The Pitiful Ghost in Shakespeares Hamlet Essay -- GCSE English Litera

The Pitiful Ghost in Hamlet      Ã‚  Ã‚   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 the murderer of his father, that his mother is guilty of adultery as well as incest. Yet there is a dilemma in the revelation. For possibly the apparition is an apparition, a devil who has assumed his father’s shape. (247)    So there is considerable doubt regarding this spirit within the mind of the protagonist – until after the decisive action of the play when both Horatio and Hamlet witnessed Claudius’ reaction. W.H. Clemen in â€Å"Imagery in Hamlet Reveals Character and Theme† describes the pervasive influence which the Ghost’s words have on the entire play:    Perusing the description which the ghost of Hamlet’s father gives of his poisoning by Claudius (I,v) one cannot help being struck by the vividness with which the process of poisoning, the malicious spreading of the disease, is portrayed:    Sleeping within my orchard,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   My custom always of the afternoon,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   And ... ...o: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from The Masks of Hamlet. Newark, NJ: Univ. of Delaware P., 1992.    Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http://www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html    Ward & Trent, et al. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907–21; New York: Bartleby.com, 2000 http://www.bartleby.com/215/0816.html    West, Rebecca. â€Å"A Court and World Infected by the Disease of Corruption.† Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from The Court and the Castle. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1957.    Wilkie, Brian and James Hurt. â€Å"Shakespeare.† Literature of the Western World. Ed. Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1992.