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Discuss the role of ghost in hamlet
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Hamlet is a surprising hero throughout the play. He uses his wits and the odd situation he is in to his advantage. He is the rightful heir to the throne, but his uncle takes the crown from him by marrying his mother soon after his father’s murder. Hamlet is approached by the ghost of his father and is told that his uncle killed his father. This was not shocking to Hamlet, he never trusted his uncle. We, as the audience, never see the crime on which this whole play is based around. It is told by a ghost then acted by a group of player which were given a script by Hamlet. The play begins with mimes playing a king being poisoned by the villain and a queen quickly changing her affections to the unknown poisoner; and the second play that emphasizes the queen’s fickleness and the poisoner’s sin in rhymed dialogue. …show more content…
As the play was going, Claudius ignores the play, in some productions of the play he simply isn’t paying attention. This was up to the director, but Shakespeare made it clear through his writing that Claudius was not reacting at the beginning and if he was guilty, he would have reacted if he knew what was going on. But the play itself, when he was paying attention, horrified him. When the poison was described (per Hamlets request) and poured into the sleeping king’s ear, Claudius abruptly stops the production: ‘Give o’er the play … Lights! lights! lights!’ (Act 3, Scene 2, Lines 268–70). The overall performance of this (Claudius’s) crime is too much to bear for a guilty newly-crowned king. Hamlet is delighted he can now ‘take the ghost’s word’ (Act 3, Scene 2, Lines 286). And yet, while Claudius stops the performance, he makes no public confession, he just walks out without an explanation. Hamlet accomplished his
The play's plot begins when King Claudius pours poison into his brother's ear. There are many reasons that cause Claudius to take his brother's life. Obviously, Claudius envies everything that Hamlet senior owns. As a character, Claudius presents himself as a greedy, self-absorbed person. He will go to extremes in order to obtain whatever he desires. He certainly reaps the benefits with his cheap sin by receiving the thrown to Denmark and the lovely queen's hand in marriage. His manipulative style fools many people while he poses as the rightful king; that is until Hamlet meets his father's ghost and learns of his stepfather's ungodly sin. The ghost plays a crucial part in the play by sharing King Claudius' dirty secret with Hamlet. At this point the initial theme of revenge is set into motion. Hamlet lays low until he is certain of Claudius' guilt, which is proven during the play "Mousetrap." Although Hamlet's idea concerning the play works brilliantly, he also makes a terrible mistake acknowledges Philip Burton, the author of The Sole Voice.
During the first act, Prince Hamlet meets the ghost of his father, King Hamlet. His father's ghost tells Hamlet that Claudius poured poison in his ear while he slept. The spirit also explains that he wishes for Hamlet to avenge his death, but not to punish Queen Gertrude for marrying Claudius. He tells Hamlet that she will have to answer to her conscience, and eventually God for her incestuous actions (absoluteshakespeare.com 1 of 4). It was believed during these times that when a person died, especially in such a tragic fashion, that their spirit lingered about while suffering in Purgatory. This could cause a normally virtuous person's spirit to become filled with malevolence and begin to meddle in living men's affairs (en.wikipedia.org 4 of 9). This belief caused Prince Hamlet to want to investigate his father's spirit's claims to ensure that they were indeed true. In order to do this, Prince Hamlet feigns madness in order to remain hidden from members of the court's suspicions while he plots his revenge on King Claudius (www.sparknotes.com 1 of 3). He also takes advantage of a group of actors who come to Elsinore Castle to perform by rewriting a play to recreate the scene of his father's murder. He does this with the hope of flushing a confession out of Claudius' guilty conscience. When Claudius sees the play, he stands up and leaves the room (en.wikipedia.org 5 of 9). After many more events, Claudius' guilt becomes more obvious. Claudius then begins to change his focus towards killing Hamlet, as he is beginning to become aware of the Prince's plans to kill him. Claudius then arranges a fencing match between Hamlet and Polonius' son Laertes and has Laertes poison the blade of one of his swords to be used in the match (Hamlet).
