In traditional and modern, ghost reflects death and fear, and it never change. In Hamlet, the ghost is a symbol of Hamlet’s father who is killed by Claudius. Its propose is to demand Hamlet to avenge its death. Although the ghost only appears three times in front of Hamlet, it is a specify role to develop the whole story and plot. Through Hamlet, the ghost is the motive to make Hamlet kill Claudius, and the ghost plays a critical role to influence Hamlet.
In the act 1, sense 1, the appearance of ghost implicated that something would be happening in Denmark and created interest and caution to audience and Horatio. Ghost always represents horror and fear nowadays, and people think that ghost maybe has unfinished hope before death or revenge for somebody. In the Shakespeare world, ghost shows up in somewhere, where it’s not supposed to be. That means that there is someone else, especially in western culture. Horatio said, “has the ghost appeared again tonight” (1.1 21), and “it will not appear” (1.1 29). Horatio was educated, so he didn’t believe that. On the other hand, Bernardo and Marcellus believed the ghost was real and tried to prove it. Through the conversion and background between Horatio and officers, the plot creates the suspense and question to audience. Does the ghost really exist? Meanwhile, the audiences feel curious about the ghost.
Thus, the first appearance of ghost in front of hamlet is a huge impact and sets the action in motion for the entire plot. The appearance becomes the most important scene in the play. To Hamlet, Hamlet really admired his father, and his father’s death entirely affected his emotion and life. As Hamlet knew that the ghost was the symbol of his father and the unnatural murder. The nightmare...
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...c in the closet scene. Hamlet could hear the ghost, but Gertrude didn’t see and hear anything and thought Hamlet is mad. Gertrude said “ if I saw something, I would definitely see that” (3.4 137)Is Hamlet really mad or is the ghost real? Remember that in Act 1, scene 5, Hamlet and other officer can see and talk to the ghost. This results Gertrude feels confess and think he is mad.
As a result, the ghost is a symbol that reflects the revenge of Hamlet’s father. His first appearance leads audiences to come into the tragedy and something would be happening in Demark. It’s a caution. As hamlet realizes the truth from the ghost, he feels angry and decides to avenge his father’s death. However, even though hamlet decides to kill Claudius, but he apparently doesn’t get ready for the murder, so the ghost appears again to remind Hamlet what the real work is.
Hamlet is extremely proud of Old King and respects him.“He was a great human being. He was perfect in everything. I’ll never see the likes of him again” (I.ii.185-188). Hamlet loves his father and gives the greatest praise at the funeral. Grief driven by love tempts Hamlet to think his father’s goodness, and more, the loss of such a favorable figure. Hamlet believes that the ghost that is said to look like the dead king is indeed his father.”He waxes desperate with imagination”(I.ii.92). The Prince, who is deep in sadness and does not think sufficiently, is convinced that the spirit is the Old Hamlet, he is the only person that can physically communicate with the ghost. Hamlet for the second time talks to the apparition in his mother’s chamber, where Gertrude does not see any. What Horatio and other witnesses encounter at the gate at night proves the possibility of the existence of the ghost, Hamlet later in the play is considered to be truly mad on the account of his unusual ability to see and talk to the spirit, which is obviously conjured up by his mind. Rising actions in both the book and the play are implied at the beginning of the stories: Amir’s memory of 1975 and Old Hamlet’s death. The journey of redemption or revenge takes actions of concealing their true emotions and implementing devised
After the initial visitation of the ghost, hamlet begins to obsess about killing Claudius as part of a new plan to rid the royal court of his father’s murder. More so, he begins to despise his mother for marrying Claudius right after her husband’s death. Hamlet begins to hate his mother just as much as Claudius, which defines the expanded psychosis of the ghost’s message as part of a long term delusional state. This is one aspect of Hamlet’s deteriorating madness that dictates the paranoia that drives him to kill Claudius and shame his mother into
Throughout the play, the ghost helps develop the storyline. The ghost allows Shakespeare to open up the play with suspense and foreshadow a doomed fate for Denmark. In the second appearance Hamlet told firsthand about his fathers murder. Hamlet is also given instructions to seek revenge and kill claduious. In the third appearance, the ghost is unseen by Gertrude. This develops ideas including Hamlet actually going mad, or a proof of a the ghosts instruction to hamlet being no less than Hamlets own thoughts and ambitions.
In the first act the ghost appears to two soldiers Marcellus, and Barnardo, as well as to Hamlet’s friend Horatio, who is a very credible and intelligent person. The same ghost appeared to Hamlet several times through out the play also. These facts eliminate the chance of this ghost being a figment of people’s imagination because too many people saw the same thing. In act 1 scene 1 it is revealed that the ghost appeared twice wearing the same armor King Hamlet wore when he fought the ambitious old Fortinbras, King of Norway, and also when he defeated the Poles. Young Fortinbras is determined to get back the land his father lost. This fact brings more in depth evidence to the ghost being real. The reason the guards are there on watch is a direct relationship to an attack from Fortinbras and the ghost is wearing the armor of the event that started this whole thing.When the ghost asks Hamlet to avenge his death, he reveals a true fact involving the death of King Hamlet:Ghost. I find thee apt; and duller shouldst thou the fat weed that roots itself in ease on lethe wharf wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear. ‘tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard, a serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark in by a forged process of my death rankly abused. But know, thou noble youth, the serpent that did sting thy father’s life now wears his crown.Hamlet. O, my prophetic soul! My uncle! (1.3. 38-48) Later in the play is revealed that Claudius murdered King Hamlet in order to achieve the crown himself. This fact proves the reality of the ghost. Claudius admits to killing King Hamlet in a prayer: "…since I am still possessed of those effects for which I did the murder: My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen…"(3.3 57-59) The ghost told Hamlet about that fact before Claudias ever admits it.
