IS HAMLET DAMNED OR NOT? Four (or five?) approaches

There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who think there are only two kinds, and those who are sane. The joke applies to all generalizations, but if I had to list categories for types of interpretations of Hamlet, these would come to mind:

1. The Ghost is released from purgatory by God
to commission Hamlet to execute
a usurping, incestuous murderer, Claudius.
If Hamlet refuses to kill Claudius, he disobeys heaven.
Hamlets main flaws:
He waits too long, hurts and kills too many,
but is right to kill Claudius in the end.
[Popular with Catholic critics.]

2. The Ghost is from hell;
Hamlet is tricked into killing Claudius & causing other deaths.
Vengeance is God’s alone, so Hamlet is hell-bound.
Some in this group think Claudius is a pretty effective king.
Kill him and be damned.
Many of these also consider any hint of turning in Hamlet
after the sea voyage and graveyard scene to be
superfluous or delusory on Hamlet's part.
[Roy Battenhouse (Shakespeare's Christian Dimension)
& Arthur McGee (Elizabethan Hamlet) are generally in this group.]

3. Some find the play not too religious and
about a shift from the dead king’s old law of chivalry—
and from Christianity—
toward modern political expediency
(“the quality of being convenient and practical
despite possibly being improper or immoral”).
Fortinbras wins: He’s strongest & best.
Like #2, some of these view Hamlet's efforts
to set things right in Denmark to be failed,
and view his sense of a new religious awakening
after the sea voyage to be delusory.
[This approach became more popular in the 20th Century
and is still popular among many today.]

4. Regardless of the ghost’s nature,
Hamlet is tempted toward madness & hurts people,
causing deaths by his own hand.
Yet he turns from mad & bloody thoughts
when saved by Providence with the help of merciful pirates
and in the graveyard when he finds Yorick’s skull.
He reconciles with his assassin, Laertes,
passes the kingdom to Fortinbras as a gift of reparation,
and is right to execute Claudius.
[Many tend to read the play this way
at least in the sense of noting the change in Hamlet
after the sea voyage,
including Eleanor Prosser (Hamlet and Revenge),
Andrew Gurr (Hamlet and the Distracted Globe),
Fredson Bowers (Hamlet as Minister & Scourge),
and Maynard Mack, Jr. (Killing the King).]
[For more on this angle, see note below on Ron Strickland essay]

[5. A fifth interpretive trend - not my favorite -
is that some view the prince
as basically a superior person almost throughout the play,
perhaps due to his royal blood and divine right as heir,
so they downplay his faults.
—They say there was a period
when people idolized Shakespeare too much and were afraid
to criticize his works or challenge the dominant interpretations;
this is often referred to as "Bardolatry," or a kind of uncritical
idolatry of the Bard.
—One might call this treatment of Hamlet
"Hamletolatry."
—An example of a book that takes this approach
is by G.R. Elliott and is called Scourge and Minister:
A Study of Hamlet as Tragedy of Revengefulness and Justice.
It's a book I'm reading very slowly because it's aggravating
in its pretentiousness. But if only because it so often assumes
too much, it makes one think more carefully about one's own
reading of the play.]

There are other approaches, of course.
Each option option offers insight.

I tend toward group 4, as people who have followed my previous posts will note.

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[Ron Strickland of Illinois State University
has a good essay called "Hamlet, Subjectivity
and community in Revenge Tragedy" for his English 378 students,
and in it, he notes that after the sea voyage, Hamlet becomes
more straightforward and transparent with Claudius, which
confuses his uncle:

But when Claudius reads Hamlet's announcement that "You shall know I am set naked on your kingdom" he seems nonplussed, for once:

What should this mean? Are all the rest come back? Or is it some abuse, and no such thing? . . . . 'Tis Hamlet's character. "Naked"! And in a postscript here he says "alone."
Can you devise me?
(V. vii, 49-53)

Of course, he should be surprised that Hamlet has survived his murder plot. But beyond that, I think, Claudius is genuinely confused by Hamlet's straightforwardness. This is not the enemy that Claudius has faced before. It is one indication that, unlike other revenge heroes, Hamlet is not growing progressively more like his enemy, Claudius. Claudius remains a Machiavellian manipulator of people and events, as his handling of Laertes demonstrates, but by foregoing the strategy of manipulation, Hamlet has placed himself outside the sphere of Claudius' comprehension, and perhaps outside the sphere of Claudius' control. And, in turning his attention away from interior audiences, he has reestablished his rapport with the real audience.]

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