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Hamlet's Hallucinations

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Hamlet’s ability to communicate with the Ghost of the dead King Hamlet testifies to his schizophrenic symptom of auditory hallucinations. Hamlet introduces his hallucinations to the reader in Act One, Scene Five, where is encounters the Ghost for the first time. The true manifestation of his schizophrenic tendencies, however, is in Act Three, Scene Four, where Hamlet, in the presence of Queen Gertrude, converses with the Ghost. Following Hamlet's conversation with the Ghost, Hamlet interrogates Queen Gertrude with questions such as “Nor did you nothing hear?”, to which Gertrude replies “No, nothing but ourselves”(3.4.152- 153). Although Hamlet reassures Queen Gertrude that they are in the presence of the Ghost of King Hamlet, Gertrude sees

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