Was Shakespeare's Hamlet a Catholic Character

Thesis Statement: Numerous researchers and individuals following up on Shakespearean plays will concur that the playwright develops his characters by employing elements from religion, particularly Christianity. In his famous tragedy, Hamlet, the conflicted Hamlet is portrayed utilizing several Christian, especially Catholic, practices and analogies, giving rise to the claim that Hamlet was, himself, Catholic, despite the play’s backdrop being a Lutheran country.
The character, Hamlet, largely engages with his community, and his conduct and speech are a reflection of his religious beliefs. He refrains from taking his own life as he firmly understands the necessity of obeying God’s orders:
Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! O God! God! How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable, Seem to me all the uses of this world! Fie on’t! ah fie! ‘tis an unweeded garden (Hamlet, I.2,131-135 cited as Shakespeare, 2005).
His articulated views reveal that he is a pious man, staunchly opposed to immorality. He disapproves of the proliferation of licentiousness and drunkenness within his community:
This heavy-headed revel east and west makes us traduced and tax’d of other nations: They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish Phrase Soil our addition; and indeed it takes. From our achievements, though perform’d at height, (Hamlet, I.4, 17-21 cited as Shakespeare, 2005).
Shakespeare considers Hamlet’s faith to be on par with that of his fellow community members. But after being shocked by his mother’s illicit marriage, his piety increases. Why is such sort of marriage deemed unlawful? How do readers know that it impacted Hamlet?
Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius, is considered vulgar and lecherous for marrying the widow of the brother he murdered. In that day, such a marriage was regarded as incest. Thus, this ‘religious’ reason was a chief source of Hamlet’s loathing of Claudius. A noteworthy fact is: Islam and certain other present-day religions regard such marriages as lawful. The author confirms readers’ doubts that Hamlet was enraged and frustrated prior to speaking to his murdered father’s ghost. I believe Hamlet’s opinions on the socially improper marriage of his mother influence and drive his actions (Alsaif, 2012).
Researchers indicate that the key proof of the impact of the shocking revelations poured forth by his father’s ghost on Hamlet is the change in his opinion of, and relationship with, his love interest, Ophelia. Earlier, Hamlet courts her and showers gifts upon her; however, subsequently, his view of womankind, in general, alters, thereby altering his attitude towards Ophelia as well. A later conversation of his with Ophelia depicts him counselling her to practice chastity. Hamlet says:
Get thee to a nunnery: why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest; but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me (Hamlet, III. I, 121-124 cited as Shakespeare, 2005).
Now, Hamlet believes nuns are the perfect women. His discourse with Ophelia indicates that he might have ended up considering every intimate relationship to be immoral and might also be considering adopting celibacy. He ceases trusting all females after witnessing the cruel betrayal of the late king (his father) by his own wife, proof of which is her immediate wedding to Claudius. Hence, when Ophelia claims Hamlet’s play’s initiation is ‘brief’, Hamlet replies that it is ‘as women’s love’ (Hamlet, III.2, 162-163 cited as Shakespeare, 2005).
Religion constitutes the foundation utilized by pious believers to view the world and differentiate between wrong and right. Furthermore, it aids believers in maintaining balance when shocked. Typically, a calamity increases believers’ abstinence and piety. The shock of his father’s death and mother’s betrayal leads Hamlet to consider himself as both believer and savior:
The time is out of joint: O cursed spite, That ever I was born to set it right! Nay, come, let’s go together (Hamlet, I.5, I I. I, 188-190 cited as Shakespeare, 2005).
The following question remains unanswered: What makes Hamlet hesitate if he is aware of all the wrongdoings of Claudius? For answering this question, there is a need to examine the repetitive use of the phrase ‘crowing of the cock’ by the author, without any evident import.

