Shakespeare was always able to create characters that were richly dichotomous in nature. In “Hamlet, Prince of Denmark,” the depiction of the ghost of Hamlet's father oscillates throughout the play between Hamlet's uncertainty as to whether “it is an honest ghost” (144, l.5) or “a damned goblin” (40, l. 4). In a sense, the ghost is honest in that he tells Hamlet the truth about his own murder. Claudius is truly guilty. On the other hand, while the ghost appeals to Hamlet for the seemingly rational motive of avenging "the most heinous murder" (28, l.5), "if ever thou loved thy dear father?" (24, l.5), it can be argued that the ghost is manipulating Hamlet to continue spreading the rot and foul play already present in Denmark. Just as Hamlet will later accuse other characters of "playing" or "playing" with him, it is also very likely that the ghost is "doing" himself for Hamlet by playing on Hamlet's grief and love for his father deceased, in order to obtain his revenge. The madness, destruction, and death to which this leads Hamlet and almost every other character in the play suggests less than virtuous intentions on the part of the ghost. Alongside Elizabethan ideas about the dead, it becomes clear how Shakespeare is able to dramatize Elizabethan uncertainty and fear of the dead through "Hamlet", while also commenting on the ambivalent nature of good and evil through the equally ambivalent nature of the ghost. plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Shakespeare deliberately portrays the nature of the ghost as complex and complex by making the ghost a synthesis of various Elizabethan ideas about the dead. The Elizabethans believed that the dead contacted the living for two reasons: to warn the living and cause them to reform, or to ensure by any means possible that the living remembered them. The Elizabethans considered forgetting the dead to be a sin. Shakespeare's ghost realizes both of these ideas by telling Hamlet not to "let the royal bed of Denmark be/a couch for luxury and accursed incest" (92, l.5). The ghost comes to Hamlet in the costume of an armed warrior, already suggesting conflict and death. . His vague allusions to his "prison house" reflect the Elizabethans' ideas of purgatory: condemned for a time to walk at night, and during the day confined to fasting in the fires, until the dastardly crimes committed there time of my nature be burned and purged. far. But I am forbidden from revealing the secrets of my prison, could a story unfold? (11, 1.5) Interestingly, the ghost never says that by avenging his death, Hamlet will save him from his current tortured state. Instead, the ghost will have to continue in purgatory “Until the vile crimes?” “are burned and purged” (13, l.5). This raises the idea that the ghost might be sincerely concerned about the debauchery in Denmark and indifferent to his own fate; The Elizabethans viewed the current world as vile and in need of reform, placing great importance on the world to come. On the other hand, it is possible that the ghosts want the living to suffer simply because they have to suffer, or less, or not at all, to make things right in Denmark. Again, this is supported by another Elizabethan notion that the dead are vindictive towards the living for wrongs committed against them in the past, or simply because they are still alive. This evil nature of the ghost is more likely, since the ghost gradually begins to manifest. emerge as an impure character. The ghostdescribes his murder as "vile and unnatural" (28, l.5), suggesting that Claudius, who committed the sin, is also vile and unnatural. In the same passage, the ghost acknowledges that his own "nature days" are in the past, implying that he is now something unnatural. This places the ghost in the same group as Claudius who committed the "vile and most unnatural" murder. Above all, the fact that in Hamlet's quest for revenge there are a total of eight deaths Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Laertes, Claudius, Gertrude and ultimately Hamlet himself supports the idea that the ghost is a messenger of evil. Once again, Shakespeare emphasizes the image of the rot spreading in Denmark. Perhaps it is the ghost's desire to see Hamlet, as his son and heir, continue his reign of sin that he even admits: "cut off even in the flowers of my sin" (77, l.5). The possibility that Hamlet is the ghost's tool of evil is supported by the fact that Hamlet is directly responsible for every death except his own and his mother's. Even in these cases, Hamlet clearly welcomes, even desires, his death as well as that of his mother. For example, when Polonius asks Hamlet: "Will you come out of heaven, my lord?" Hamlet replies: “In my grave? (210, l.2), suggesting to him that death is preferable to life. Likewise, when Hamlet finally kills Claudius, he says "Follow my mother," condemning them both to death and hell without hesitation (329, l.5.2). Certainly, Hamlet is largely responsible for Ophelia's death by cruelly driving her to madness through his own means. madness. He curses her: “I will give you this scourge for/your dowry: be chaste as ice, pure as snow/you will not escape slander” (136, l.3.1). Tragically, these words emphasize the cruelty and madness of Hamlet's transformed nature since it is likely that Hamlet and Ophelia have already consummated their love. Ophelia alludes to their sexual relationship when she admits to having “sucked the honey from her musical wishes” (159, l.3.1). “Blown Youth/Blasted with ecstasy” implies a destruction of youth and innocence, through passion and ecstasy, clearly suggesting the classic deflowering of a virginal handmaid. Ironically, Ophélie distributes flowers during the scene preceding her suicide. Hamlet could have saved Ophelia from sin and death by marrying her. Instead, he pushes her to her downfall: “I loved you not” (120, l.3.1), leaving her with the only option the Elizabethans believed they had in such a situation. Even Gertrude acknowledges this when she says to Ophelia's corpse: "I thought your bridal bed was adorned, sweet maiden/And that I had scattered your grave" (267, l.5.1). This implies that Ophelia's "wedding bed", where she is said to have consummated her marriage to Hamlet, has now become her deathbed. This supports the notion of Hamlet as the ghost's instrument of evil. Although Hamlet may become an instrument of evil for the ghost, there is also evidence to suggest that Hamlet realizes this, but continues to persist. While the ghost certainly plays on Hamlet's vulnerable state, it is ultimately Hamlet who consciously succumbs to madness through the ghost's wishes. He even confesses his madness to Laertes before they fight: “What I did/It could be your nature, your honor and your exception/Almost awake, I proclaim here that it was madness » (228, l.5.2). This also suggests that Hamlet feels remorse for Ophelia's death. In this sense, it is of his own free will that Hamlet descends into madness. At the first sight of the ghost, Hamlet exclaims: “Angels and ministers of grace, defend us!” » (39, l.4), as if to ward off an evil force. He admits that the ghost "is in such a form.5)..