There is No Ghost in Hamlet Essay

The Ghost of Hamlet's father is a foil for Hamlet. The ghost is introduced so to reveal information that is not blatantly revealed to us yet. The king gives us some explanation of why Hamlet wants revenge. The king tells us of his death and introduces the fact that it was a murder and tells that the murder was committed by his brother. Through the conversation with the ghost he gains more fuel for the anger he has about his mother’s marriage. In the discussion with Hamlet and the

Hamlet, the most intelligent character created by Shakespeare, is consumed by a ghost of insanity. When his late father returns by spirit and orders Hamlet to kill Claudius, Hamlet becomes insane. In the book Shakespeare A to Z by Charles Boyce, he states, “The Ghost pushes Hamlet to face the trauma of his father’s murder” (214). The relationship between Prince Hamlet and King Hamlet was a very strong relationship for that time period and in royalty. Therefore, when the spirit who appeared to be Prince Hamlet’s father told him to murder Claudius. He wanted follow his orders because he wanted to honor his father and obey his commands. Prince Hamlet also tried to think logically in his way. He realized that by killing Claudius that would be considered murder, and Hamlet’s religious views shun murder as cruel and morally wrong. He knew that if another king was to die then the

The ghost of Hamlet Sr. plays a large part in the formation of Hamlet’s insanity. Towards the start of the play the ghost of Hamlet Sr. makes its presence known to Hamlet and some other characters. “I’ll call thee “Hamlet,” “King,” “Father,” “Royal Dane.”…tell Why thy canonized bones…Hath opened his ponderous and marble jaws To cast thee up again” (Shakespeare 28). Hamlet recognized his father in his ghost form, and thus proves that Hamlet does in fact see the ghost of his father. Through his father’s ghost, Hamlet learns of his father’s death as well as the fact that his father suffers in the afterlife during the day. “I am thy father’s spirit, Doomed for a certain term to walk the night And for the day confined to fast in fires” (Shakespeare 31). These facts only add to the hatred that Hamlet feels towards Claudius which came about because his mother married Claudius too early for Hamlet’s liking. Later on in the play, Hamlet confronts his mother and sees the ghost again. The ghost of Hamlet sr. comes to Hamlet Jr. to remind Hamlet Jr. that he has instructions not to physically harm his mother, Gertrude. “The ghost reminds Hamlet that Hamlet is to leave the judgment of Gertrude to God and not to harm her. Hamlet tries to convince Gertrude that the ghost is real, but fails” (Hamlet). To cope with the loss of his father, Hamlet has created a new version on Hamlet Sr. to help with his grieving and to help guide him. He

3) Horatio, upon his introduction, is portrayed as an intelligent man who possesses a great sense of tranquility, as evidenced by the fact that the guards summon him to their post in order to make sense of the ghost. He shows an obvious discomfort upon witnessing the specter, likening its presence to a great disorder in Rome upon Caesar's death. Such a connection shows a certain foresight within Horatio, as he senses that this ghost is a sign that something grim and terrible will occur soon and will cause great disruption within Denmark.

Hamlet with a fragile mind as it is with the death of his father and the the commitment made by both his mother and his uncle has been told of a ghost sighting outside of elsinore by the guards of Denmark. He is then asked to watch upon the night to see if it is or is not the ghost of his late father. With everything that has been going on in Hamlet’s life is he prepared to encounter such a paranormal event; or, is he not in the right state of mind to acknowledge and comprehend his late father’s ghost and the request he makes to Hamlet? The ghost sighting could even just be an allusion to the start of Hamlet’s madness.

This scene is Hamlet’s first encounter with the ghost, and could be the audience’s first speculation of the young prince’s sanity. Hamlet is quick to join the guards on watch, and follow the ghost when it motions for Hamlet to follow it. However, his rash action of following the ghost and believing its story of Claudius killing King Hamlet is a direct result to his father’s death. During his return from his conversation with the ghost, it can be inferred that Hamlet plots his next move to avenge the ghost’s death by killing King Claudius. Hamlet plans to fake insanity from Horatio's previous warning when he meets his father's

Finally, the ghost is obsessed with revenge but urges Hamlet to spare his mother. The ghost's request for leniency leads the reader to believe that it is not the ghost's request at all,

In the play Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, Hamlet is approached by the ghost of his recently passed father, the King of Denmark, and tells that he has been killed by his brother, and the new king, Claudius. He asks Hamlet to avenge his death by killing Claudius. Hamlet contemplates his options and eventually becomes adamant in his mission to murder Claudius. In Act III, Scene II, Hamlet organizes a play that re-enacts the death of his father and believes that if it was Claudius who murdered the King, he will surely react to the scene. When the scene unfolds, Claudius gets upset and leaves.

