Hamlet the Demonic Iconoclast (Ten Commandments Series)

IN THE PERSON OF HAMLET, DOES SHAKESPEARE ASSOCIATE ELIZABETHAN ICONOCLASM WITH DEMONIC POSSESSION? 

In Reformation England, images that recreated scenes from familiar religious and biblical tales were destroyed, removed, or painted over as allegedly idolatrous (as described in the 2nd commandment, which prohibited making any “graven image”). 

In their place? Commandment boards. 

It is frequently noted that Shakespeare’s father, John, was charged with having to paint over images in their church in Stratford. People who loved religious statues and images in their local churches often had to be content with the Ten Commandments, and words, not images. 

By placing on Hamlet’s lips a little speech that seems to make him an iconoclast by analogy – and at the very moment when Hamlet seems tempted to revenge by a possibly demonic ghost – this seems to associate English iconoclasm with the demonic. 

Consider Hamlet’s little speech after his first encounter with the ghost:

Remember thee?

Yea, from the table of my memory

I’ll wipe away all trivial, fond records,

All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,

That youth and observation copied there,

And thy commandment all alone shall live

Within the book and volume of my brain,

Unmixed with baser matter. Yes, by heaven!

O most pernicious woman!
(1.5.102-111)

In the play, Queen Gertrude is the "pernicious woman." But in Shakespeare's England, Elizabeth I was the queen who had allowed and sometimes mandated iconoclasm, replacing images with commands. 

Shakespeare's Hamlet is very much about the words of the law in all their glory or embarrassment, and about characters who violate the Ten Commandments, certainly including the prince. 

But by making Hamlet a kind of vengeful iconoclast at this moment in the play when he seems most tempted by a ghost of ambiguous supernatural origins, Shakespeare not only fleshes out the plot and characters of his play, but may also be making social and political commentary regarding sweeping religious changes in England during the reformation. 

NOTES: All references to Shakespeare plays are to the Folger Shakespeare Library online versions: https://shakespeare.folger.edu

IMAGES:
UPPER LEFT: A 14th-century limestone statue of St. Margaret of Antioch located at St. Andrew's Church in Fingringhoe, Essex. Image posted by John Vigar, February 16, 2024. Fair use via Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10229255941481265&set=pcb.1753615621826958

UPPER RIGHT: From St. Andrew’s church, North Burlingham, image from “the last medieval roodscreen in East Anglia, and one of the last in England… dated 1536.” Image posted March 29, 2025 by Church Mouse,
Fair use via Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=122120052038735807&set=pcb.10171060697495595

Text via https://hilarywhite.substack.com/p/heresy-and-hammer-how-protestant

LOWER RIGHT: Defaced image from St Andrew’s, North Burlingham, Norfolk, via Exploring Norfolk Churches[-dot]org. Fair use via https://media.exploringnorfolkchurches.org/2019/03/03134439/IMG_7139-1920x2560.jpg

LOWER LEFT: Defaced image of John the Baptist, from St Andrew’s, North Burlingham, Norfolk, via Exploring Norfolk Churches[-dot]org. Fair use via https://media.exploringnorfolkchurches.org/2019/03/03134438/IMG_7140-1920x2560.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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