Editing Hamlet (section)

===Religious===
[[File:John Everett Millais - Ophelia - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|[[John Everett Millais]]' ''[[Ophelia (painting)|Ophelia]]'' (1852) depicts Lady Ophelia's mysterious death by drowning. In the play, the gravediggers discuss whether Ophelia's death was a suicide and whether she merits a Christian burial.]]

Written at a time of religious upheaval and in the wake of the [[English Reformation]], the play is alternately [[Catholicism|Catholic]] (or piously medieval) and [[Protestantism|Protestant]] (or consciously modern). The ghost describes himself as being in [[purgatory]] and as dying without [[last rites]]. This and Ophelia's burial ceremony, which is characteristically Catholic, make up most of the play's Catholic connections. Some scholars have observed that [[Revenge play|revenge tragedies]] come from Catholic countries such as Italy and Spain, where the revenge tragedies present contradictions of motives, since according to Catholic doctrine the duty to God and family precedes civil justice.{{sfn|MacCary|1998|pp=37–38}}

Much of the play's Protestant tones derive from its setting in Denmark—both then and now a predominantly Protestant country,{{efn|See the articles on the [[Reformation in Denmark–Norway and Holstein]] and [[Church of Denmark]] for details.}} though it is unclear whether the fictional Denmark of the play is intended to portray this implicit fact. Dialogue refers explicitly to the German city of [[Wittenberg]] where Hamlet, Horatio, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern attend university, implying where the Protestant [[Reformation|reformer]] [[Martin Luther]] nailed the ''[[Ninety-five Theses]]'' to the church door in 1517.{{sfn|MacCary|1998|p=38}}