King Hamlet Research Paper

Shakespeare fancies the application of ghosts in his plays, Hamlet is no exception. Scholars argue that the ghost in Hamlet is only a figment of Hamlet’s imagination, but how does that explain others witnessing the apparition. Hamlet’s mental state is declining throughout the play, but what is the true cause? From an external view Hamlet appears insane, whether or not he is insane is left ambiguous. If he is insane, is the traumatic loss of his father causing Hamlet to see a ghost or is the ghost real indeed?

The Ghost in Hamlet cleared out the event that Hamlet was uncertain of. The spirit clarified the death of King Hamlet, and caused Hamlet to perform his evil deeds. The Ghost’s request to avenge him caused the death of Hamlet’s family, friends, and eventually himself; therefore, the spirit can be viewed as evil because it failed the four tests that was set by Lewes Lavater and the Church.

The Ghost’s appearance troubles Hamlet again in a different way at the end of Act Two, when Hamlet questions whether or not the apparition he has seen is really the ghost of his father. He believes that it is likely that what he saw was really an evil spirit trying to trick him into sinning, for, as he says, “the devil hath power / T’assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps…abuses me to damn me” (2.2.628-32). His concern is legitimate; however, it causes him to delay further due to his worries about sin and what could happen to him should he decide to take action if the Ghost is in fact evil. When Hamlet attempts to work himself into a frenzy by insulting himself and climactically cursing Claudius with caustic epithets, he is incapable of maintaining his emotion and he orders his brains to turn about, bringing himself back down to logic and reason. He feels that he cannot act without some sort of proof of the truth of what the Ghost has said, and therefore he arranges to “catch the conscience

The Ghost in Hamlet is a widely controversial topic with arguments determining whether the Ghost is a “goblin damn’d” or a “spirit of health.” (1.4.40) “‘A spirit of health’ is one, which comes from heaven with charitable intentions, and ‘a goblin damn’d’ is one, which comes from Hell with wicked intentions.” The Ghost only has two appearances in the play and is a symbol for uncertainty, yet it is important as it catalyses the play into action and also Hamlet into madness. The Ghost in Hamlet is an evil spirit returning to revenge his killer Claudius; which is a questionable action for a Catholic person leading the audience to believe that the Ghost is evil. He pressures Hamlet into revenging Claudius while destroying Hamlet’s

that it was on death that the soul either went to Heaven or Hell, thus

In this revenge tragedy, which is a play in which the plot typically centers on a spectacular attempt to avenge the murder of a family member, Hamlet’s call to adventure is when the ghost, whom he believes to be the ghost of his recently deceased father, beseeches Hamlet that he avenge his death (Charters and Charters 1251). At first looking at the ghost, he questions the authority of him and contemplates that the apparition is just the devil tempting him:

Each Act is filled with wonderment, but Act V is unforeseen. The amount of eye-opening secrets revealed directly and indirectly is completely unbelievable. Laertes is keen on getting his revenge by stabbing Hamlet with a poisoned rapier, along with Claudius tying loose ends together by poisoning the drink they think Hamlet will consume. However, Act V does not go as planned, or so it seems. Queen Gertrude drinks to Hamlet, but happens to bring the poisoned cup to her lips. Claudius warns her once, but does not go further, which is odd to say the least. Whenever Gertrude collapses, she confesses she drank poison. Everyone is to believe that this was accidental, and that Gertrude knew nothing of the plan to kill Hamlet. However, this cannot be the case whatsoever.

This belief relates to the play because the Ghost of Hamlet’s father decides to visit Denmark and makes everyone question his visitation. Clark states that ghosts appear to “obtain revenge”, although this appears to be true as to the reason Hamlet’s father’s Ghost appears, it is not the actual reason. The Ghost is there to ask Hamlet to “revenge his foul and most unnatural murder” (Shakespeare 57). In other words, the Ghost is not there to seek revenge physically, but to have Hamlet seek revenge on Claudius for killing him. The Ghost makes his visitation to specifically ask Hamlet to seek revenge on his murderer; however, he does not force Hamlet to seek revenge. Since the ghost does not force Hamlet to seek revenge he appears to the audience that he is a good ghost because he does not hurt anyone and does not appear violet. Therefore, because the Ghost has not been physical this situation allows the audience to become aware that he is a good ghost.

