For my final blog for this month, I felt it only
necessary to address the second work that I am reading in AP Lit class, William
Shakespeare’s Hamlet. While the
classic tale has had its fair share of modern incarnations through film and
other works, the original text (or texts depending on the other versions of the
play) creates critical questions that to this day remain incredibly difficult
to answer, as seen by multiple scenes of the characters themselves asking
questions to one other. To be more specific, I wanted to expand on one of the
key words that we have been indexing throughout the play thus far, which is “duty”.
The idea of fulfilling a role or obligation to someone or being bound by law to
complete a task is a concept that is constantly present throughout the first
act alongside the beginning of the second, which is how much of the play that
we have covered. From the guard’s declaration of “Our duty to your Honor”
(I.ii.275) toward their Prince Hamlet, to Ophelia’s sullen response “I shall
obey, my lord” (I.iii.145) toward her prying father Polonius, complying to the
will of another is an idea that Shakespeare expounds upon through his
characters. Perhaps the most notable example of moral obligation, and the one
that sparks a hefty moral question, is that with Prince Hamlet and his ghostly
King, where the deceased father incites his son to enact revenge on his cunning
uncle Claudius who murdered him the orchard. In response to his father’s
charge, young Hamlet declares “thy commandment all alone shall live within the
book and volume of my brain, unmixed with base matter” (I.v.109-111). Through
these words, Hamlet declares that he shall dedicate his entire being toward
fulfilling his duty to his dead father and the newfound charge he has been
given, setting aside all other obligations he may need to fulfill for the sole
satisfaction of this one. In this way, the morality of the concept of duty and
obligation is brought into question. While Hamlet does in fact feel compelled
by his honor to commit an act of vengeance against his uncle, should he not
question the virtue and morale behind his actions? To what extent can
obligation be carried out without comprising the moral integrity of the person
appointed with the task? It is interesting to note how Hamlet lamented in the
king’s hall earlier about why “the Everlasting had not fixed his canon ‘gainst
[self-slaughter]” (I.ii.135-136), dreading how the commandments of God were the
only thing keeping him among the world of the living. In his duty to God,
Hamlet was willing to give up his selfish wish of taking his own life in order
to maintain his moral integrity. However, Hamlet seems to have no problem
breaking his service to the Lord when it comes to adhering to a new duty that
his dead father has enlisted him into, something that goes directly against the
Bible. Romans 12:19 explicitly states “Do not take revenge, my dear friends,
but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I
will repay,’ says the Lord”. As a man who knows God’s thoughts on suicide,
Hamlet is also certain to know what God has to say about revenge, but is
willing to compromise his faith to satisfy his inner demons that long for hate
and revenge against his Uncle Claudius, and have been stirred up by his father’s
apparition. Through Hamlet, Shakespeare poses the question of not necessarily
of who we are all duty-bound to serve, but what obligations we are willing to
break in order to satisfy our own internal desires and ambitions.
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