Law in Hamlet: AO3 (Context)

Law in Hamlet

Burials and Ophelia's death

There were legal issues regarding Ophelia’s death. The phrase ‘Her death was doubtful’ implies that they don’t know if she purposefully tried to commit suicide or if her death was accidental. Therefore, there’s tension been statutory and ecclesiastical law. Insanity also plays an important role.

Under ecclesiastical law, anyone who committed suicide couldn’t have a Christian burial, even if they were insane. Alternatively, statutory law understood that mentally ill people couldn’t voluntarily commit suicide as they weren’t in a state where they could make decisions as themselves.

Murder and crime/punishment

Medieval system

It was legal to kill felons as they had forfeited the law’s protection (who fled or resisted restraint arrest, prisoner assault to a guard, highway robbers, burglars etc). On the other hand, accidental killing was a crime because the dead person hadn’t taken themselves out of the law’s protection.

Modern system (Shakespeare’s time)

They focused on the mental state of the accused person (mens rea). Killings in self-defence or accident were no longer a crime.

Religion

Hamlet contemplates suicide in the ‘To be or not to be’ speech but questions the afterlife. This links to ecclesiastical law because he knows he wouldn’t be entitled to a Christian burial so it is seen as going against God and the Church, and even if he was deemed insane he would still be buried at the side of the churchyard.

Hamlet could kill Claudius when he is praying, but doesn’t because he wants him to go to hell, which emphasises his contemplation rather than his impulsivity at other points in the play.

Catholics in Elizabethan audiences would have been skeptical of the Ghost because they believed that ghosts were in purgatory so that they could rid themselves of their sins to go to heaven.

Inheritance

Property rights are a recurring theme in Hamlet. Understanding English property law during Shakespeare’s time is important to understand the character’s actions/motivations.

…