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plays Divine Providence in Hamlet What is Divine Providence?
sonnets
analysis From The Riddles of Hamlet by Simon Augustine Blackmore. Bishop Jonathan Weaver, in his sermon on Divine
quotations Providence (1891) wrote that "God governs and
Boston, Stratford & Co. controls the affairs of this world after the counsel
sources
biography of his own will. Mysteries there are, deep and
After mature reflection upon these incidents, inexplicable mysteries in God's dealings with the children of
theatres
men. It seldom, if ever, appears to any man that all things are
key dates Hamlet comes to see more than ever the working together for his good. There are crosses and losses,
plots interposition of Divine Providence in the affairs of afflictions and disappointments, about which the very best of
faq men. In self-reliance, he had boasted that he men have been tried. There are strange, uneven paths into
books would "delve one yard beneath their mines, and which good men are sometimes forced, for which at the time
glossary they can see no reason. What God has written even a fool may
blow them to the moon;" in self-reliance, he had learn to read, but a wise man can not read what God has not
scholars
gone forth with the enemy upon the cruise to written. For
quiz
England, confident of rescue by the counter
search God moves in a mysterious way,
stratagem of a pirate ship; but when his "deep
His wonders to perform;
plot" apparently had failed, and left him helpless, He plants his footsteps in the sea,
like a fettered prisoner in the throes of despair, the And rides upon the storm."
scheme which flashed upon his mind, without
 
thought or effort of his own, he now recognized as
a Divine inspiration. It brought him what he had so More to Explore
long and eagerly desired, — a positive and tangible
 Hamlet: The Complete Play with Explanatory Notes
proof of the murderer's guilt. His death-warrant,  Introduction to Hamlet
written by the hand of the King, and bearing the  The Hamlet and Ophelia Subplot
royal seal, was beyond dispute a convincing proof.  The Norway Subplot in Hamlet
The precious document he entrusts for safe-
keeping to Horatio, because of the presentiment
of his own speedy death. It will justify before the
world the avenging blow which he is soon to
strike. It will unmask the seeming virtuous villain,  Hamlet Detailed Plot Summary
and consign him to everlasting infamy.  Deception in Hamlet
 Hamlet: Problem Play and Revenge Tragedy
 Philological Examination Questions on Hamlet
Hence, with a sense of thankfulness for the
unexpected proof which he procured solely by the  The Purpose of The Murder of Gonzago
intervention of a higher power, he openly  The Dumb-Show: Why Hamlet Reveals his Knowledge to
professes his faith in the guidance of divine Claudius
 The Elder Hamlet: The Kingship of Hamlet's Father
Providence:  How Old is Hamlet?

"There's a Divinity that shapes our  Quotations from Hamlet (with commentary)
ends,  Hamlet Study Quiz (with detailed answers)
 Analysis of I am sick at heart (1.1)
Rough-hew them how we will."
 Hamlet: Q & A

His conclusion is approved by his fellow student  Soliloquy Analysis: O this too too... (1.2)
of philosophy with the emphatic reply, "that is  Soliloquy Analysis: O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!...
most certain." Both agree that our rashness or (2.2)
 Soliloquy Analysis: To be, or not to be... (3.1)
indiscretion sometimes serves us well when our  Soliloquy Analysis: Tis now the very witching time of night...
deep plots do fail. Had not the pirate ship failed to (3.2)
overtake the royal vessel on the appointed day,  Soliloquy Analysis: Now might I do it pat... (3.3)
Hamlet on that eventful night, when in mental  Soliloquy Analysis: How all occasions do inform against me...
(4.4)
conflict between hope and despair, would not have
been blessed with the happy inspiration of _____
purloining the secret letter of the King, and of
substituting a counterfeit; nor would he have
Essential Resources ... Our comprehensive list of every
returned with the original to Denmark, armed with Shakespearean character and the play in which he or she
the first visible and most absolutely damning appears. Included is our exclusive spelled pronunciation guide,
proof against the secret criminal. This happy essential for actors and teachers, and an in-depth biography of
many of Shakespeare's most popular and fascinating creations.
intervention of a higher power, which inspired and How do you pronounce Fortinbras, anyway? Read on...
aided him to turn his failure to success, is now so
clearly seen that, henceforth, he appears more _____
disposed to rely upon its guidance than upon his
own unaided efforts.  Ophelia's Burial and Christian Rituals
 The Baker's Daughter: Ophelia's Nursery Rhymes
 Does Hamlet Love Ophelia?

