The Reformation
English Lit: OCR A Level - Hamlet, topic 6.1.5
The Reformation in Northern Europe
The Reformation in northern Europe, which rebelled against the authority of the Roman Catholic Church, contributed to the emergence of a new relationship between the individual and God in the 16th century.
Protestant attitudes to salvation
- In Protestant societies, there was a far greater emphasis on individual conscience as a means of spiritual salvation, and less reliance on guidance and instruction from Church authorities.
Purgatory in Hamlet
- In Hamlet, the Ghost who suffers in Purgatory is a remnant from a Catholic England, which was beginning to fade into memory.
Prince Hamlet & religion
- Prince Hamlet, educated at the Protestant university in Wittenberg, would have been trained to see through the superstitions and dogma which accompanied Catholicism.
- The play therefore dramatizes a tension between two worlds – between a Catholic England of the past and a present-day Protestant state – with the Prince caught in the middle.
Test yourself on The Reformation
Which university did Hamlet attend?
What did Protestant societies place greater emphasis on during the Reformation?