Cain and Jesus in Gertrude's Closet, Hamlet 3.4 (Good Friday post)
Compare:
Hamlet 3.4.31-32, after Hamlet kills Polonius unseen:
Queen: O me, WHAT HAST THOU DONE? *
Hamlet: Nay, I KNOW NOT. Is it the King? * [1]
Genesis 4:9-10, Geneva trans.:
Then the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother?
Who answered, I cannot tell. Am I my brother’s keeper?
Again he said, WHAT HAST THOU DONE? *
the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me, from the earth.
Luke 23:34, Geneva, Jesus from the cross:
Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them:
for THEY KNOW NOT what they do. *
(* Emphasis mine)
- Queen Gertrude echoes God to Cain: What hast thou done?
- Hamlet echoes Jesus from the cross: I know not (what I've done).
AT LEAST TWO IMPLICATIONS:
1. By killing a human being, Hamlet has sinned, like Cain killing his brother.
2. By stabbing the person hidden behind the arras, blind to who he was stabbing, Hamlet fits what Jesus says from the cross: They know not what they do.
WHY HAS THIS BEEN MISSED by previous scholars of Shakespeare and the Bible such as
C. Wordsworth (1864) [2],
T. Carter (1905) [3],
R. Noble (1940) [4],
P. Milward (1987) [5] and
N. Shaheen (1999) [6]?
The Genesis allusion casts Hamlet as a Cain figure (as Claudius thinks himself),
and Polonius like Abel in this analogy;
and the Luke passion narrative allusion casts Hamlet as a crucifier.
All of these scholars would have been familiar with the Bible passages, and the Geneva translations.
But casting Hamlet as a Cain and crucifier may have been too harsh (too much cognitive dissonance, to have Hamlet as a second Cain figure in a story where Claudius is already offered as a Cain figure?).
Casting a meddling Polonius as innocent brother and Abel figure may have been too kind, at least in their minds - ?
DON’T BELIEVE THESE ALLUSIONS ARE PRESENT? Consider:
Just because I never noticed in Stanley Kubrick’s film “A Clockwork Orange” the visual reference to his previous film “2001: A Space Odyssey” doesn’t mean he didn’t put it there [7]....
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2025/04/cain-and-jesus-in-gertrudes-closet.html
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Postscript:
Other echoes in Hamlet of the passion of Christ and/or Good Friday:
1.1.125-137: Horatio describes the dead rising and signs in the heavens upon the death of Caesar, resembling description of events at Jesus' death in Matthew 27:53 and Luke 23:44-45.
1.1.162 and 163-4: “it started like a guilty thing / Upon a fearful summons.” This echoes the cock crowing at Peter's denial of Christ.
2.2.603 and 5.1.290: Hamlet: “‘S'wounds!” Short for “By Christ’s wounds!”
5.2.321: Gertrude offers to wipe the sweaty brow of Hamlet who is dueling with Laertes. David Kaula (1984) connects this to Veronica wiping the face of Jesus on the way to the crucifixion. (Loosely related to the gospel mention Jesus greeting the women on the way to crucifixion, but the naming of Veronica is not strictly gospel but legend/apocryphal.)
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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] I wrote a similar blog post five years ago but missed Gertrude’s allusion to the question that God asks of Cain, “What hast thou done?”
See “ "They know not what they do": Hamlet as Crucifier in Gertrude's Closet,” - November 17, 2020:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2020/11/know-not-what-they-do-crucifier.html
[2] Charles Wordsworth was an Anglican bishop who wrote a book that went through multiple printings:
On Shakspeare's knowledge and use of the Bible 1864.
https://archive.org/details/onshakespeareskn00wordrich/mode/2up
[3] Thomas Carter, Shakespeare and Holy Scripture, with the Version He Used, 1905.
https://archive.org/details/shakespeareholys0000cart/page/n5/mode/2up
[4] Richmond S. H. Noble. Shakespeare's Biblical knowledge and use of the Book of common prayer, as exemplified in the plays of the first folio, 1935, 1940.
https://catalog.folger.edu/record/39343
[5] Peter Milward. Biblical influences in Shakespeare's great tragedies (1987).
https://catalog.folger.edu/record/47123
[6] Naseeb Shaheen, Biblical references in Shakespeare's plays (1999).
https://catalog.folger.edu/record/106938?ln=en
[7] “In ‘A Clockwork Orange’ Kubrick makes a self-quote.
The protagonist enters a record store and in plain sight you can see the cover of the album ‘2001 A Space Odyssey’, the previous film of the well-known director.” -
Dania Cusenza, on LinkedIn, April 18, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dania-cusenza-676906170_adoro-le-uova-di-pasqua-soprattutto-quelle-activity-7318863385645711360-plr7?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAJPBv0BegWdjCwW-nY1A7ww6lMdDlLcAgk
IMAGES:
Left: Pietro Novelli (1603–1647),
Cain and Abel,
Date: first half of 17th century.
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica.
Public Domain, via https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/Pietro_Novelli_-_Cain_and_Abel_-_WGA16595.jpg
Right:
Giotto (1266–1337),
Crucifixion,
fresco from Scrovegni Chapel,
circa 1300. Public domain, via https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Giotto_Crucifixion.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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