 The Significance of Ophelia's Flowers


 Sewing in my closet: Ophelia's Meeting with Hamlet
 Ophelia and Laertes
 Mistrusted Love: Ophelia and Polonius

 In Secret Conference: The Meeting Between Claudius and


Laertes
 O Jephthah! Toying with Polonius
 The Death of Polonius and its Impact on Hamlet's Character
 Blank Verse and Diction in Shakespeare's Hamlet

 Hamlet's Silence
 An Excuse for Doing Nothing: Hamlet's Delay
 Foul Deeds Will Rise: Hamlet and Divine Justice
 Defending Claudius: The Charges Against the King
 Claudius and the Condition of Denmark
The metaphor, to shape our ends, some say, is
 Hamlet's Humor
borrowed from the making of skewers; but a  Hamlet's Melancholy: The Transformation of the Prince
comparison so feeble and undignified appears  Divine Providence in Hamlet
unworthy of the grandeur of Hamlet's thought. Far  Hamlet's Antic Disposition: Is Hamlet's Madness Real?
preferable is the opinion which detects in the
figure a reference to sculpture. Common artisans
may rough-hew a block of marble into the general
shape of the statue required; but an artist's skill is
further needed to chisel it into the distinctive
shape of some individual human form. In the
quarry of life, man, from the limitations of his
knowledge and experience, can hew out his ends
or purposes in the rough; but he needs the aid of
the Supreme Artist, — the great First Cause —
Who, according to his good pleasure, shapes and
completes them to their final and rational form.

Divine Providence is the ordination and


application of means, by which God leads his
creatures to their destined end. To thwart or reject
this guidance, is fatuously to risk the attainment
of one's destiny. Man is assured of this
Providential guidance, if, in conformity with the
will of God, he faithfully observe His divine law.

In Hamlet, the Poet gives a dramatic


representation of the free will of man under the
governance or guidance of the Divine Will — a Will
which subordinates in some mysterious and
incomprehensible manner all human actions and
events to the accomplishment of purposes often
inscrutable to the human mind. When, under
stress of circumstances, Hamlet had in vain
exhausted all his powers of thought and reasoning
to lift the veil of darkness which enveloped him,
then a mysterious Higher Power came to his aid,
and, by the employment of some seeming
unimportant incidents, — means apparently "rash
and indiscreet," struck the hour for immediate and
proper action.

Before his awakening to the guidance of this


Higher Will, we have seen how, in the
consciousness of his intellectual dexterity, he had
delighted in his skill and rejoiced in the
contemplated success of his counterplot. Its
apparent failure, as well as the success of his
secondary plot, are in harmony with the
development of the drama; they are introduced,
not to create surprise, but to unfold the character
of the hero. For the overruling destiny, which he
recognizes, rises above the tumult, and is
represented, not as a cold remote power of marble
majesty, but in intimate connection with human
affairs:

"Reckoning time, whose million'd


accidents
Creep in 'twixt vows, and change
decrees of kings,
Tan sacred beauty, blunt the sharp 'st
intents,
Divert strong minds to the course of
altering things."
(Sonnets, CXV.)

These lines read as a commentary on the fortunes


of Hamlet, and should, says Professor Minto, be
printed at the beginning of all copies of the play,
both to emphasize the lofty vein of reflection
developed by the Poet as the main effect of the
whole, and to undo the wretched criticism that
would make it a sermon against procrastination.
[Characteristics of English Poets]

Nothing is more remarkable in Shakespeare's


plays, and nothing contributes more to make them
a faithful image of life, than the prominence given
to the influence of so-called chance, or of
undesigned accidents. As a word, chance has
always been, and always will be popularly
accepted; and its use is correct in so far as we
overlook or ignore, for the moment, the more
universal connection of events. That the law of
causation is universal in its reach, is maintained
by science and religion; and all men practically act
upon its assumption.

