Horatio In Hamlet

Horatio is a Character in Shakespeare’s Hamlet who is a close friend and confidant of Young Hamlet from when they went to school together at Wittenberg. Hamlet’s friend Horatio enters the stage for the first time during the first scene of Act 1 when Marcellus and Bernardo ask him to stand watch with them. When they see the ghost of what appears to be the deceased king, Horatio feels that this appearance is a bad omen for the nation. He then, being the close confidant that he is, decides to go tell young Hamlet about the ghost in the hopes that it might speak to him.

From the beginning of his and his mother’s conversation Hamlet was very angry and on edge with her for being with his father’s murderer. Hamlet somehow knew someone was eavesdropping on their conversation as he had been spied on previously. He suddenly decides to act out of fury thinking how angry he was at Claudius and kills who’s behind the curtain, thinking it was Claudius. Hamlet realizes after that he killed the wrong man, it had been Polonius that he killed but he didn’t care much saying that Polonius was a fool. Hamlet sees the ghost again after and the ghost tells Hamlet he still must carry out his revenge for his father because he had failed .

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 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

uncle were the cause of this execution, they immediately vow to take action on their behalf, despite their own internal struggles. Hamlet’s loyalty to his father is shown immediately after the ghost of the fallen King talks to Hamlet and informs him that Claudius did indeed kill him. Hamlet then impulsively declares that he will retaliate the crime that Claudius has committed. “So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word.” (Shakespeare 1.5.110) Hamlet does not hesitate to commit to this violent scheme, as he adores and misses his father dearly, and is willing to do all in his favour. Although his decision is impulsive, he nevertheless continues to

Hamlets words are similar to his words after the ghost informs him of his uncle’s treason, which questions Hamlet’s willingness to kill his uncle. Hamlet is stuck between extreme emotions of grief and desires for revenge which clearly shackle him and leave him enable to execute any actual plan to murder Claudius. Furthermore, Hamlet hanging in between his emotions eventually causes him his life as he fails to take the necessary actions at the suitable time: “And now I’ll do ’t. And so he goes to heaven. And so am I revenged . . .

(II.2 ln 547-585) He mistakenly awards the pretense the same degree of authenticity as his own reality receives. However, because of the disparity between the actor's performance and Hamlet's own actions, Hamlet gains needed motivation. He remains uncertain of the ghost's reliability, confused by the seemingly genuine grief of the actor. Nonetheless, it is this uncertainty that provides Hamlet with the less disturbing purpose of proving the ghost's story in contrast to the more daunting intention of murder.

   When reading Shakespeare's Hamlet, one becomes involved with a number of relationships involving Hamlet (the tragic protagonist) and the main characters supporting the play. The characters involved include, but are not limited to, Hamlet (the ghost), former King of Denmark and deceased father to the protagonist; Horatio, friend to Hamlet; Gertrude, Queen of Denmark and mother to Hamlet; and Ophelia, daughter of Polonius and romantic interest to Hamlet. Although all of the relationships are complex, encompassing a wide range of varying emotions as the plot advances, there is a recurring theme of love threaded throughout the play. This theme of love takes on a number of faces which we may observe through the

   Horatio holds the seat of honor in Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet, for being the only character among the dramatis personae who is extremely close to the protagonist. Horatio’s emotional bond with the hero is paradoxically closer than that of Hamlet’s mother to the hero. This essay will examine the character of Horatio, Hamlet’s truest friend.

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a tragic play. Most of the characters in the play have selfish motives at heart. Lust, greed, pride, and revenge are just a few sins that are committed in the play. There are few instances within the play that show goodness and kindness. Hamlet has so many people around him trying to bring him down, but he had one friend that was loyal to him, and that was Horatio. The other key characters in the play were only out for their own good. However Horatio was looking out for Hamlet. Unfortunately, Horatio was the only one.

Claudius is only acting out what Hamlet secretly wants to do, take his father’s place as his mother’s lover. This would explain why Hamlet puts off the revenge instead of carrying it out immediately after seeing his father’s ghost. It would also provide a reason for Hamlet’s later insanity.

My main goal with characterization was to make it clear that Hamlet is not being earnest in his confessions to Horatio, and for Horatio to be minorly pathetic in his inability to say no. From the moment Horatio enters, all his focus is on Hamlet. He doesn’t speak much in the scene, so making his feelings for Hamlet clear was a challenge, but his line “Here sweet lord, at your service” along with the sarcastic but fond motion of fixing Hamlet’s shirt hopefully did a good job of letting the audience know that Horatio really does care about Hamlet and he’s not faking it. The kiss fit into the script nicely since Horatio’s line is cut off, and I thought having Hamlet kiss him without warning could be seen as both romantic and also creepy. After that I wanted to play up that Hamlet is taking this too far by having him be a bit rough with Horatio. This doesn’t exactly work, as Horatio is not very eager to go along with Hamlet at first, and it’s not until Hamlet is more gentle that Horatio caves and agrees to work with him. By having Horatio unable to put up a fight after Hamlet practically attacked him, I was hoping the audience would be more sympathetic to Horatio. At the end of the scene, I wanted Horatio’s moment of introspection when Hamlet hurries out unceremoniously and he reads the letters to Ophelia, to convey that Horatio wasn’t completely fooled.

Even though Hamlet seems ardent in his intentions of avenging his father’s death during his encounter with the Ghost, by the second act, Hamlet begins to doubt that the ghost was actually his father. While giving his soliloquy after he has seen

W.H. Clemen in “Imagery in Hamlet Reveals Character and Theme” describes the pervasive influence which the Ghost’s words have on the entire play:

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.