Satanism Today - An Encyclopedia of Religion, Folklore and Popular ...

248 Shakespeare
Thus it is possible for both righteous and
sinners to change direction. If they do, their
former righteousness or sinfulness ceases to
count. God is regarded as the supreme judge who,
on the day of the Last Judgment, rewards and
punishes mortals on the basis of where they end
up. Shakespeare presents this vision in Hamlet’s
hesitation to kill his father’s murderer while the
latter is praying.
There is no doubt that Shakespeare agreed
with the images offered by the creed of his own
Protestant Church of England, which taught that
after death would come an intermediate state to be
followed by the judgment of God. On this day,
those who have sinned would have to make an
open confession in front of God, trusting to divine
mercy for the saving of their souls from hell.
Again, such vision is shown in Hamlet, when
Claudius prays to God to forgive his having
murdered his brother, even though he is
convinced that no pardon can be received while he
is still attached to the fruits of his sin.
Shakespeare believed in the temporal nature of
the body and in the immortality of the soul, as
numerous passages in his work show, such as in
Romeo and Juliet and in The Merchant of Venice,
even though his characters often seem to be
desperately attached to life on earth instead of
concentrating on their spiritual destiny. According
to Shakespeare, after death human lives will be
perpetually remembered by God and immortality
is achieved by influencing the lives of others who
come after. He conceives of heaven as an abode of
bliss for the souls of the righteous, situated
geographically above the clouds, and hell as the
place where the damned are eternally imprisoned
and tormented by fire. There are few references to
purgatory in Shakespeare’s works because of his
antipapal convictions. Shakespeare seems to adopt
an uncritical attitude toward religious supernaturalism,
although he may simply be drawing
elements from folklore and popular superstition to
add to the power of his drama.
One of the forms of the supernatural adopted
by Shakespeare is ghostly apparitions, and the
frequency with which he introduces them into
his works testifies to the widespread belief in
their reality at his time. They were seen by the
common person as departed spirits who
returned to Earth for some special reason, such
as revenge and warning, while the literate
regarded ghosts as devils of the underworld in
visible form.
Shakespeare’s ghosts can be actually present
and apparent to several people at the same time,
like the ghost in Hamlet, or can be the product of
the mind of the person who sees it, like the ghost
of Banquo in Macbeth and Caesar’s ghost in Julius
Caesar. Also, they can appear in dreams, such as
the apparitions to Richard III before the battle of
Bosworth and to Posthumus in Cymbeline.
Shakespeare deals with the supernatural in at least
half of his plays, but his deepest attitudes toward
this subject at different points in his career are
revealed in four dramas: A Midsummer Night’s
Dream, Hamlet, Macbeth, and The Tempest.
In Hamlet, which contains much information
about popular superstition on the subject of
ghosts, Shakespeare introduces his terrifying
spectre in a cold, dark, silent night, and explains
his presence as dictated by a solemn purpose,
which is revenge. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream
the form of the supernatural employed is fairies,
who are little, joyous people meddling in human
affairs with no malice. Although they are immortal,
they participate in mortal pleasures, such as
eating, drinking and enjoying music and dancing.
Macbeth represents the darkest and most
pessimistic phase of Shakespeare’s life, when he
seems to believe that human beings are
surrounded by terrible influences and temptations.
The Weird Sisters are witches who accomplish
their purpose in the ruin of a noble character,
and possess most of the powers credited to the
popular witch, such as assuming a variety of
shapes. With The Tempest Shakespeare returns to
the freedom and happiness of his youthful fairy
fantasy, and reaches the conclusion that man need
not fear the supernatural.
For Further Reading:
Cumberland, Clark. Shakespeare and the
Supernatural. New York: Haskell House
Publishers, 1931.
Hick, John. Death and Eternal Life. London: Collins,
1976.
Morris, Harry. Last Things in Shakespeare.
Tallahassee: Florida State University Press, 1985.