Hamlet as Jonah desiring Nineveh's destruction instead of repentance (Jonah Postlude)
After Jonah delivers prophecy to Nineveh and they repent [2], Jonah is ungrateful for the gourd plant that God makes spring up to give him shade, and disappointed: He’d hoped to witness Nineveh’s destruction [3].
Hamlet is similarly disappointed to find Claudius at prayer and perhaps repenting (or trying to [4]).
Jonah lacks mercy and wants to be an instrument of God's vengeance;
before his sea-voyage, a "distracted" Hamlet is perhaps made mad by the desire for revenge, killing Polonius mistakenly [5], declaring that all his thoughts should be bloody or "nothing worth" [6], similarly dedicated (for a time) to being an instrument of vengeance.
But in Hamlet “the time is out of joint” [7]:
- Jonah first embarks on his sea-voyage and then changes mode of transport mid-sea for his ride in a fish’s belly; only later, when Nineveh repents, does he sulk, disappointed, still vengeful, ungrateful for the brief shade that God provides.
- Hamlet sees Claudius praying and resolves to kill him later while he is sinning so that he will be damned. As Taylor observes, this is like Jonah, wishing for Nineveh’s destruction.
- Hamlet later has his sea-voyage [8], changing mode of transport to a pirate ship, inverting the Jonah chronology (time out of joint); Hamlet may have a greater change of heart than Jonah, exchanging forgiveness with Laertes [9].
Unlike the king of Nineveh and all its people (and livestock! [10]), Claudius does not repent.
Hamlet is more grateful to be saved briefly by pirates [11] and apparently by the will of providence [12], and by the brief emotional "shade" or comfort provided by the memory of Yorick in the graveyard (5.1), than Jonah is for the gourd vine and its brief shade.
Shakespeare’s inclusion of the Jonah echoes in Hamlet holds up a mirror, to show differences as much as to show similarities.
But the inclusion of the Jonah echo in Hamlet's sea-voyage, and perhaps in his desire to be certain of his revenge in the prayer scene as Taylor notes, seem to highlight that many readers may be more familiar with Jonah as a "type" of Jesus (in Christian typology) rather than familiar with Jonah's whole story.
INDEX of posts on Jonah in Hamlet:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2024/08/index-of-posts-on-jonah-in-hamlet.html
NOTES: All references to Hamlet (and other Shakespeare plays) are to the Folger Shakespeare Library online versions: https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/hamlet/entire-play/
[1] Taylor, Dennis, Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Reformation: Literary Negotiation of Religious Difference. Lexington Books, 2022, p.389.
https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781666902082/Shakespeare-and-the-Elizabethan-Reformation-Literary-Negotiation-of-Religious-Difference
[2] The Book of Jonah, chapter 3.
[3] Jonah 4.
[4] Hamlet 3.3.77-101.
[5] 3.4.29-32.
[6] 4.4.69.
[7] 1.5.210.
[8] Hamlet’s sea voyage toward England occurs from the end of 4.4 through his return (with the help of pirates), mentioned first by letter to Horatio in 4.6.
[9] 5.2.361-364.
[10] Jonah 3:8-10, 4:10.
[11] 4.6.15-22.
[12] 5.2.54-60.
IMAGES
Left: Jonah Under the Gourd Vine. 280–90 CE.
Anatolia, late Roman-early Christian, marble.
The Cleveland Museum of Art.
Public domain via
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1965.239
Right: Michelangelo (1475–1564).
Prophet Jonah, Sistine Chapel ceiling, 1508, Vatican Museums.
Public Domain via
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophet_Jonah_%28Michelangelo%29#/media/File:Prophet_Jonah.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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