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Providence In Hamlet

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Providence In Hamlet
The Kingdom of Denmark has been torn apart with Claudius' incestuous greed and ravenous desire for power; the whole nation thrust into an utter state of chaos. With the death of the King and feared invasion by young Fortinbras hanging in the balance, Hamlet searches out a way to avenge his father's death and set things right. Within this turmoil overwhelming Demark, the characters perceive two external forces that mediate the sequence of events in the play. The unpredictable workings of fortune occur purely as happenstance, or luck, as this force allows anything possible to happen. However, the predominant force of divine providence plays a greater role in this world, particularly as a means by which to uphold justice in the kingdom. The …show more content…
He utilizes the play as a test of his uncle's guilt, stating, "Out of my weakness and my melancholy…The play's the thing / Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King" (60:613-17). Even after Claudius' abrupt departure and suspicious reaction to the play depicting the king's murder, Hamlet is still unable to kill Claudius when the opportunity presents itself in the church. He states, "Now might I do it pat, now ‘a is a-praying / And now I'll do't. And so ‘a goes to heaven, / And so I am revenged. That would be scanned" (85:73-75). Hamlet reasons that because his uncle is praying, it would be unwise to commit murder since Claudius would be sent to heaven. Hamlet believes the new king should suffer in hell for the rest of his life as a result of all the evil things he has done; rewarding him in heaven would not be fitting, or just. Despite the truth in it, he uses this fact as an excuse not to spare his uncle momentarily because he is indecisive. In reality, Hamlet is unable to act and becomes rather weak when attempting to exact his father's revenge. He would rather allow fortune to decide his uncle's …show more content…
In other words, by relying on fortune to exact revenge on Claudius, Hamlet has no certainty whether or not it will actually occur. The Player King characterizes fortune as a random force that no man can control. He states, "Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident…That even our loves should with our fortunes change…whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love" (75:205-209). He says that there is no overarching reason for the way that things occur in the world. Sometimes fortune leads us to love, while in other situations just the opposite happens; however, there is no way to know which will occur. There is no order or consistency in a world moderated by fortune, since it is based on random chance and luck. "But, orderly to end where I begun, / Our wills and fates do so contrary run / That our devices still are overthrown; / Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own" (75:217-219). In other words, what we want to happen does not always happen, and in a world moderated by fortune, we have no control over what ultimately does
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