In William Shakespeare's play, "Hamlet", Prince Hamlet, is confronted with the ghost of his dead father, the late King of Denmark, on several separate occasions throughout the story. The ghost only appears at night at the guard's platform in Elsinore Castle and in Gertrude's chamber, and allowed only Hamlet to communicate with him. Although the ghost brings the entire plot to the play, affecting every character within it, there is speculation whether this apparition did exist or was just a figment of the characters, particularly Hamlet's, imagination.
             The ghost's first appearance in the play is at a guard platform in Elsinore Castle. Horatio, Marcellus, and Bernado see the spirit and try to communicate with it but they get no response. The ghost disappears which leaves the men uncertain about the turn of events. Bernado explained the ghost was, "In the same figure like the King that's dead" (Hamlet, 1.1.45), which indicates that he is unsure of what the figure represents. Horatio determined the ghost appeared as a "...fair and warlike form, in which the majesty of buried Denmark, did sometime march" (1.1.51). It is too early in the play to determine whether the ghost does exist. According to Paul A. Jorgensen, the ghost is important in the first scene of the play to set the tone and introduce the major theme of doom (50).
             In Act 1, Scene V, Horatio explains to Hamlet about his encounter with the ghost and how similar its appearance was to Hamlet's late father. Horatio said to Hamlet, "I knew your father; these hands are not more like" (1.2.212). Hamlet agrees to join the men to see if the ghost appears at the guard's platform again. The ghost's appeared and beckoned Hamlet to follow him. Hamlet was hesitant at first exclaiming, "Be thou a spirit of health or goblin of damned, bring with thee air
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