HAMLET HAUNTED BY CUCKOLDED JOSEPH: Seventh Commandment, No Adultery (series)
HAMLET HAUNTED BY CUCKOLDED JOSEPH: Seventh Commandment (series) Many scholars note a visual echo of the Annunciation in Hamlet 3.1, when Polonius asks Ophelia to “read on this book”: He wants her to appear as “devotion’s visage / And pious action” like Mary as illustrated in prayer books and paintings, reading from a book of psalms when Angel Gabriel appears [1]. Where there is Annunciation (Luke 1:26–38), her betrothed Joseph soon follows, planning to quietly divorce her after learning she is pregnant, assuming she has violated their betrothal (Matt 1:18–25). Does the cuckolded Joseph tradition help explain Hamlet’s cruelty to Ophelia? Chris Hassel, Jr. [2] claims that Hamlet is harsh with Ophelia in this scene (“get thee to a nunnery!”) in the tradition of old English guild plays [3]: Upon learning that she is pregnant, Joseph becomes angry and jealous, assuming he’s been cuckolded [4], that Mary had an affair [5]. To Hassel, the stage tradition of Joseph’s emotiona...