Religion In Hamlet

What is a liturgy drama? According to Oxford Scholarship Online, “the term ‘liturgy’ traces the revival of religious drama after its initial suppression by Christianity, not only in medieval mystery plays but also in now largely forgotten Reformation and Counter-Reformation dramas. It then turns to baroque poetry and explores how disputes about ritual often reflected wider cultural change that is indebted to notions of theatre.” Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, is an excellent example of a liturgy drama because Hamlet does not commit certain actions because religion weighs in on his decision making, the ghost of King Hamlet speaks of a Roman Catholic Doctrine while speaking to Hamlet, Ophelia does not get a proper burial because of religious

He states “I am thy father’s spirit; doomed for a certain term to walk the night, and for the day confined to fast in fires, till the foul crimes done in my days of nature are burnt and purged away.” From the ghost’s words, it seems that he is in some type of purgatory and a purgatory is a Roman Catholic doctrine based off the cleansing of the sin and is brought up multiple times in the Christian Bible “such as 2 Thessalonians 2:13, which declares that God chose us "to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit." Sanctification is thus not an option, something that may or may not happen before one gets into heaven. It is an absolute requirement, as Hebrews 12:14 states that we must strive "for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord"” (Catholic Answers 1). According to Elizabeth Watson who wrote Old King, New King, Eclipsed Sons, and Abandoned Altars in Hamlet, around the time Hamlet was written and performed, the Reformation was occuring in England and there are puns in the play that shine light into old Roman traditions and beliefs, like the purgatory pun referenced by the ghost of King Hamlet

At first, it looks like an accident but then in Act 5 scene 1, two clowns are speaking of Ophelia’s burial and one of them asks the other “is she to be buried in Christian burial that willfully seeks her own salvation?” In the same scene, the other clown replies by stating that “I tell thee she is; and therefore make her grave straight: the crowner hath sat on her, and finds it Christian burial.” Readers can see the religious doctrine of the burial beliefs in this scene because of the way the clowns speak about Ophelia's death and how she is undeserving of a proper burial because she committed suicide. Readers can also see that this an example of what Watson was explaining in Old King, New King, Eclipsed Sons, and Abandoned Altars in Hamlet. Once learning that Ophelia was getting a proper burial, one of the clowns asks “how can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own defense” (5.1.5) From the clowns reaction towards allowing the burial to be proper, readers can see the Reformation and its impact on Ophelia’s