Hidden Ghost By William Shakespeare

A ghost is a spiritual being that is said to be a spirit of a deceased person. They are something that most people fear, don’t believe in, or think they are an evil being. Different religions have different views on ghosts and along with those views come different stories. One story that involves a ghost is Hamlet. Hamlet has recently lost his father and thinks he is being surrounded by his father’s ghost. However, Hamlet is at first unsure about the ghost’s state. He does not know if it is the devil or if it is actually his father’s spirit coming to tell him something. His decision could be based off of religion and what he believes. Protestants believe that all ghosts are evil and come in the form of the devil.

As the play goes on, Hamlet encounters his father's ghost. Upon discovering that his father's death wasn't natural, he says with much feeling that "Haste me to know't, that I with wings as swift/ As meditation, or the thoughts of love,/ May sweep to my revenge" (1.5.29-31). The ghost tells him that he was murdered by Claudius. His motives were his love for Gertrude, without her knowledge or consent. Hamlet is furious and seething with rage with the news of his father's murder. Knowing the truth makes Hamlet's subconscious realize that killing Claudius would be similar to killing himself. This is so because Hamlet recognizes that Claudius' actions of murdering his brother and marrying Hamlet's mother, mimicked Hamlet's inner unconscious desires. Hamlet's unconscious fantasies have always been closely related to Claudius' conduct. All of Hamlet's once hidden feelings seem to surface in spite of all of the "repressing forces," when he cries out, "Oh my prophetic soul!/ My uncle!" (1.5.40-41). From here, Hamlet's consciousness must deal with the frightful truth (Jones).

In the play Hamlet, death takes a major part in every scenario. It begins with the death of King Hamlet. King Hamlet was killed by Claudius. The irony of this was that Claudius is the brother of King Hamlet. Once he is killed, Claudius inherits the throne then marries King Hamlet’s wife, Queen Gertrude; which is Claudius’s sister in-law. One night as the guard men are standing outside of the castle, a ghost appears. The ghost speaks to the son of Gertrude and King Hamlet whom is Prince Hamlet and says that the ghost is his father’s spirit and he shall seek revenge on Claudius for marrying his mother and taking over the throne.

In the play by William Shakespeare, the ghost of King Hamlet approaches his mourning and depressed son, Hamlet, who is still affected by his death. The ghost explains to Hamlet how he died and demands that Hamlet avenge his death. Note how the ghost approaches Hamlet when he’s the weakest and still mourning to persuade and manipulate him into taking revenge for him. In Act one Scene 5 the ghost states, “If thou didst ever thy dear father love-/ Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.” The way King Hamlet words his request is more as a challenge; in which Hamlet’s love for his dead father can only be proven by carrying out whatever his father wishes. The ghost influences most Hamlet’s behavior, which not only affects the plot, but also the relationships with other characters. The ghost influences the relationship between Hamlet and his mother, Gertrude. He becomes angry at Gertrude because of her fast marriage with his uncle Claudius. Through the use of innuendos, antic disposition, and metamorphic plays, Hamlet makes it his duty to get King Claudius back for killing his father. Hamlet agreed to avenge his father without second thought. As the play advances, Hamlet begins to doubt the apparition. In act 3 Hamlet begins to have second thoughts and states, “The spirit that I have seen/ May be a devil…” This shows Hamlet’s inner conflict between listening to his father and avenging his death or following his ethics. To be sure that Claudius

Hamlet questions the true intentions of the ghost and whether it be “a spirit of health or goblin damn’d,” (1.4.669). The Ghost enlightens the Prince of the treason committed by his uncle Claudius, which Hamlet doubts the legitimacy for an instance. According to “Hamlet’s Precarious Emotional Balance,” “Hamlet conceives a way out of his uncertainty, a way to make certain that he has not, because of his melancholy, simply hallucinated the ghost's revelations or been tricked by an evil spirit,” (Lidz). Hamlet develops a scheme to “catch the conscience of the king” by staging a play that depicts the murder of King Hamlet precisely (2.2.581).

William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet relays Hamlet’s quest to avenge the murder of his father, the king of Denmark. The late King Hamlet was murdered by his brother, Claudius, who took the throne and Hamlet’s mother Gertrude for himself. Hamlet is beseeched by the ghost of his father to take vengeance upon Claudius; while he swears to do so, the prince inexplicably delays killing Claudius for months on end. Hamlet’s feeble attempt to first confirm his uncle’s guilt with a play that recounts the murder and his botched excuses for not killing Claudius when the opportunity arises serve as testimony to Hamlet’s true self. Hamlet is riddled with doubt towards the validity of the ghost and his own ability to carry out the act necessary to

