Grande, Maria Theresa R.

2010 00933 Hamlet: Pre-ghost and Post-ghost

23 August 2013 Dr. Judy Ick

The character Hamlet plays is one of the most dynamic roles to look at in the play. It is indeed marvelously brilliant to be able to create one character that is composed of diverse and overlapping personalities. Here, this broad characterization of Hamlet as being multi-faceted will be zoomed in at two scenes of the play: the before and after of Hamlets encounter with the apparition of his fathers ghost. Even from the beginning of Act 1, Hamlet is perceived to be a man of complexity, analytical yet still characteristic of a moral sensibility, who also happens to undergo depression as caused by the death of his father and the subsequent remarriage of his mother to his own uncle. In his soliloquies, we could also sense a character who has suicidal tendencies but are prevented because of a strong religious foundation equipped with an equally strong moral sense. However, something happens when Hamlet meets the ghost of his father. When Hamlet sees the ghost for the first time, he is astounded, exclaiming: Angels and ministers of grace defend us!. He is also confounded by its "questionable shape", speculates whether it is a "spirit of health or goblin damned" or it "bring airs from heaven or blasts from hell" or if its "intents be wicked or charitable". However, after the ghost revealed that Hamlets father died not because of a serpents bite but his uncles murder, Hamlets mood seems to be reasonably different to his earlier disposition. In Act I Scene V, Hamlets prediction that the death of his father involves some foul play was confirmed by the ghost. From here, his prevailing psychological state of depression spirals into a rather more agitated feeling from which he lays his plans to revenge for his father.