Răzbunarea lui Hamlet sau Babilonul creștinătății
Hamlet’s Revenge or the Babylon of Christendom

Author(s): Codrin Liviu CUȚITARU
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, Theology and Religion
Published by: Editura Doxologia
Keywords: Babylon; Tower of Babel; Shakespeare; hybris; tragedy; lex talionis; lex remissionis; Christianity;
Summary/Abstract: This paper can be viewed as a comparative exercise, since it ultimately aims to transfer the meanings of the Biblical myth of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11, 1-9) to the subtly Christian connotations of one of the masterpieces of world literature, Hamlet, by the English playwright William Shakespeare. The immeasurable pride of the ancient Mesopotamians in building a paradisiacal city, symbolically named in their language Babylon (bab-ilani = ʺGate of the Godsʺ), characterised by an unparalleled structure, the Tower of Babel, a construction reaching up to the sky and beyond (bab-ilu = “gate of God”), constitutes a challenge to the limits of the human condition, termed as hybris in ancient Greek culture. By considering “revenge” as a fundamental rule for maintaining the balance of the medieval pyramid, Hamletʹs world (Christian in its displayed convictions) builds, we claim, its own Babylon. Therefore, the conclusion of the paper is that, like the story of the Tower of Babel, a myth of disintegration through hybris, Hamlet remains a parable of downfall through hybris.

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