One of the primary inquiries that arises from Shakespeare’s famous work,Hamlet, is whether the protagonist is truly insane or whether he is just pretending to be so. Unlike some of Shakespeare’s other work such as Macbeth where the “discerning eye” can determine whether the character is actually insane or not and where the madness was born, Shakespeare leaves Hamlet’s madness up to interpretation. In the play, Hamlet’s madness can be viewed as rational or viewed as completely crazy. Hamlet’s madness is shown through his rash decisions, mood swings, and his “nutty as a fruitcake” speeches. The method behind his madness can be reasoned through the fact that in his madness he is protected by the king, he makes fools of king and everyone around him, and he gets plenty of time to plot his revenge against Claudius for the murder of his father.
William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet strikes many literary chords and themes. It primarily chronicles a quest for revenge, political intrigue and a slow descent into madness. Throughout the play, two men of different rank and intellect; Hamlet and Laertes are portrayed in this play as each other’s foils. Hamlet who has lost his father in the hands of his uncle and Laertes who has lost his father in the hands of Hamlet, seek out similar goals but in very distinct ways. Hamlet and Laertes both go through stages of their carving vengeance to finally fulfill their goals of killing their fathers’ murderers. The readers detect that Hamlet goes in the path of plotting and deceiving to kill Claudius whereas Laertes goes in a more haste and reckless path
William Shakespeare's “Hamlet” is a play about a prince named Hamlet who’s father is murdered by his uncle Claudius. Hamlet is persuaded by his father's ghost to take revenge for him and kill Claudius. Hamlet then pretends to go crazy to get evidence that Claudius actually killed Hamlet's father. Hamlet ends up getting evidence that his father was killed by his uncle and takes revenge at the end of the play. The character discussed from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet will be the main character Hamlet.
Hamlet is a bitter tragedy of revenge and deceit. Unbeknownst to Hamlet, his father, the king of Denmark, is murdered by his own brother, Claudius — who then marries the queen and assumes the throne. Hamlet is visited by his father’s ghost, who compels him to enact revenge upon his uncle — but spare his mother. Hamlet finally decides to stage a play in which there is a poisoning scene, meant to stir his uncle into panic. Hamlet’s plan is successful, but he, in a fit of rage, accidentally...
William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, is a ghost story, a detective story and a revenge story all within one plot. Throughout the play, qualities of all three types of stories are displayed. The ghost story consists of Hamlet Senior and the circumstances surrounding his untimely demise at the hands of the present King, Claudius. He is being tortured in hell until his death is properly avenged. The detective aspect of Hamlet is brought about by Hamlet trying to figure out whether or not his fathers ghost was real and also to what, if any extent, his mother the "virtuous" Queen Gertrude was involved with the murder of his Father. Both Hamlet and Laertes, bring yet another aspect to this most versatile play, by seeking revenge for their fathers death, each in their own way. By viewing the play as either one or all of these different aspects we learn to have different perspectives on the play.
Instead of going straight to Claudius and killing him he wants to make sure he's guilty, even though his fathers ghost says Claudius killed him his conscious wants to confirm his guilt. To confirm his guilt Hamlet plans to set up a reenactment of the murder in form of a play, for the new king and his queen to catch Claudius’ reaction. Hamlets theory is that if Claudius reacts negatively he can now be able to take revenge on the king. In the midst of the play when the king is being poisoned by his brother Claudius demands that the lights be turned in and the play to stop, this proves to Hamlet that the ghost was indeed current. Claudius killed his own brother.
