The Pitiful Ghost in Shakespeares Hamlet Essay - 2928 Words

The Pitiful Ghost in Hamlet In Shakespeare’s tragic drama, Hamlet, there is one character who is different from all the others. He is a supernatural being – a Ghost. His role is quite as important as anyone else’s. This essay will be devoted to an explanation of this Ghost. Maynard Mack in â€Å"The World of Hamlet† elucidates the reader on how the Ghost introduces the problem of appearance versus reality: The play begins with an appearance, an â€Å"apparition,† to use Marcellus’ term – the ghost. And the ghost is somehow real, indeed the vehicle of realities. Through its revelation, the glittering surface of Claudius’ court is pierced, and Hamlet comes to know, and we do, that the king is not only hateful to him but†¦show more content†¦A real event described at the beginning of the drama has exercised a profound influence upon the whole imagery of the play. What is later metaphor is here still reality. The picture of the leprous skin disease, which is here – in the first act – described by Hamlet’s father, has buried itself deep in Hamlet’s imagination and continues to lead its subterranean existence, as it were, until it reappears in metaphorical form (232-33). Gunnar Boklund’s â€Å"Judgment in Hamlet† introduces the Ghost in terms of the dilemma of the protagonist: It is a commonplace to refer to Hamlet’s â€Å"dilemma† and a critical problem to explain in what this dilemma consists. A natural way to come to terms with the problem is obviously through the character that forces the dilemma upon Hamlet, that is to say, the Ghost. This is a particularly attractive approach, since it promises to bring the findings of modern research into Elizabethan demonology to bear directly upon the question of the nature of the Ghost and its message. It was apparently generally believed,Show MoreRelatedLife Of Pi Character Analysis819 Words   |  4 Pagesstruggle one encounters often determines their development as a person. In society, many people face obstacles which assist shaping them as a person. Internal struggles are a catalyst to change in ones’ life. Through the use of Hamlet from William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, and Piscine Molitor Patel from Yann Martel’s novel Life of Pi, readers are able to perceive the impac t internal hardships have on ones’ life. Firstly, the author Yann Martel faced internal struggle as he was passionate aboutRead More Indecision, Hesitation and Delay in Shakespeares Hamlet Essay1334 Words   |  6 PagesHesitation in Hamlet   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   William Shakespeares Hamlet is tragic because all of the enmity being the product of one mans inability to make decisions. I believe the play is showing the steps of hesitation a person goes through who cannot choose, and the resultant angst. This one man is Prince Hamlet. Throughout the play he comes into situations where he just cant move himself into action. In Act I, Scene 5 Hamlet has an encounter with a ghost who explains that it is Hamlets deceasedRead MoreThe Importance Of Revenge In Hamlet701 Words   |  3 Pages Shakespeares tragedy plays are based on revenge as the core, consequently, all the scenes depicting the emotion and the concern before the thought killing an enemy from the character pedal to build a string of art in Hamlets. Although, the revenge is evil however it is pitiful and sorrow when it starts with love and truth. Hamlet has a great love and a faith never collapsed for his mother. Thence, when confronted with the truth of his father died, he feels horrible and more depressed that hisRead MoreThe Success Of The Conjuring Trick1722 Words   |  7 PagesA conjuring trick is normally played between enemies or competitors. However, in Hamlet, the conjuring trick is plotted by a father in order to possess the soul of his son. The success of this conjuring trick is basically based on four elements which are the contemporary belief,the evilof the plotter, the victim’s circumstance, and the convincing evidences. Elizabethan age was the period when the tragedy of Hamlet occurred. Although, Elizabethan era was a Golden Age in English history, people inRead MoreHamlet : Sadness, Madness, Or Just Misunderstood1053 Words   |  5 PagesHamlet: Sadness, Madness, or Just Misunderstood At best, I believe that Act I, Scene II might be one of the most important parts of Hamlet. It prepares any reader with the character’s styling of Hamlet, its importance to the play, its characters, and the logical play on words to show the complexity of Shakespeare’s skills as a playwright. Though, it might be a bit of over-aggrandizing to say that the first Act and second scene could be so crucial. It set the tone of the play for many of the charactersRead MoreAbstract: Hamlet of William Shakespeare Tragedy Revenge2100 Words   |  9 PagesThesis: In the play, Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare is described as a tragedy of revenge, through psychological origins of revenge, the styles of revenge during that period and the structure of Elizabethan revenge tragedies. This article, Shakespeare and Psychoanalysis: Tragic Alternatives: Eros and Superego Revenge in Hamlet., written by Joanna Montgomery Byes focuses on the psychological origins of revenge and in what part does the socialized and/or individual superego play in creatingRead More The Tragic Tale of Ophelia and Hamlet Essay1390 Words   |  6 PagesThe Tragic Tale of Ophelia and Hamlet  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     The common problem of lack of communication has plagued couples since the beginning of time. The relationship Hamlet and Ophelia share in Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, is no more immune to these human tendencies. Throughout the drama, many misunderstandings cloud their relationship. Unspoken problems and pressures within Ophelia’s and Hamlet’s private lives lead to overlooked, unnoticed love. For Hamlet, his bond with Ophelia pales in comparisonRead MoreHamlet s Search For Justice1294 Words   |  6 Pagesthis model of a person in searching for justice appears in Shakespeare’s novel, Hamlet. The title character, Hamlet, understands justice in terms of a noble revenge, but fails to take action, due to his weak disposition to act on his thoughts. Hamlet’s search for justice was not successful because his sense of â€Å"justice† was flawed, ultimately leading not only to his own death, but to Laertes who had a very similar mission to that of Hamlet. Hamlet’s fatal flaw leads to the question concerning whatRead MorePoisoned Love: Essay 2. Life, Love, Death, Revenge, Grief,1392 Words   |  6 Pageswell known to the writing of William Shakespeare, his play Hamlet is not an exception. In this play the reader follows a young prince Hamlet on a quest for retribution on his uncle, for the murder of his father and the incestuous affair with his mother. To exact his vengeance on his uncle, King Claudius, Hamlet put on an act of being mad to catch his uncle profess his sins, and causing it to be morally right for hamlet to kill him. Hamlet tells very few of his act, and one of those excluded from thisRead More The Relationship between Hamlet and the Bible. Essay2412 Words   |  10 PagesThe Relationship between Hamlet and the Bible.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It may appear that anything could be twisted into a typological pattern. Such interpretations appear to suffer from the structuralist faults of skating too lightly over actual texts, ignoring details that cannot be forced into a preconceived mold, and robbing narratives of their concrete shapes through abstraction. I would stress that there is more to Shakespeare than typology, but I would also insist that typology is often an