makes the metaphysics of the play dark. The ghost says nothing despite the valiant efforts on the parts of Horatio, Marcellus, and Bernardo. Suspense is created when the audience is ignorant as to the purpose of the ghost. Later in the play the ghost is utilized to allow Hamlet and the audience knowledge of the vile murder of the king by Claudius, the kings own brother. When the ghost finally speaks, he tells Hamlet,
The aspect of Hamlet that I find interesting is the appearance of the ghost that Hamlet suspects may be the ghost of his father. Hamlet does not know if the ghost is actually of his father or if it is a demon taking on his father's appearance. How will he know what decision to make if he does not know what the ghost actually is? Also, now I'm wondering if Hamlet makes the wrong decision, will his decision lead to his death? This is the second play of Shakespeare's that I have read that has the appearance of ghosts. Macbeth also had apparitions appear in it. Shakespeare seems to have a method of placing ghosts into his writings, and in Macbeth these ghosts led to the downfall of Macbeth. -Keisha McWhorter
Hamlet is distressed due to the fact of his fathers ghost telling him of the horrid death that he suffered and wanting him to make things right. Hamlet questions the ghost and wonders if all this information could be true. He wonders if the ghost is just really an evil ghost that is lying to him. Rising action is all the events that lead the play to the climax. In acts two and three the events are helping the readers anticipate what will happen. Claudius has chosen two of Hamlet’s school friends to spy on him to see why he is acting so strange. Meanwhile Hamlet plots with the players to re enact the death for Claudius. Because of the reaction of the king the story of the ghost was confirmed.
All throughout the play Hamlet mourns the loss of his father, especially since his father is appearing to him as a ghostly figure telling him to avenge his death, and throughout the play it sets the stage and shows us how he is plotting to get back at the assassinator. Such an instance where the ghost appears to Hamlet is when Hamlet and his mother are in her bedchamber where the ghost will make his last appearance. Hamlet tells his mother to look where the ghost appears but she cannot see it because he is the only one who that has the ability to see him.
I personally disagree with the author W.W. Greg’s interpretation of Hamlet’s ghost, and believe that his assumption that Hamlet is simply hallucinating his father’s ghost is without merit. Many of W.W. Greg’s claims relate Hamlet to other plays that were written by Shakespeare, claiming that due to how Shakespeare portrayed ghosts in his previous works, it would follow that Hamlet also fits into the same mold as these past writings. W.W. Greg even states, “I should like to be told what Shakespeare's views were of ghosts in general ... I am forced to turn to Shakespeare's other plays for suggestions as to how he represented these phenomena” (Greg 395). W.W. Greg is simply claiming that trends in Shakespeare’s writings in the past logically must take the same form in the character of Hamlet’s ghost. This method of thinking simply does not hold up when examined critically, mainly due to the fact that there were multiple witnesses to the ghost, a...
The core of the play then unfolds from the actions and words of this ghost. Hamlet's revenge against his uncle is certainly fueled by the ghost's words, but the ghost seems to serve a more subtle and internal part here. In the famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy (III.i.55-88), Hamlet makes it clear his is not only unsure of what action to take, but unsure of himself as well. It seems his father's aberration confuses Hamlet ...
Ghosts are often characters that are a representation of revenge tragedy, especially in Shakespearean plays, such as Macbeth. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the ghost is very significant because it influences Hamlet negatively, which ultimately results in his tragedy. The ghost causes Hamlet to get revenge, realize his tragic flaw, and leads to his madness.
The ghost is upset that Claudius to still alive. Claudius has finally caught on to the fact that Hamlet wants to kill him, so he devises his own plan for revenge against Hamlet. “Claudius banishes Hamlet to England for the murder of Polonius” (Mabillard 3). As soon as Hamlet arrives on English soil, Claudius plans to have him murdered. Claudius sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern on the ship with Hamlet with a letter to the King of England; the letter asks him to kill Hamlet (Weller 2). Hamlet intercepts the letter and realizes what is happening: he rewrites the letter saying that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern need to be killed (Weller 2). The audience knows that the killing of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is of no consequence to Hamlet because they are not his true friend. Now that Hamlet sees what Claudius had planned, he cannot wait to finally seek revenge on the
Throughout his years as an author, William Shakespeare wrote approximately thirty-seven plays. “Hamlet”, a play written by Shakespeare, follows a young prince of Denmark named Hamlet and his quest to redress his father’s death that occurred by the Hand of his Uncle and now step father and King Claudius. While dealing with this inward conflict of his own, he must deal with the imminent attack by the bordering Norway. William Shakespeare wrote his play “Hamlet” to assert that inner conflict portrays a causal relationship with outward conflict.
We see that the ghost is a driving force for Hamlet on his way to conscious maturity. There is something rotten in the State of Denmark but the something rotten exists in all places and in all people. Anyone with intellect and a conscience would not tolerate it, as Hamlet does not by willfully going into a battle at the end of the play wherein he knows he will be killed. Further, the ghost is just one more thing Hamlet must escape on the way to his mature self. As Harold Bloom, noted Shakespearian critic, notes about this sea-change in Hamlet's character and its relation to the ghost, "In Act V, Hamlet is barely still in the play; like Whitman's 'real me' or 'me myself' the final Hamlet is both in and out of the game while watching and wondering at it. We feel that if the Ghos...
The ghost is the guiding force behind hamlet. It asks hamlet to seek revenge for king Hamlet's death. This propels him into a series of events that end in his death.