Ghost: death, fatherhood, kingship, revenge, appearance vs. reality, corruption, family
Function:
The ghost forces the play to open with an atmosphere of death overhanging Elsinore. He takes
on the traditional role of inciting revenge in the living, he is bitter with his existence in purgatory.
The ghost acts as a physical presence of memory for Hamlet, an anchor to the past that he
refuses to part with. The presence of the ghost not only causes Hamlet to avenge him but also to
remember him.
This desire to remember contributes towards Hamlet’s melancholy and ultimate inaction.
Ghosts are omens and often causes of corruption, they are a liminal presence between the living
and the dead.
The ghost contributes towards Hamlet’s fear of death as the ghost is viscerally scared of the
flames of purgatory. The ghost reminds Hamlet of his filial duty to avenge him, persistent.
Act 1 scene 1:
“thing” “apparition” “dreaded sight”
“it harrows me with fear and wonder”
Marcellus “fair and warlike form”
Bernardo “portentous figure” ominous
Horatio “stay illusion”
“our vain blows are malicious mockery”
“like a guilty thing”
Act 1 scene 4
Hamlet upon seeing him “bring with thee airs of heaven or blasts from hell, be thy intents wicked or
charitable”
“thou comest in such a questionable shape”
“I call thee Hamlet, King, father, royal Dane”
Act 1 scene 5:
“to sulphurous and tormenting flames must render up myself” in purgatory death
“I am thy father’s spirit”
“doomed to walk the night” purgatory
Ghost makes Marcellus and Horatio “swear” not to tell of what they have seen upon Hamlet’s sword
“pity me not but lend thy serious hearing to what I shall unfold”
“so art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear” ironic because it takes him forever to revenge
“revenge his foul and most unnatural murder” ghost sets in motion the theme of revenge which is
central to the play. Ghost places the responsibility of revenge on Hamlet by appealing to his sense of
filial duty and by exploiting Hamlet’s feelings of disgust at mother’s betrayed sexuality and outrage
at murder.
,“most strange, foul and unnatural”
“a serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark is by a forged process of my death rankly abused”
body politic
“the serpent that did sting thy father’s life now wears his crown”
“that incestuous, that adulterous beast” animalistic imagery
“traitorous gift, wicked wit”
“power to seduce – won to his shameful lust”
“seeming-virtuous Queen”
“upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor to those of mine” condemning Claudius, thinks little of
him
“cursed hebona in a vial, and in the porches of my ears did pour”
“by my brother’s hand of life, of crown, of Queen”
“o horrible, o horrible, most horrible”
“let not the royal bed of Denmark be a couch for luxury and damned incest”
“not let thy soul contrive against thy mother; leave her to heaven”
“Adieu, Adieu, adieu. Remember me’’
Act 3 scene 4: Closet scene
“this visitation is but to wet thy almost blunted purpose”
Critics:
Remembrance: John Kerrigan Hamlet would rather remember than revenge his father, his
father does tell him to do both. Revenge cannot bring back he father and this he sees it as slightly
pointless. The dramatic presentation of the final scene would imply that Claudius dies for the death
of Gertrude not OH. Hamlet’s melancholy stems from yearning for his dead father, the one person
who did not willingly reject him.
Mirrors: Philip Armstrong Hamlet has idealised OH, like a child looking in a mirror, he sees only what
he wants to see. But this is a disabling image for Hamlet as he fails to meet OH expectation. Hamlet
is blinded by he loving memories of the ghost compared to the present world.
Body Politic: Lisa Jardine the ghost has contaminated the public with the private as he makes
Hamlet’s task of private revenge a public act of justice.
Oedipal: Ernest Jones the ghost instructs Hamlet to avenge him, but at the heart of it Hamlet
doesn’t want to carry out the revenge because he feels guilty about his supressed jealousy for his
mother’s affections for his father, therefore subsequently Claudius as father figure.
Revenge: Catherine Belsey Hamlet is put into role of punishing the crime that has not been
punished through justice by the ghost. However “revenge is always in excess of justice” but “revenge
is not justice”. Ghost instructing Hamlet to act on the “margin of justice and crime”.
Telmah: Terence Hawks The play is cyclical not linear, starts with death and ends with death.
,Production notes:
Gregory Doran 2008:
Ghost not visible on the CTV, emphasising the sense of supernatural.
Ghost view looking on Marcellus, Bernardo and Horatio, like we are the ghost, they question us.
Claudius and ghost are played by Patrick Stewart, showing the likeness between brothers/kings
The ghosts voice is echoed and it emits smoke, creating mystery and unease and disorientation.
Hamlet once again crumples to the ground in submission to the ghost
The ghost man hands Hamlet forcefully asking him to do his will and then proceeds to huge him
in compassion and appreciation, they reach for each other as the OH disappears.
The smoke that OH was omitting lingers in the air, showing that his influence lingers in Hamlet’s
surroundings and mind.
Almeida 2017
Opens with the hirsts driving through the cemetery, funeral of OH, sets the scene, death.
Bernardo looking through footage of the OH to check the likeness of the ghost.
See ghost on the surveillance footage, wandering the halls
The ghost cannot see Horatio, only hear him
Ghost wears ceremonial military uniform
The appearance of the ghost appears like a glitch
Ghost can’t see Hamlet when he speaks to the ghost, speak on microphone. The ghost beckons
him forward on the screen. The screen glitches and the ghost comes out of the screen and
speaks to Hamlet.
Old Hamlet and the player king are played by the same actor
Ghost talks quickly, running out of time (prominent theme with the watches – transience)
Hamlet hugs the ghost when he sees it, ghost removes him but holds his shoulder and hands.
Hamlet kneels down to the ghost, submissive, willing to accept commands.
The ghosts talks quickly, fears time
Laertes and Claudius and Gertrude give ghost of OH their watches, transience of time = death
Hamlet doesn’t have a watch to give
The OH meets all the characters at the end and welcomes them to the after life
Kenneth Branagh:
The ghost is huge and palpable rather than a creature of the shadows
Ends with Fortinbras pulling down the statue of OH, some sense of resolution as the source of
the corruption is removed.
, Horatio: loyalty, friendship, appearance vs. reality, rationality, outsider
Function:
