The Ghost of Hamlet-Act I, Scene 5 Analysis
One of the first hints that something is rotten in the state of Denmark is when the viewer of Shakespeare's tragedy of "Hamlet" spots the appearance of Old Hamlet, haunting the castle at night. Hamlet's father, walking the balustrades, looks as he did when he lived, but he is motivated by only once concern now-revenge. When the former king is finally able to open his heart to Young Hamlet, Old Hamlet tells his son that he is a spirit come from purgatory. During the day he must burn "fast in fires, /Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature/Are burnt and purged away" while during the night he walks, hungry for revenge. The reason the former king is consigned to purgatory is because he died without making a full confession of his sins, as is required of all believing Christians. While he was sleeping in his orchard, his brother poured poison in his ear, murdering him while he slept. To spur his son onto revenge his murder, the ghost plays upon Hamlet's already
First of all, what are his horrible sins that he must purge in the fires of purgatory? And why is he conveniently not permitted to speak about the exact conditions of where he is and what he is suffering? "But that I am forbid/To tell the secrets of my prison-house, / I could a tale unfold whose lightest word/Would harrow up thy soul. However, the ghost is also not above making a simpler plea, stating: "If thou didst ever thy dear father love," Hamlet will revenge his murder. Why does he not want to forgive earthly crimes and try to lead a more Christian existence in the afterlife? The ghost uses every persuasive skill open to a father-he uses logic in the form of documentary evidence, emotion in his portrayal of the horrors of purgatory and the means of his death, and also highly sexualized language that plays upon Hamlet's already deep-seated dislike of Claudius and Claudius' designs upon Gertrude. " The ghost harps upon the "lewdness" of the queen's action, and also implies that Claudius is evil to turn a weak-willed woman to a "falling off" from a greater man to a lesser man. The ghost makes reference to the perverted nature of the alliance of the "seemingly" virtuous Gertrude and Claudius, and calls Claudius "that incestuous, that adulterate beast. The highly specific nature of how Hamlet's father met his demise lends credibility to the ghost's allegations. Hamlet thus is doubly motivated, the ghost implies, as his father's son and also as someone who should protect his mother from Claudius and from herself. By reinforcing what Hamlet already feels and believes, Hamlet is easy prey for the ghost's persuasion, and a wiling convert to agree to revenge the crime. " The ghost's appearance is so intensely theatrical and so compelling, certain questions arise in the mind of the viewer only after his departure. " Also, for a man removed from the earth, the ghost is particularly obsessed with the sexuality of his former queen, and of the affairs upon the earth, as well as the need to engage in an act of bloody revenge through the persona of his son. He begs Hamlet to remember him, and finally appeals to Hamlet's patriotism as a Dane, noting "Let not the royal bed of Denmark be/A couch for luxury and damned incest. After all, the ghost does not merely tell Hamlet to "Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder," but tells Hamlet a means of murder that no one would likely surmise from the circumstances, unless he was a living or dead witness to the crime. Coupled with the love and devotion the ghost invokes as a recently deceased father, and as a king of a land now corrupted by incest, Hamlet feels he has no choice but to agree.
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