The Ghost Of William Shakespeare 's ' Hamlet '

Consider Horatio’s account of the battle between old Hamlet and old Fortinbras and the descriptions of the late king

Horatio, Hamlet’s friend, informs Hamlet that he has seen a ghost on top of the tower. Hamlet wants to see this ghost and goes to the tower the next night. When Hamlet sees the ghost that looks like his father, it tells him to follow it. No one completely trust the ghost and Horatio advises Hamlet to not follow it because it could be the devil. Hamlet does not listen to the

The ghost first appears to three soldiers on guard: Bernado, Francisco, and Marcellus, along with Horatio, a friend of Hamlet and visitor to Denmark. Bernado and Marcellus desire to reveal the ghost they have witnessed for the past

In the play written by Shakespeare called Hamlet, Hamlet opens during a horrendously cold night with the watch outside the Danish Palace. Bernardo, one of the guards switches out with Francisco and then soon Horatio and Marcellus arrive. On the previous night's watches, Bernardo and Marcellus witness an extraordinary sight,the former king of Denmark's ghost - Old Hamlet. The third night they welcome Horatio, a skeptic who just arrives in Denmark to verify the ghost sighting. The ghost appears and the guards demand Horatio to talk to the spirit but he does not listen and it disappears just as fast as it arrived.

When Hamlet sees the ghost he is shocked that Horatio and Marcellus were being truthful, he immediately starts rejoicing and asking the ghost questions “Say why is this? Wherefore? What should we do?”

The first appearance of the ghost, the characters debate on its reality and try to figure out why it roams. The readers are then introduced to two characters that are soldiers at the Danish castle Elsinore, Bernado and Francisco. The men hear a noise and become nervous, calling out "Who's there?" (I,i,1) Marcellus, another guard, and Horatio, a nobleman, arrive and say they don’t come in harm. Then all of a sudden a Ghost appears. The men believe it looks like the recently deceased Hamlet, King of Denmark. Horatio tries to speak to it and asks why he has come in a form of the old King, but the ghost doesn’t answer and disappears.

This clearly indicates that there is some sort of situation to be resolved, and that there is a reason for the king to be returning from the grave. From their speech, the reader learns that there has been a battle, and the result was the king’s death. "Such was the very armor he had on when he the ambitious Norway combated," introduces the conflict between Denmark and Norway. Through dialogue, it is also told that military preparations are taking place at Elsinore, because Fortinbras seeks to reclaim the Norwegian lands that his late father lost to King Hamlet. "So nightly toils the subject of the land, and why such daily blast of brazen cannon, and foreign mart for implements of war…"(p13, ln71) reveals that Denmark is intensely preparing for the war being carried out in Denmark. From this scene, there is also much to be said about the people of the land. It is quite apparent that they are very superstitious and wary of the supernatural. They fear that which they are unfamiliar with. If the reader is to read deeper into the plot, it can be seen that the people of the story are very closely intertwined. When Bernardo and Marcellus believe that they have witnessed a ghost, they decide that they must tell Horatio. After the ghost is observed, the three men decide to tell Hamlet of what they have seen. This indicates that the characters in the story are familiar with each other, and possibly

The first soliloquy ends with the arrival of Horatio, the hero’s closest friend (“Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man / As e'er my conversation coped withal.”), and Marcellus, who escort the prince to the ramparts of Elsinore. At the ghost’s request, Hamlet swears to carry out vengeance on King Claudius for the murder of his father. John Dover Wilson in What Happens in Hamlet tells how the Bard envelopes the ghost in a “contemporary

Shakespeare uses Horatio to unfold the story of Hamlet, beginning with the opening scene all the way until Hamlet’s death. In Act 1, Horatio foreshadows what is in store for Denmark and Hamlet. After encountering the Ghost once before, Horatio becomes skeptical about its presence. Although Horatio has now seen the Ghost, unlike before when the knights spoke to him about it, he fears that it has appeared to share some dark news. "A mote to trouble the mind’s eye/In the most high and palmy state of Rome/A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,.../And prologue to the omen coming on,"

When Marcellus, Bernardo, and Horatio first lay eyes on the ghost, they all marvel at how much it resembles the king in all his glory; he is decked out in a full suit of armor. In fact, it is “the very same armor he had on/When… He smote the sledded Polacks” (I.i.60-63). The king clearly had a reputation of striking down his enemies and fighting on the front lines for his country. Due to his fighting nature, however, the king made an enemy of many, including young Fortinbras, and he reveals to Hamlet that he was murdered in a “most foul, strange, and unnatural” manner (I.v.28). The ghost then beseeches Hamlet to “revenge his foul and most unnatural murder,” implying as well that Hamlet will probably have to kill his uncle and the new king, Claudius. In a time such as medieval Denmark, this would seem just and reasonable, seeing as the ghost of the king Hamlet is a fair representation of the kind of men and actions Danish society

       In Act I, Scene II, one is first made aware of the strength of Hamlet's relationship with Horatio when the latter informs Hamlet that he has seen what he believes is the ghost of the former King Hamlet. This introduction to the relationship between Horatio and Hamlet demonstrates the strong bonds of trust and confidence they share. Unlike the other characters who have seen the apparition and would choose to shrink away from it, Horatio, recognizing the ghost for who it might be, tries to make contact with it, albeit unsuccessfully. After this initial contact, and recognizing the significance of what he has witnessed, it is Horatio that takes Hamlet into his confidence to relate what he has seen. "As I do live, my honored lord, 'tis true, / And we did think it writ down in our duty / To let you know of it" (1.2. 220-222). Horatio gives Hamlet a very detailed account of the sighting, answering Hamlet's questions with the honesty and insight of a concerned friend. It is obvious by Horatio's candor that he is neither fearful of Hamlet's response, nor is he concerned that Hamlet will not believe his accounting of the event.

To start with, the ghost heavily influences the development of a few characters in the play which includes Hamlet and his friends. In the opening act, Hamlet’s friends encounter the ghost of the former king while standing guard on the wall of the castle. They are the first and only characters besides Hamlet that the ghost influences. They are also the only ones besides Hamlet that can see the ghost. This furthers the story by sending Hamlet’s friends on a mission to tell him of his father’s return. From the beginning of the play Hamlet is already depressed and down after being called home from school to return to Denmark to witness the funeral of his father. Following the funeral Hamlet meets up with his friends where they tell him of his father’s ghost. Immediately, this sparks Hamlet’s interest and he wishes to hear more of his father. ‘The king my father!/For God’s love, let me hear.” (1.2.192-95 Hamlet) Here Shakespeare shows Hamlet’s interest in the matter

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 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

This story begins on a cold night in Denmark Elsinore Castle when Hamlet’s trusted friend Horatio, and some guards see a ghost, the ghost of King Hamlet to be exact. The philosophical and complicated yet socially popular young Prince of Denmark, Hamlet, is busy fuming at his uncle Claudius who married his mom two days after his father's death. Hamlet suspects that they conspired to kill his father, and he even contemplates suicide. His hopes are lifted when he hears about the ghost.