It is strictly and philosophically true that there is


no such thing as chance or accident; since these
words do not signify anything really existing,
anything that is truly an agent or the cause of any
event; but they merely signify man's ignorance of
the real and immediate cause. Most tragic events
turn on most trifling circumstances. The fate of
Richard II, is traced to a momentary impulse, — an
impulse which cost him his kingdom and his life.
Poor Desdemona's fate hangs on the accidental
dropping of a handkerchief. The unhappy death of
Romeo and Juliet result on the miscarriage of a
letter. The noble Caesar would not have met his
untimely death, had he not postponed reading the
schedule of Artemidorus. Wolsey fell from the full
meridian of his glory by a slight inadvertence,
which all his deep sagacity could not redeem. But
of all the Poet's plays, the predominance of
chance over human designs, is most powerfully
brought home in the tragedy wherein the fate of
Hamlet turns on accident after accident. These
fortuitous events are variously denominated, as
Destiny, or Fate, or Chance; but, in the poetical
religion of Shakespeare, they are recognized as
the direction of a Providence that exercises
supreme control over human affairs.

To the Christian dramatist there can be no such


thing as chance, and, accordingly, he expounds to
his reader the same idea that has been expressed
by a later Catholic poet in the words:

"All nature is but art unknown to thee;


All chance, direction which thou canst
not see;
All discord, harmony, not understood;
All partial evil, universal good."

Because of the error of several commentators, it is


important to note that in Shakespeare's view, the
guidance of a Higher Power or His intervention
does not destroy man's free will, nor ignore it, nor
relieve him from the necessity of guiding his
actions aright by the light of reason and the voice
of conscience. Hence he places on the lips of the
most detestable of his characters, Iago and
Edmund, the strikingly distinctive truth that it lies
in our free will to be or not to be what we are.
Against sceptics and modern Reformers who hold
the fatalistic view which disputes or denies
freedom of will, Shakespeare unfailingly portrays
man, not as the pagan dramatists of old — a
hapless, helpless being who is subject, in spite of
himself, to a fate, made inevitable by decree of the
gods — but as a rational agent, who is the free
architect of his own character and the arbiter of
his destiny for good or for evil.

Reverting to the text, we see that when the hero of


the drama, by reason of the objective difficulties
which surround him, is unable, notwithstanding all
his efforts, to proceed to his "revenge," a Higher
Power leads him forward with scarce a suspicion
of how surely and quickly he is reaching the goal.
Accidental was the arrival of the players at
Elsinore, yet they enable him to reach, for the first
time, a positive conviction of the King's guilt;
accidental was the slaying of Polonius, yet it is the
turning point of the play, at which Claudius
assuming the aggressive, is in spite of his cunning
lured on to judgment; accidental was the delay of
the pretended pirate ship, yet it led to another
unpremeditated incident, the purloining of the
secret letters, which gave Hamlet the only proof
he could so far offer the public in justification of
his "revenge."

Of all these accidents, the killing of Polonius was


the most important. Though it was a thrust in
blind passion and a seeming blunder, the effects
of which were completely hidden from Hamlet, yet
it was a most opportune and propitious act; for
then, when most helpless, Providence stepped in
to direct him and to ripen his cause for victory.
That blind stroke of passion, roused the criminal
to action for his own safety, which he saw was
involved in Hamlet's destruction; and to attain it,
he proceeds from crime to crime, only, all
unconsciously, to afford the Prince the long-
desired public proofs which alone withheld him
from striking the avenging blow of justice. At the
present stage of the drama, Hamlet's cause is
almost ripe for the final act; another has made
possible a seeming impossibility. A Providence
that never errs is guiding him freely, and shall use
his willing arm for the execution of divine
judgment. Under the higher guidance of this
Providence, Hamlet himself feels that he has
almost reached the goal: now, "the readiness is
all."

How to cite this article:


Blackmore, Simon Augustine. The Riddles of
Hamlet. Boston: Stratford & company, 1917.
Shakespeare Online. 2 Aug. 2011. <
http://www.shakespeare-
online.com/plays/hamlet/divineprovidence.html
>.

____

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