     When we first meet Hamlet, he is a sad, dark, loathsome figure; the loss of his father and the whoring of his mother have upset him indefinitely. Like a ticking time bomb, Hamlet’s noticeable temper reflects the storm of emotions and thoughts brewing in his head, and then like a catalyst, his meeting with the Ghost of King Hamlet brings his anger to a boil. With revenge in mind, Hamlet plans to fake his madness so that he may be free to pursue his father’s killer. Everyone, except his close friend Horatio, seems convinced that he is mad. Claudius however, fearful that someone will discover his evil deed, has also had his perceptions heightened by his guilt and he experiences chronic paranoia throughout the

In Shakespeare's tragedy, Hamlet, the character of Hamlet feigns insanity. For a person in his situation, having one's peers think of one as crazy can be quite beneficial. His father, the king, had just died, and he is visited by a ghost who appears to be his father's spirit. The ghost tells Hamlet that he was murdered by his brother Claudius, who is now the current king and who recently married the former king's wife. Hamlet vows revenge and, as a tool to aid him in that plan, convinces people that he is crazy. The fact that he is acting, as opposed to actually being insane, can be seen in Hamlet's conversations with a watchman, two childhood friends, and his mother. Also, there are many actions in the play that he would not have

Seeing ghosts in any tradition is an omen of something negative. Marcellus directly said, “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” (Shakespeare, Act 1, Scene 4). As a tragedy, death is certainly one of the many themes of Hamlet. The ghost, a dead person’s soul, tells Hamlet that his father’s death was caused by his uncle. By suggesting revenge as a way to fix his father’s sins, the ghost’s dialogue foreshadows the death of the Claudius. Given the circumstances of the public agreeing to usurp of the throne, Hamlet’s unusual behavior, and involvement of outside characters, Hamlet’s journey to seek vengeance will include the death of other characters. The ghost acted as the firebrand that initiated a series of deaths by simply suggesting the death of one individual: Claudius. Without much effort, Hamlet is persuaded to avenge his late father and unknowingly take his own life. Marcellus’ statement ultimately became the truth after the death of both Claudius and Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, and some other uninvolved characters like Ophelia and Polonius.

His loyalty and friendship to Hamlet are unquestioned. After hearing about the ghost from his friend, Hamlet instantly meets the ghost of his father. He discovers the alleged murder and quickly takes action. The suspicion that Claudius killed Hamlet’s father causes the betrayal surrounding the new king to grow, and is directly related to Hamlet’s increased devotion towards his father. After obtaining proof that the ghost of his father speaks the truth, Hamlet devotes all of his sanity towards avenging his father’s death.

Hamlet from the start of the play is driven to insanity as he tries to get revenge on his uncle, King Claudius. With loss of sanity, Hamlet proceeds to see a ghostly figure that no one else around him can see. This makes him appear even more insane to others around him and to himself as neither party knew what was going on. Believing that Claudius had killed his father, the ghost assured him a little more of this tragedy as they spoke saying,

The ghost shared with him that Claudius poisoned King Hamlet’s ear while he was sleeping. After Hamlet heard this, he decided to put together a play that reflected the murder the ghost described. King Claudius, in attendance, reacted in a way that led Hamlet to believe the ghost’s accusations. In his pursuit to kill Claudius, he causes six additional deaths.

In the story of Hamlet, Prince Hamlet was robbed of his crown when his Uncle killed his father in the process to become king. When king Hamlet was murdered his son was off at school, so before his son could take over his father’s place. His uncle married his mother, which made Claudius his uncle the new king. When Prince Hamlet finds out about this, he is pissed off. However, when he gets home he is visited by his father’s spirit. The spirit tells his son that his uncle Claudius is the one who killed him. The Ghost told Prince Hamlet that he was killed from poison pour in his ear. In prince hamlet feels he must honor his father by killing his uncle, which is Claudius. At first, Prince Hamlet feels the ghost could be evil. Therefore,

Hamlet portrayed extreme madness that recurred throughout the book. It started off with simply acting to be crazy, but eventually leads to true madness. Hamlet tells the queen “a beast… would have mourned longer, married with my uncle my father’s brother, but no more like my father” (1.2). Hamlet refers to his mother as a beast implying she is not human. Problems with Hamlet’s mother are not a huge contributing factor to his madness, but still fuel the problem. It also leads readers to believe Claudius could be a problem later on. This turns out to be true as he is one of the main sources to Hamlet’s madness. Another tremendous source is the ghost driving Hamlet to get revenge on Claudius. When the Ghost of Hamlet’s father comes back, he tells Hamlet “so art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear”(1.5). The Ghost explains what really happened to try to convince Hamlet to avenge his death. This drives him to insanity with the stress and pressure of should he, or should he not kill

In Shakespeare's “Hamlet”, Hamlets meeting with his father's ghost provides thematic significance that carries throughout the entire play. The ghost opens Hamlet's mind to the event's which have occurred up to and including his father's death. Hamlet's father was murdered by Claudius who is also King Hamlet's brother. Claudius obtained the throne of Denmark my murdering his own brother and marrying the late king's widow. Hamlet viewed his mother's remarriage as a betrayal.