Ghosts, Murder, and More Murder - Hamlet Part 1: Crash Course Literature 203 - YouTube (2)

about the consequences of his actions. I mean here's Hamlet saying, “Can this ghost

(whose name I remind you is Hamlet) be trusted? Is justice the business of people or of God.

Now obviously there are no easy answers to those questions but earthly justice is clearly

corrupt in this play — I mean Claudius has usurped the kingdom and there's evidence that old King

Hamlet might not have been the greatest ruler either.

And Claudius is already being punished spiritually, although it's not clear whether it comes

from himself or from god, but, like, at one point he tries to pray and finds that he actually can't:

“My words fly up, my thoughts remain below words without thought never to heaven go,”

Now prayer was seen as cleansing and in that

scene Hamlet decides not to kill Claudius because he believes that Claudius is praying

and therefore will be cleansed of his sin and will go straight to heaven if Hamlet killed

him right then. And that wouldn't be fair! Of course, actually,

if he'd just killed Claudius in that moment due to the thoughts not going up to heaven

everything would've been fine. I mean not for Claudius, but you know, for justice.

So should Hamlet act? Should he let diving justice take its course? Does divine justice

only work through people? Even I can't decide! But Mr Green, Mr Green, in the end how does

Hamlet make up his mind though? Well, Me From the Past, when he finally makes

up his mind he's dieing, right? He has like seconds left to live.

Ultimately, Hamlet is a great play for its aphorisms, and its language, and its ambiguity,

but also because it brilliantly captures the fact that we do not know what we are doing.

Hamlet doesn't struggle to decide a course of action because he's young or because

he's an academic or because he's a narcissist. He struggles because he's human.

We'll continue our discussion of him and the play next week. Thanks for watching. I'll see you then.

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