. The Dramatic Purpose of Hamlet. Cambridge: W.
Header &# 038; Sons, 1935. Dodsworth, Martin. Hamlet Closely Observed. Dover, NH: AnthlonePress. 1985. Elliott, George Roy.
Scourge and Minister. New York: AMS Press, 1965. French, A. L. Shakespeare and the Critics.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972. Frye, Roland. The Renaissance Hamlet. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984. Kitto, H. D.
F. Form and Meaning in Drama. London: Methuen. 1964. Knights, L. C. Some Shakespearean Themes and an Approach to Hamlet.
Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1966.
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