The story opens in the cold and dark of a winter night in Denmark, while the guard is being changed on the battlements of the royal castle of Elsinore. For two nights in succession, just as the bell strikes the hour of one, a ghost has appeared on the battlements, a figure dressed in complete armor and with a face like that of the dead king of Denmark, Hamlet’s father. A young man named Horatio, who is a school friend of Hamlet, has been told of the apparition and cannot believe it, and one of the officers has brought him there in the night so that he can see it for himself.

The murder of King Hamlet is still affecting Hamlet to a point where he is beginning to be physically abusive to not only Claudius but others as well. His anger is shown since he is responsible for multiple murders. For starters, he planned the killing of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in order to seek revenge while proving his dominance and sending a message to Claudius. Polonius was the next victim, although it seemed like an accident, an unnecessary act of violence was still performed on Hamlet’s behalf which resulted in yet another innocent death. At this point, Hamlet has gone absolutely insane and nothing can stop him from killing Claudius. In the final scene, a friendly duel occurred between Hamlet and Laertes, but little did they know that the Laertes’s sword was poisoned at the tip as he was planning on killing Hamlet considering he murdered his father Polonius. This mess was resolved while during the duel, the two accidentally switched swords and Hamlet ended up stabbing Claudius with poison. Countless tragic events materialized thanks to the incidents of the

This ghost is what make him go crazy in this first place because he thinks that his father’s spirit that has come back to change his life around. He is happy and amazed to see the ghost, which makes him go crazy to believe everything it says to him. His father’s spirit tells him to listen to everything he insists of Hamlet of doing. He tells him his uncle was the reason behind his dead and want him to seek revenge on his uncle of his father’s behave. He chooses to find revenge using his madness, and to use his plan in a way that no one would find out about his revenge plot. This is the only thing on Hamlets mind to make his father happy is to seek revenge his uncle, at which point drives him to be

When Hamlet interacts with other people he acts extremely secretive and does not trust anyone other than Horatio. Hamlet becomes worrisome about the others finding out what he knows. As the play progresses, Hamlet drags other people into his madness by adapting his wardrobe to reflect his emotional state, excommunicating his friends and sneaking around. His actions affected the other characters. Hamlet’s knowledge of Claudius killing Hamlet senior assisted in pushing Hamlet into his madness. Hamlet ended up killing Polonius, who had spied on Hamlet for Claudius, and buried him. “King: Now, Hamlet, where’s Polonius? Hamlet: At supper. King: At supper where? Hamlet: Not where he eats, but where he is eaten. A certain convocation of politic worms are e’en at him” (Shakespeare

They recognized the ghost to be King Hamlet. King Hamlet had been killed by his brother, Claudius, who is now married to Hamlet’s wife, Gertrude. Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, is depressed about his father’s tragic death and is furious that his mother, Gertrude, married Claudius. I believe that the ghost in Hamlet is real, can choose who he is visible to, and symbolizes that there is an issue in Denmark. “Was the ghost real?” has been one of the common questions asked about the story Hamlet.

In William Shakespeare 's Hamlet, the ghost of King Hamlet is a subtle character who has a major effect on Hamlet during the play. Although he appears very little, the ghost causes Hamlet to not think correctly, not act his normal self, and make people think he has gone insane. The ghost’s presence is not always clear and only speaks to Hamlet in the story, which makes other characters think Hamlet is going crazy. Throughout the play, the ghost only appears four times throughout the play, but every appearance is significant and has an effect on Hamlet.

With the appearance of the ghost the reader is, whether they realize it or not, being challenged to take a position on Hamlet's state of mind. At first the reader may take it at face value assuming that a ghost is a ghost and should be accepted as such. But after a deeper look using the psychoanalytic perspective of critical evaluation, it becomes believable that the ghost is just a trick of Hamlet's mind used to justify his urges to avenge his father's death, a sort of madness. It is hard to decide what to think about Shakespeare's introduction of the ghost because of the two different ways he portrays it.