Disquiet and reluctance form the chief aspects of Hamlet’s personality, including the doubts he has regarding his father’s ghost. In that era, the cock formed a key Christian symbol, claimed to have crowed at Jesus’ noble birth and demise, and to have been an indication of the dawn which “brings light to the sins of the night and rouses men to the worship of God” (Guiley, 2008). According to Spanish-born Roman Christian bard, Aurelius Prudentius Clemens: “the night- wandering demons, who rejoice in dunnest shades, at the crowing of the cock tremble and scatter in sore affright” (Summers, 1973). The crowing of the cock is evidently a major symbol within Hamlet’s structure, as the character, Marcellus, claims the late king’s ghost “faded on the crowing of the cock” (Hamlet, I.I. 158 cited as Shakespeare, 2005).
Hamlet continues to be puzzled, with the following words of his reflecting his uncertainty concerning the ghost’s nature:
Angels and ministers of grace defend us! Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damn’d, Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell, Be thy intents wicked or charitable, Thou comest in such a questionable shape (Hamlet, I.4, 39-43 cited as Shakespeare, 2005)
By nature, Hamlet is no hesitant person. But his beliefs attempt at driving his conduct and he strives towards balancing them with his anger, stating:
The spirit that I have seen may be the devil: and the devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps Out of my weakness and my melancholy, As he is very potent with such spirits, Abuses me to damn me (Hamlet, II.2, 596-601 cited as Shakespeare, 2005)
Shakespeare suggests the cock’s crowing is an implicit cause for the character’s uncertainty. In this very context, Hamlet’s father’s ghost reveals the murder to Hamlet.
Further, religious passion impacts the place where one kills. Hamlet refrains from taking Claudius’s life within the sanctity of the church where the latter is praying for forgiveness (Hamlet, III 3, 37-49 cited as Shakespeare, 2005), since he doesn’t wish for Claudius to go to heaven. But this religious passion impacts his need to avenge his father. Hamlet could have taken Claudius’s life without allowing him to seek forgiveness, the way Claudius took his brother’s life.
Conclusion
Hamlet is chiefly influenced by Christianity, as are the remaining members of his community. Furthermore, Grecian religious signs lack major significance within the play’s structure, unlike Christianity. The author’s salient formative influence is the grammar school in the town, since this was the place where he learned Latin initially (Spencer, viii, cited as Shakespeare, 2005).
Shakespeare’s superior rhetoric capabilities make readers sympathize with Hamlet. Additionally, by reviewing his conduct based on his religious ideals, one finds that Hamlet has taken the lives of Laertes, Claudius, and Polonius, besides being responsible for Gertrude’s Ophelia’s, Rosencrantz’s, Guildenstern’s, and his own deaths.
A further insight may be articulated as follows. Following the shocking discoveries revealed to him, Hamlet changes completely, reassessing things from his own religious standpoint. The late king’s ghost is possibly a mere illusion or a psychological ailment which leads Hamlet to imagine the whole story. His father’s killing at the hands of Claudius is also possibly an illusion caused by the fact that Hamlet doesn’t accept his mother’s unlawful marriage and attempts at justifying his own crimes. Moreover, one can reinterpret Claudius's seeking forgiveness before God. He possibly only feels guilty for marrying his brother’s widow since it was a socially intolerable deed. This perspective gives rise to several questions, leaving an avenue for potential answers. One may claim that religion needs to be a basis for all literary evaluations of the play or, at the very least, help highlight its characters and how they behave, facilitating more comprehensive, reasonable interpretations of this Shakespearean tragedy (Alsaif, 2012).


References
Alsaif, O. A. (2012). The significance of religion in Hamlet. Journal of English and Literature Vol. 3(6), pp. 132-135.
Guiley RE (2008). The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft and Wicca. 3rd ed .New York: Facts on File.
Shakespeare W (2005). Hamlet, Edited by B. Spencer with an introduction by Alan Sinfield. General Editor: Stanley Wells. London. Penguin Group.
Summers M (1973). The history of witchcraft and demonology. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd.