Hamlet: The Moral Judge

Throughout the play, Hamlet is constantly judging someone for what they have done whether it be Gertrude sleeping with his uncle or his uncle murdering his father. He is infuriated with Gertrude and basically sets her equal to a whore. He says, "She married. O, most wicked speed, to post With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!" (line 156) And of course he has to take revenge on his uncle by killing him. I mean how else would you react to your mom forgetting about your father in a matter of weeks and moving on and pretending like everything is just fine and dandy and sleeping with her husband's brother which is basically a crime but it doesn't really matter because she's the queen. Yes I know, big ramble. But a great point was brought up by a classmate--"He judges everyone else on their actions and decisions. Yet he murders Polonius and is planning on murdering Claudius. Is he one to judge?" After he murders Polonius, he really has no right to judge. When he murders him, he believes it's Claudius. It's really one big accident that happens because Hamlet doesn't stop and think like he always does and just acts abruptly. When it comes to Ophelia, he says, "get thee to a nunnery" (line 121) but he can mean two things. He either means get yourself some help because you're an awful person, or he means get yourself there so we can have some help. They both work, but looking at this morally, he's telling her she needs to be forgiven for all the wrongs she has done. Some classmates brought up the fact that he plays God a few times. He thinks he is too! He says, "Then I must be their scourge and minister" (line 196). One in the way of sending Ophelia to get help, and two punishing Claudius for killing another man who happens to be his father. Hamlet thinks to himself, "when he is drunk asleep, or in his rage...then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven, and that his soul may be damned and black as hell" (lines 89-95). Hamlet is pretty much saying, "Stop. You shall not pass go. Do not collecteth two hundred dollars. Get thee straight to Hell!" I tried to make that Shakespeareanish but I'm totally not even close to what he would say. He wants to catch him at a bad time when his head is swarming with bad thought so he goes straight to hell. But then what happens to Hamlet if he is killed with all of these thoughts swarming his head before Claudius? Will he go to Heaven because he was trying to save Ophelia, save his mother, and avenge his father's death? ORRR will he go to hell because he's calling Ophelia and his mom whores and plotting to kill Claudius?? The fight can go both ways thanks to Shakespeare's genius double-meaninging (if that even is a word) of every single word.

Credit goes to everyone who helped on the "Moral Judge" poster.