In what ways does the play challenge this statement in Shakespeare's time? In what ways does it challenge this statement now?

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“I hold my duty as I hold my soul,                                  Written by Robert Thomas           

both to my god and gracious King.”                                             Word Count=1453                                      

In what ways does the play challenge this statement in Shakespeare’s time? In what ways does it challenge this statement now?

Authority, loyalty, God, king and medieval certainties; these are some exceptionally important aspects in the life and times of Shakespeare’s audience as well as those of the characters in the play. Times have changed; there are no more sword fights, no more public hangings and there is no more regicide. People of Shakespeare’s times were far more religious than they are today: they wanted god on their side. Belief was very important to the crowd that the actors of Shakespeare’s time were performing to. This is why the statement:

“I hold my duty as I hold my soul,

both to my god and gracious King.” (act 2, scene 2) (44)

had a much stronger meaning in the past than it has today. However Shakespeare asks every reader to sympathise with his hero, to understand and to attempt in imagination a solution. The Prince of Denmark, the title character, and the protagonist. Hamlet is melancholy, bitter, and cynical, full of hatred for his uncle's scheming and disgust for his mother's sexuality. Hamlet is sometimes indecisive and hesitant, but at other times prone to rash and impulsive acts. 

“How now? A rat! Dead for a ducat, dead.” (act 3, scene 4), (23)

However on the contrary in Hamlet, Polonius’ statement in act two, scene two, unknown to the other characters, shows their king to be not so gracious but a deceiver and a murder.

        

 ‘The serpent that did sting thy father’s life

Now wears his crown’  (act one, scene five) (39)

When Hamlet is told this by the ghost, he is distraught. However, the majority of the modern day audience may speculate if this ghost or apparition actually existed in the play or was it just made up.  Did Shakespeare and his audience really believe in ghosts? We find that even in the play there are sceptics for example in act one, scene one, Horatio says:

“Tush, tush, ‘twill not appear”  (act one, scene one) (33)

However Horatio, man of reason, is “harrowed with fear and wonder” by seeing something he doesn’t believe in. Is the ghost the medium of reality revealing the
facts to Hamlet? Shakespeare calls into question both Shakespeare rationalism and that of his audience, by including this apparition in the play. As
John Dover Wilson in ‘What happens in Hamlet’ states:

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“Caesar at Philippi may be a students dream; Banquo at the feast may be a false creation by Macbeth’s stress; but there can be no doubt about the objectivity of the spirit of king Hamlet”.

Hamlet, after being informed by the ghost of his uncle’s iniquitous deed, has many times to finish Claudius off but many times he finds an excuse.

“I, his sole son, do this same villain send

To heaven.

Why this is hire and salary not revenge”  (act 3, scene 3) (76)

Claudius, here, is shown to be praying, backing ...

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