The complex character of Hamlet is perhaps the most accurate representation of man ever established in literature. From his unwaveringly inconsistent views of self, to his lack of control over his own life and mind, coming roundabout to the famously solemn soliloquy that encompasses the struggle of man in his entirety: whether or not life is worth living and why it is so. Hamlet represents the human condition before the solution of Jesus was available to man. Throughout the entire play he suffers from self-doubt and existential emptiness and he searches for his own meaning through his own methods.
The first tenant of the human condition that Hamlet exemplifies is the suffering from self-doubt and existential emptiness. From the very first …show more content…
In the Christian faith, salvation can only be achieved through righteousness by relationship with Jesus. The issue lies within the fact that humans are inherently marred and thus cannot be perfect, for if something even has the ability to be corrupted then it cannot be perfect. For the Jews of the Old Testament, righteousness was, contrary to popular belief, not brought upon by obeying the laws and statutes of God through prayer, sacrifice, and everyday life. These rule-based actions were simply methods by which people could live a holier life and remain close to the standard laid out for them, the one that showed very clearly the disparity between righteous living and sin. Even in Old Testament times the way to righteousness was through faith. “And Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD counted him as righteous because of his faith” (New Living Translation, Gen. 15.6). It was a different time, though. When one disobeyed the rules and statutes commanded them, punishment was severe and they fell out of relationship with God until due sacrifice was made. Hamlet lived according to the same idea. He recognized the divine rules and lived life according to them out of habit, not in true relationship with God, as he was a believer in the Faith. To him, the law and how closely in harmony he …show more content…
Contained in a history littered with times of peace, times of exodus, times of bondage, and times of reconciliation, all either started or ended with the hearts of the people being captured by something not of God. Over their long history they repeatedly abandoned their way of life in search of meaning through sexuality, new gods, riches, and every other vice known to man. In the Garden of Eden they lost sight of God by conflating their views of self with Him, thinking their meaning lied within the knowledge they did not possess (Gen 3.6). Or in Canaanite culture when their sexual immorality was rampant and they derived their meaning from their interpersonal relationships (Gen 19.1-9). There are numerous times in the Old Testament when the people’s sense of meaning was found in something other than God, and the common denominator between those and Hamlet was that they were all misguided. True purpose could not be found in the materialistic vices of the Jews, or the hellbent rage of the true prince. Hamlet constructed the Ghost as a sustinent for his existential emptiness while the Jews chased after every fleeting whim to validate their own. They both shared in that unrelenting and hopeless search for
The first tenant of the human condition that Hamlet exemplifies is the suffering from self-doubt and existential emptiness. From the very first …show more content…
In the Christian faith, salvation can only be achieved through righteousness by relationship with Jesus. The issue lies within the fact that humans are inherently marred and thus cannot be perfect, for if something even has the ability to be corrupted then it cannot be perfect. For the Jews of the Old Testament, righteousness was, contrary to popular belief, not brought upon by obeying the laws and statutes of God through prayer, sacrifice, and everyday life. These rule-based actions were simply methods by which people could live a holier life and remain close to the standard laid out for them, the one that showed very clearly the disparity between righteous living and sin. Even in Old Testament times the way to righteousness was through faith. “And Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD counted him as righteous because of his faith” (New Living Translation, Gen. 15.6). It was a different time, though. When one disobeyed the rules and statutes commanded them, punishment was severe and they fell out of relationship with God until due sacrifice was made. Hamlet lived according to the same idea. He recognized the divine rules and lived life according to them out of habit, not in true relationship with God, as he was a believer in the Faith. To him, the law and how closely in harmony he …show more content…
Contained in a history littered with times of peace, times of exodus, times of bondage, and times of reconciliation, all either started or ended with the hearts of the people being captured by something not of God. Over their long history they repeatedly abandoned their way of life in search of meaning through sexuality, new gods, riches, and every other vice known to man. In the Garden of Eden they lost sight of God by conflating their views of self with Him, thinking their meaning lied within the knowledge they did not possess (Gen 3.6). Or in Canaanite culture when their sexual immorality was rampant and they derived their meaning from their interpersonal relationships (Gen 19.1-9). There are numerous times in the Old Testament when the people’s sense of meaning was found in something other than God, and the common denominator between those and Hamlet was that they were all misguided. True purpose could not be found in the materialistic vices of the Jews, or the hellbent rage of the true prince. Hamlet constructed the Ghost as a sustinent for his existential emptiness while the Jews chased after every fleeting whim to validate their own. They both shared in that unrelenting and hopeless search for