New Paltz Students Blogging about Shakespeare
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
The Church of Denmark
Søren Kierkegaard is said to be the “father of existentialism.” But this post is not about existentialism, its about the church. The church is a character in Hamlet and has a great deal of influence on the events and emotions evoked in the play. The ghost has come back because he was not given his last rights, last confession, or a proper burial. Laertes and his “followers” are outraged that Polonius has not been given a proper burial. All these rules about burial and afterlife are imposed by the church. Kierkegaard is Danish (like Hamlet) and wrote about his thoughts on the Church of Denmark. The Church of Denmark was like a government institution that was funded by taxes that everyone paid. Therefore making everyone a Christian because they all paid the tax and were both individually and collectively supporting the church. For Kierkegaard this was like being a Christian out of obligation not out of faith. I found that discussion particularly interesting when relating it to Hamlet. Is everyone up in arms out of faith or obligation??? For the characters that see the ghost, seeing is now believing and one could argue that they are propelled to action out of faith. But for those who have not seen the ghost and do not have any evidential proof, I have to question their motives. Are they angry that tradition has been ignored? Are they outraged because they don’t want to look bad in the eyes of society and the church? Or do they act out of faith and devotion? These are also interesting actors choices if one were to play the role of Laertes or Hamlet.
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4 comments:
What your post made me realize was how ironic it is that Ophelia, who may have committed suicide, a mortal sin according to Catholic doctrine, gets an appropriate burial, but her own father (as well as Hamlet's father) does not.
You have alot of good points in your post, even in today's society you have to question do people have beliefs because they are supposed to or do they actually feel devotion towards that belief. Coming from a catholic background, you can meet some of the snobbiest people in church, who seem to think they are better than others. This is very debatable in Hamlet, I would defintely agree that some of the characters are just following the crowd, especially for the time period when your belief and rank in society was crucial.
I also agree that Nikki brought up a very interesting point in her blog and the comments posted got me thinking, as well. While I would like to believe that the majority of people are acting out of good faith, I think that there are a lot of people who act on what they think is expected of them. Or they do something for self-approval or just so they can say that they did it. For instance, many people complain and whine about having to go to church and go only because they think that it's the right thing to do. This to me is pointless. If not you're going to go and actually listen and pay attention, then you might as well stay home, in my opinion.
I really never saw it that way before reading your post. I am still left with he question of if they were or re acting out of good faith or are acting out of what people are expecting out of them. After reading is post I want to look at the play in new light and see what I can come up with.
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