In Act I, scene 5, Hamlet is visited by the ghost who was his father. The ghost makes Hamlet aware of his murderous death when he tells Hamlet of how Claudius had killed him. The ghost says this to Hamlet regarding Claudius, "Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder." This is where Hamlet is first inrtoduced to the revenge plot between himself and Claudius. Hamlet wants to insure that the ghost really was his dead father before he kills Claudius.
The Plague of Revenge In William Shakespeare 's play, Hamlet, after Hamlet’s father is murdered with poison by his brother Claudius, the contagion of vengeful actions begins to plague the people in the kingdom. Hamlet Sr. and his death are symbolic of the kingdom as a whole. Once he is poisoned the evil deeds of King Claudius begin to spread throughout Elsinore. Hamlet puts on an antic disposition and decides to seek retribution after speaking with his father’s ghost, and uncovering the truth about his death. The tainting of Hamlet’s mind and his need to seek revenge against his uncle ultimately leads to Hamlet’s insanity and demise towards the resolution of the play.
There are many attributes that Macbeth has that shows how he is a tragic hero in the play. First, what characteristics make a person a tragic hero? There are multiple aspects that a person must have that will declare them a tragic hero. The most notorious tragic hero is Oedipus from the play Oedipus Rex written by Sophocles. In the play, Oedipus is frightened about the prophecy that he will kill his father and marry his mother.
This is also disturbing to Hamlet. John S. Wilks writes in J. Leeds Barroll's Shakespeare Studies how meeting the ghost of his father "...throws his conscience into doubt and error, must naturally begin with the malign source of that confusion, the Ghost" (119). Hamlet is also incensed when he learns the reason for his father's torture. Old Hamlet was murdered by his brother when he was sleeping. This leaves Old Hamlet walking in limbo for his afterlife.
Notably, the ghost tells Hamlet to enact his revenge in the opening scenes of the play; he seems hesitant, as if he questions death for the first time. Hamlet wants to make sure that Claudius did in fact kill his father, so he sets up a play to re-enact the crime scene and to Hamlet’s content, Claudius disp... ... middle of paper ... ...death of him. Hamlet’s obsession and numerous contemplations about death sets himself in the undesired direction of suffering with the deaths of his father, Ophelia and Polonius, all whom he believed were undeserving. His will to continuously get himself into situations that inflict a great deal of emotional stress is astonishing, and his change in attitude about his indecisiveness about murder is not beneficial, rather it kills him in the end. Having a healthy fear of death is normal --one must realize death is unavoidable, while constant thought about death creates unhealthy anxiety.
He builds up the idea that people do harmful things through anger rather than reasoning. In the play Hamlet, the characters face emotions that lead to revenge because they are unable to cope with the death of love ones. Hamlet’s Uncle Claudius kills his father, but he has no knowledge of this. The ghost says, “I am thy father’s spirit, doomed for a certain term to walk to the night, and for the day confined to fast in fires, till the foul crimes done in my days of nature are burnt and purged away” (I.v.9-33). The ghost tells Hamlet that he is his father and that a foul crime has been committed.
In the text Hamlet is told by his father’s ghost from purgatory, a spiritual place of unsaved souls, “ If thou didst ever thy dear father love- revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.” (Shakespeare I.v. 23-25). This line gains interest to the act of revenge by Hamlet. He is already willing to execute his act of vengeance on his father’s murderer by stating “Haste me to know’t, that I, with wings as swift As meditation or the thoughts of love, May sweep to my revenge.” (Shakespeare I.v. 29-31).
During the beginning of the play, Hamlet is in deep agony over the death of his father, shown by wearing all black attire. Even his peers began noticing his depressed state. After Laertes’ proposal on going back to France, Claudius notices Hamlet’s melancholy and asks “How is it that the clouds still hang on [him]” (1.2.66)? In this mental state of Hamlet, the ghost comes and gives him the harsh truth about the real reason his father has passed away. Just encountering a ghost is traumatic enough, but learning that his father was murdered by his uncle overwhelms him to the point of trauma.
The loss of a parent can have a traumatic effect on one. It can lead he or she to a place of sadness, darkness and depression. In Shakespeare's revenge tragedy "Hamlet", the passing of the King stirs up the same emotions in the prince Hamlet. Although, it would be the starting point of his journey filled with deceptions, murders and conspiracy. After a visit from his dead father as a ghost, and the revelation of his uncle's betrayal, Hamlet embarks on a path to avenge the death of his father (Shakespeare).
The late king tells Hamlet of his death, procured by the will of Claudius. So distraught and infuriated, Hamlet decides to take vengeance on his uncle-made-king (1.5.31-47). Seeing such an apparition may bring the sanity of Hamlet into question, as too would the deliberation he has with the poltergeist. This, however, is an improper perception to take. The use of ghosts within the play, and of all Shakespearean plays, is common.