Maybe he's real and maybe he's not, either way, the ghost certainly seems real to Hamlet. Throughout Hamlet, both the reader and young Hamlet are in a dilemma as to whether or not the ghost of Hamlet’s father is a spirit sent to tempt and destroy Hamlet or if it is truly his father who has come to reveal the tragedy of his death so that revenge can be sought. On the one hand, it is rather easy to believe that the general Shakespearian attitudes and assumptions about apparitions are correct, that they are spirits sent from hell to tempt and wreak havoc on the living. On the other hand, however, the reader, like Hamlet, cannot help but feel compelled to listen to the ghost’s tale about his death and his lack of peace. Because of the verbal power

During this scene it is debated whether Hamlet should commune with the ghost alone because while it appears as the spirit of the departed king, in reality it may be an evil spirit attempting to deceive Hamlet. Shakespeare utilizes this situation to represent the lack of clarity between telling apart appearance and reality, leading the two to be juxtaposed. The ghost appears as the king, who Hamlet is still morning for, which his friends worry may cloud his judgement because ghosts are considered inherently evil, kept in a limbo state due to sins committed. However, this also involves the assumption that because he is a ghost he can not be trusted while the ghost may actually be Hamlet's father. Throughout the story Hamlet continues to attempt to decipher if the ghost's appearance is reality or if he is being deceived and led into a trap.

The ghost was not looking to do Hamlet any good. The ghost had his own agenda. The ghost revealed to Hamlet the truth about the murder of Hamlet’s father. The ghost also told him who was to blame: “The serpent that did sting thy father’s life now wears his crown” (I.5. 38-39). The ghost ignited a rage inside of Hamlet. Revenge replaced the grief in Hamlet’s heart. The play does not reveal if the ghost is the devil or the ghost of Hamlet’s father. However I do not think that Hamlet’s father would have wanted to end another life to make up for his. The deaths that occur in the play could have been avoided if the ghost had never appeared. The truth would have come out eventually and maybe Hamlet would have a clear head by that time. If the ghost was the devil I am sure that he was pleased with what transpired in the play.

Hamlet says "the spirit that I have seen may be a devil, and the devil hath power t’assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps, out of my weakness and my melancholy, as he is very potent with such spirits, abuses me to damn me" (2.2.627-632). Fearing deception, Hamlet has doubts, which initiate his inaction. His hesitation is somewhat resolved in the form of a play. In order to test the truth of the ghost, Hamlet devises a scheme to perform a play to "catch the conscience of the King"(2.2.634), by reenacting a scene similar to the events recounted by the ghost about King Hamlet’s murder, in order to prove Claudius’ guilt. Here, Hamlet’s inaction results not only from his distrust of his father’s apparition, but from his distrust of his own senses. Had Hamlet trusted his father in death as he had in life, Hamlet’s life would never have resulted in such a tragic end.

In William Shakespeare's work Hamlet, Shakespeare uses the ghost of the deceased king, a character with only a brief presence, to play a significant role in the plot of the story as a whole in multiple ways. The first way Shakespeare uses the ghost of King Hamlet is by first using him to play a crucial role in the development of the characters in the play This is especially true regarding Hamlet. An example of the ghost influencing the development of the characters in the play is sending Hamlet into his descent into madness and furthering his complex character. Shakespeare does this by having the ghost inform Hamlet of his father’s murder. Secondly, Shakespeare uses the ghost to influence the theme of revenge and madness that develops in the play by using the ghost as a driving force

When Hamlet tells his friends of his plan to feign madness, he displays confidence that this is the right path. The audience, however, knows this is a mistake. Hamlet is influenced by an apparition of his deceased father. During the Elizabethan time period, it was considers normal to have visitations from the spirit life. The idea that human spirits manifested themselves as ghosts can be traced back to very ancient civilizations. The Roman Catholic Church taught that at death, the souls of those too good for hell and too bad for heaven were sent to Purgatory. Here they were purged of their sins by punishment, but might on occasion be allowed to return to earth to warn the living of the need for repentance. (Sommerville) . The real conflict is determining whether or not the ghost is innocent or a demonic being. Hamlet believes that the ghost is truly the

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.