Hamlet is Shakespeare’s most famous work of tragedy. Throughout the play the title character, Hamlet, tends to seek revenge for his father’s death. Shakespeare achieved his work in Hamlet through his brilliant depiction of the hero’s struggle with two opposing forces that hunt Hamlet throughout the play: moral integrity and the need to avenge his father’s murder. When Hamlet sets his mind to revenge his fathers’ death, he is faced with many challenges that delay him from committing murder to his uncle Claudius, who killed Hamlets’ father, the former king. During this delay, he harms others with his actions by acting irrationally, threatening Gertrude, his mother, and by killing Polonius which led into the madness and death of Ophelia. Hamlet ends up deceiving everyone around him, and also himself, by putting on a mask of insanity. In spite of the fact that Hamlet attempts to act morally in order to kill his uncle, he delays his revenge of his fathers’ death, harming others by his irritating actions. Despite Hamlets’ decisive character, he comes to a point where he realizes his tragic limits.
Trying to classify a literary work can prove to be quite a pain. Trying to fit a unique piece into a rigidly structured template which we call genres is just bound for failure. Take Hamlet for example. Many people are so quick to call it a tragedy, and then call it a day. It’s hard to argue, since from the very first line, "Who's there?"
Hamlet the Hero There are various ways to define a hero. There is an endless amount of people who are heroes. A hero can be, "one who exhibits courage and/or daring," a hero can be, "one who is supremely noble or self-sacrificing," a hero can be a champion or a winner. A hero can save the day, or even save your life.
Old Hamlet is killed by his brother Claudius. Only two months after her husband’s death a vulnerable Gertrude marries her husband’s brother Claudius. Gertrude’s weakness opens the door for Claudius to take the throne as the king of Denmark. Hamlet is outraged by this, he loses respect for his mother as he feels that she has rejected him and has taken no time to mourn her own husband’s death. One night old Hamlets ghost appears to prince Hamlet and tells him how he was poisoned by his own brother. Up until this point the kingdom of Denmark believed that old Hamlet had died of natural causes. As it was custom, prince Hamlet sought to avenge his father’s death. This leads Hamlet, the main character into a state of internal conflict as he agonises over what action and when to take it as to avenge his father’s death. Shakespeare’s play presents the reader with various forms of conflict which plague his characters. He explores these conflicts through the use of soliloquies, recurring motifs, structure and mirror plotting.
With his thinking mind Hamlet does not become a typical vengeful character. Unlike most erratic behavior of individuals seeking revenge out of rage, Hamlet considers the consequences of his actions. What would the people think of their prince if he were to murder the king? What kind of effect would it have on his beloved mother? Hamlet considers questions of this type which in effect hasten his descision. After all, once his mother is dead and her feelings out of the picture , Hamlet is quick and aggressive in forcing poison into Claudius' mouth. Once Hamlet is certain that Claudius is the killer it is only after he himself is and and his empire falling that he can finally act.
Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet” is a subtle reflection on the political and religious atmosphere of the early 1600’s and late 1500’s, that was dominated with conversation of the successor to the throne of England, and their religious denomination. Hamlet was written with the intention of mimicking the political world and all its machinations from treachery, duties to family, religion and country. Hamlet, begins with armies being mobilized to the threat of an invasion from Norway, helmed by Fortinbras, like the rumors that the eventual successor James VI would need to take the throne by force. Soon after, this we have Hamlet and his father’s ghost, they converse on the details of his untimely death at the hands of his brother Claudius. In this
Hamlet's problem is not exact; it cannot be pinpointed. In fact, Hamlet has numerous problems that contribute to his dilemma. The first of these problems is the appearance of King Hamlet's ghost to his son, Hamlet. Hamlet's morality adds a great deal to his delay in murdering the current king, Claudius. One of Hamlet's biggest drawbacks is that he tends to think things out too much. Hamlet does not act on instinct; however, he makes certain that every action is premeditated. Hamlet suffers a great deal from melancholy; this in turn causes him to constantly second guess himself. The Ghost is the main cause of Hamlet's melancholy. Also, Hamlet's melancholy helps to clear up certain aspects of the play. These are just a few of the problems that Hamlet encounters throughout his ordeal.