Fortuna & Gambling in Hamlet & its Biblical Echoes

Sometimes what looks like a gamble
may be a risk taken in faith.

(Does gambling for money parody such faith?)

FORTUNE AND GAMBLING IN HAMLET:

THE DEAD KING HAMLET GAMBLED, in an agreement with Old Fortinbras, to engage in single combat, described by Horatio in 1.1. The survivor won the loser’s land. We learn in 5.1 that this combat took place on the day that Hamlet was born.[1]

CLAUDIUS BETS that Hamlet will win the duel with Laertes in 5.2, though he and Laertes plan to kill Hamlet. Claudius takes his chances that the plot will succeed, but to increase his chances, a poison cup is a back-up plan, and instead of Laertes merely using an "unbaited" rapier (with no blunt safety tip), Laertes also anoints the rapier with poison. This combines cheating with gambling.

[EDIT: Grace Tiffany of Western Michigan University adds to the list of gambling references:
Gertrude's marriage vows are "false as dicers' oaths" (3.4), referring to how gamblers, who roll dice, swear oaths to stop gambling but then break those oaths.]

THE WORD “FORTUNE” occurs 14 times in the play, nine times by Hamlet;

FORTUNE’S WHEEL is mentioned by the First Player in 2.2, like a gambling wheel that turns and stops at random, with no sense of justice. [EDIT: In 4.5, when Ophelia says, "O how the wheel becomes it!" she seems to be speaking of fortune's wheel that makes beggars of kings and kings of beggars (Or as the virgin Mary says, casts down the mighty and raises up the lowly).]

Fortune (in Hamlet and King John) is fickle, a “strumpet.”

Audiences may notice Bible allusions analogous to gambling:

1. JOB: Some of Hamlet’s lines echo the biblical Book of Job;
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s arrival echoes a visit Job receives from friends.

Early in the biblical tale, God says how pleased he is with Job.
Satan replies, “Let me have him for a while; I can break him.”
Satan offers a bet with God, placing Job’s health and the lives of his family at risk.
God accepts the bet.

2. JEPHTHAH: Hamlet calls Polonius a Jephthah, one who would risk his daughter’s life for his ambition. The Jephthah tale was often cited as an example of unwise oaths.

In the Bible tale, Jephthah takes a blind gamble: He vows that if God makes him victorious over the Ammonites, Jephthah will sacrifice the first thing that crosses his threshold. It turns out to be his daughter. His gamble for victory in battle comes at the cost of his daughter’s life.

3. CASTING LOTS FOR JESUS’ SEAMLESS ROBE: In the gospels of Mark (15:24) and Luke (23:34), soldiers at the crucifixion cast lots for who will get Jesus’ robe.

When Claudius bets on Hamlet to win the duel with Laertes, his gamble is a deception, and *not* a direct allusion to these gospel passages. The soldiers at the crucifixion don’t use their gambling to deceive, as Claudius does.

But the gambling of Claudius, in association with the death of the prince, may have seemed vaguely similar in the imagination of Shakespeare’s early audiences to the gambling soldiers at the crucifixion.

HAMLET RISKS fighting pirates who capture him and return him to Denmark; risks the duel with Laertes; risks an apology to Laertes; risks what killing Claudius may do to his name; risks giving his dying voice to Fortinbras.

“To be or not to be” can be viewed as Hamlet contemplating whether to take a risk, like a gamble.

When we take risks out of love, it’s like an act of faith. But for greed, let's call it gambling.

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POSTSCRIPT: As I wrote this blog entry, I thought a bit of Hans Kung, who said faith is not acceptance of a grocery list of beliefs, but a fundamental stance toward life - and I think that includes the hopeful risks sometimes displayed in Hamlet...

I also thought of Lewis Hyde, who said gift commerce increases as gifts move out like ripples on a pond, while capitalism and the charging of interest mimics that increase but forces the increase to move backwards to the lender, not forward into the community...

This seems similar to the difference between risks taken in faith or love, as compared to gambling or risks taken in greed...
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NOTE: [1] When King Hamlet's wife and queen, Gertrude, was coming to the end of her pregnancy, about to deliver the child who would become Prince Hamlet, why would a king arrange and enter into a duel, a single combat with another king, at the risk of his life, and at risk of losing his son's legacy and lands?

IMAGES (All public domain):

Fortuna, engraving by Hans Sebald Beham, 1541. Via Britanica.com.
https://cdn.britannica.com/26/141126-050-40547278/Fortuna-engraving-Hans-Sebald-Beham-1541.jpg
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Fortuna-Roman-goddess
Coëtivy Master's Rota Fortunae, 15th Century. Via Wiseblood Books.com:
https://www.wisebloodbooks.com/uploads/1/9/4/6/19466635/6909127_orig.jpg
https://www.wisebloodbooks.com/rota-fortuna-press.html
La déesse Fortuna, via http://www.luciuscorneliussylla.fr/augure.htm
http://www.luciuscorneliussylla.fr/image/fortuna.JPG


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Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages or mention religion in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to explore how the Bible and religion influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
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Thanks for reading!
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My current project is a book tentatively titled Hamlet’s Bible, about biblical allusions and plot echoes in Hamlet.

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https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/12/top-20-hamlet-bible-posts.html

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