The Nature of King Hamlets Ghost

The Nature of King Hamlets Ghost

This activity guides you through analyzing the appearance of King Hamlet’s Ghost. This figure sets the rest of the play in motion. Forming an opinion about what King Hamlet is asking Hamlet to do (and whether this request is moral or not) will color the rest of the work that you do with Hamlet.

Hamlet initially approaches the ghost of his father in an effort to determine whether he is “a spirit of health or goblin damned.” However, old King Claudius answers the question himself by stating that he is “doomed for a certain term to walk the night/ And for the day confined to fast in fires, / Till the foul crimes done in days of nature / Are burnt and purged away” (1.5.11-14). In doing such, the ghost implies that he inhabits the realm of purgatory.

Although vigorously attacked in the Protestant Reformation beginning with Luther, the Catholic doctrine of purgatory stipulated that those individuals who had not purged their sins in life were confined indefinitely to a place of punishment until they had accounted for their transgressions. Thus, Old King Claudius is a “goblin damned,” a fact that makes his advice immediately suspect.

Quoting Shakespeare’s text at least three times, address whether the ghost is asking Hamlet for “remembrance” or “revenge.” Does Hamlet decide to believe the ghost and carry out his wishes? What are at least three reasons why he decides to do so?