2. A Father's Spirit
The religious Reformation in England was over 60 years old by the time Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, but elements of Catholic belief still lingered. Shakespeare's portrayal of the Ghost reflects both Protestant and Catholic theology. Elizabethan Protestants believed that ghosts were demons from hell(or sometimes angels from heaven) who took on the appearance of the dead. Catholic, on the other hand, thought that ghosts were the souls of dead people still in purgatory-a state in which the dead atone for their sins through suffering.

3. Incestuous Marriage between Claudius and Gertrude
In the Renaissance, marriage between a widow and her late husband's brother was generally forbidden by the Protestant and Catholic churches. When Claudius emphasizes in his first speech that he sought approval from the Danish court for his marriage to Gertrude, he may be acknowledging that this marriage was somehow controversial.

4. Melancholy
In the Renaissance, doctors believed that emotions and temperament were controlled by a mixture of four "humors" in the body: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Hamlet displays many symptoms of melancholy, a condition supposedly caused by an excess of black bile. Melancholic tend to be restless, suspicious, slow to act, and fearful.

Act II
A Burst of Clamor!
Elizabethan theatergoers would have been familiar with the mythical events described in the speech: the fall of Troy and the killing of King Priam by Pyrrhus, the son of the Greek hero Achilles. The player evokes an age of simple heroism, which provides a contrast to the complex and morally ambiguous world in which Hamlet must act.
 
Act  III
A Noble Mind Overthrown
Is Hamlet really mad? Critics have been debating this issue for centuries. Those who question his sanity often emphasize the resentment he feels toward women and his lack of remorse after killing Polonius. Comic playwright and lyricist W.S.Gilbert satirizes the critical debate in his skit Rosencrants and Guildenstern:

                                    Some men hold
That he's the sanest,far,of all sane men---
Some that he's really sane, but shamming mad---
Some that he's really mad, but shamming sane--
Some that he will be mad, some that he was--
Some that he couldn't be. But on the whole
(As far as I can make out what they mean)
The favorite theory's somewhat like this:
Hamlet is idiotically sane
With lucid intervals of lunacy.

Act IV
1. England Danish Scars
England has along and complex history with Denmark. In the 9th century, Danish Vikings invaded England and occupied the northern, central, and the eastern parts of the country for 50 years. Late in the 10th century, after the Danes resumed their attacks, the English were forced to make heavy payments(called Danegeld) in exchange for peace. King Swein of Denmark finally conquered England in 1013. HIs son, Canute, ruled the country from 1016-1035.
England and Denmark both became Protestant nations during the Renaissance. King James, who succeeded to the English throne a few years after Hamlet was written, married a Danish noblewoman. Despite these religious and political ties, the Danes had a bad reputation among the English, who considered them drunkards. One Elizabethan satirist called them a "surly swinish generation."

2. Flowers of the Field
The flowers that Ophelia gives away and she puts into her garlands are common wildflowers and herbs. Many of them had symbolic significance in Shakespeare's day. as indicated in Ophelia's comments. The following is a list of flowers along with their symbolic meaning and other associations.

rosemary--faithfulness and remembrance; wood used to make lutes; cooking herb
pansy--thoughts; usually known as heartsease in the 16th century, a smaller flower than today's pansy
fennel--flattery and sorrow; cooking herb
columbine--ingratitude and forsaken love
rue--repentance and regret; bitter aromatic herb thought to be a preventive against the plague
daisy--deception
violet--faithfulness and death
crowflower--probably what is today called ragged robin, a pink flower that grows in marshy places
nettle--a wild plant that has painful stinging hairs on its stem
orchid--a purple flower apparently associated with sex and death