Thomist principles of love in William Shakespeare's Hamlet

M.A. (English)This study applies st Thomas Aquinas's principles of love to William Shakespeare's Hamlet in order to establish the moral bases of the causes and effects of the actions of the characters in the play. The dissertation is divided into two parts comprising six chapters. The first part, chapter one, establishes the availability of st Thomas's precepts in the English Renaissance. The second part, comprising chapters two to six, applies st Thomas's principles relating to charitable and concupiscent love to the characters in the play. st Thomas's philosophy exerted a pervasive influence in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and was accessible to educated circles in England. In view of this influence, it is possible that Shakespeare was influenced by Thomist thought when he wrote Hamlet. In this study, the characters are grouped in terms of the Thomist principles of love that they exemplify in Hamlet, with Horatio providing a moral norm, Claudius being the epitome of evil, and the central character, Hamlet, being a source of moral ambiguity. The cast of supporting characters reflects the nuances of good and evil in the play. The study concludes that, while Shakespeare's characters are governed by established Thomist principles, the translation of moral abstracts into practice elicits moral dilemmas that are difficult to resolve