Final answer:
King Hamlet did not live a life free of sin according to the Ghost in Shakespeare's play, who speaks of being punished in Purgatory for his sins until they are purged.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question of whether King Hamlet lived a life free of sin is complex and can be interpreted in different ways based on Shakespeare's play, Hamlet. In the play, the Ghost of King Hamlet seems to suggest he did not live a sin-free life as he mentions being in Purgatory, which in Elizabethan religious beliefs, is a place where souls too sinful to enter heaven directly must be purged of their sins. For example, the Ghost in Hamlet states:
‘I am thy father’s spirit,
Doom’d for a certain term to walk the night,
And for the day confined to fast in fires,
Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
Are burnt and purged away.’ (Act I, Scene 5)
This passage suggests that King Hamlet, like many others, committed sins during his lifetime and must now suffer for them in the afterlife before he can find peace.
Moreover, Hamlet’s instructions to the Players, and other passages in the play, reflect on the nature of human fallibility, further reinforcing the idea that complete freedom from sin is unlikely.