Hamlet and the Fifth Commandment: Honor Father and Mother (series)

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How and why should Hamlet honor his father and mother if they behaved badly?

The Fifth Commandment: “HONOR THY FATHER AND THY MOTHER.”

In the 1991 film, “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves," Robin (played by Kevin Costner) saves the life of a Muslim, Azeem (Morgan Freeman) who says he must follow and help Robin until he has repaid his “life-debt”: Azeem owes Robin his life; the debt must be repaid [1].

In theory, the duty to honor parents is similar and not merely autoritarian: Children owe parents their lives, and this is at best (though not always) a happy debt to be honored.

Hamlet’s mother married her dead husband’s brother, a marriage considered incestuous in Denmark and England at the time of Shakespeare’s writing.  The ghost claims Gertude and Claudius had an affair, but Gertrude never admits to that in the play.

Can the ghost be trusted? Was the "affair" actually after the murder, winning her over too soon after her husband was dead?

Even if she married Claudius so soon only to avert war with Norway, there would have been social and religious shaming. How can Hamlet “honor” her? He obeys her request to stay in Denmark and not go back to school. But he also uses the play-within-the-play to catch her conscience, and later, scolds her, strongly urging repentance.

Yet if she married Claudius only to save Denmark, why does she see spots on her soul (3.4.100-2)?  If her second marriage was sinful, perhaps Hamlet honors her by scolding her to repent?

The ghost says that he is being purged in fire for “foul crimes” committed in life. He wants his death to be avenged, claiming that this is necessary to cleanse the corruption of Denmark’s throne. But the Bible says that vengeance is God’s (Romans 12:19).

If for personal revenge, Hamlet had killed Claudius behind the arras instead of Polonius, would this have cleansed Denmark’s corruption and honored his father, if Gertrude alone is witness?

Or does Hamlet need to execute Claudius publicly, after the poison kills Gertrude and Laertes has confessed and blamed Claudius?

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

[1] On life-changing gifts that incur feelings of gratitude and indebtedness, see Hyde, Lewis, Chapter 3: The Labor of Gratitude, in The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property (1983). pp.40-55. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gift:_Imagination_and_the_Erotic_Life_of_Property
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TOP (FIRST) IMAGE:  Collage, top: Derek Jacobi as Claudius, Kenneth Branagh as Hamlet, Julie Christie as Gertrude, dir. Branagh (1996), fair use, via Retro Reels, FaceBook. Posted by Joe Sabbagh, October 22, 2024. 

Bottom: Ghost and Gertrude in 2008 RSC production of 'Hamlet', actors Patrick Stewart (playing the ghost, but also cast as Claudius in this production), and Penny Downie as Gertrude. Dir. Gregory Doran, Image via Hyperion2Satyr.blogspot (fair use) 


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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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This blog, “Hamlet’s Bible,” has had more than 250,000 views from 84 countries as of July, 2026. Author Paul Adrian Fried has an MFA in English and Creative Writing with a thesis in Poetry, and a Master’s thesis in Creative Nonfiction. For the B.A. he studied English and Theology (double-major), with a Theology senior paper on Christology. During his studies, he won various awards for his prose and poetry, and met with writers such as Margaret Atwood, Donald Justice, and Lisel Mueller, and Robert Bly; hermeneutics scholar Hans Georg Gadamer; and theologian Rosemary Haughton. After the B.A. and before his graduate studies, he worked as a church choir director and liturgist. He has presented at Shakespeare Association of America, Sixteenth Century Society, Christianity and Literature, and Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association.