Does Hamlet Fabricate The Conversation With The

Ghost. Essay, Research Paper

Rob Simack

Dr. Reilly

Engl 425

Question: Does Hamlet fabricate the conversation with the ghost.

Conversations with Oneself

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, madness, along with revenge, is a central theme. Hamlet is driven to destroy his uncle in order to exact vengeance for the murder of his father. However, there is ample evidence that the murder may have never happened, and Hamlet.s sole evidence, the conversation with the ghost, may have been created from one of two sources. Either Hamlet was truly mad, even at the onset of the play, and used his own subconscious as a guide to create a dialogue with the ghost, or the ghost was in fact a demon who used Hamlet.s subconscious buttons to force him to destroy the kingdom. There is ample textual evidence to suggest that Hamlet never spoke to the ghost of his father but instead some type of manifestation from his subconscious.

The first evidence pointing toward Hamlet creating the words of the ghost comes during their first meeting. The behavior exhibited by the ghost is odd. Normally three people are needed to confirm the truth in Elizabethan England, yet the ghost leads Hamlet away from his two friends. That action leaves only Hamlet to hear what the ghost says. When considered with the fact that the ghost is not happy, as familiar spirits are supposed to be, an argument can be made early for demonic work. Possibly, a demon interested in destroying the kingdom manipulates Hamlet by impersonating his father and convincing him to kill his uncle. If it were a demon then there is strong evidence that the demon uses Hamlet.s own thoughts and subconscious to fabricate the ghost.s dialogue. It can be argued that this was done to drive Hamlet to madness as Horatio warned might happen when he said, “what if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord/ .And there assume some other horrible form/ Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason, and draw you into madness.” (1.3.69-74). In this speech Horatio gives Hamlet the classic horror movie advice of “don.t go outside alone,” “don.t split up,” and “never say .I.ll be right back..” Hamlet does all of these. In fact Hamlet could be foreshadowing when he says, “be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn.d,/ Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell,/ Be thy intents wicked./I will speak to thee. I.ll call thee Hamlet/ King, father, royal Dane” (1.3.39-45). Hamlet, in some ways, shows great desperation when seeing this ghost. He is desperate to believe it is his father. Even if the ghost is a demon he will call it Hamlet and ostensibly will believe anything it says. This attitude leaves Hamlet open to great danger.

Another element within the scene where the ghost first appears to Hamlet is that very desperation just spoken of. Hamlet is a melancholy man as evidenced by his behavior when he first took the stage. He was saddened by his father.s death, and angry at his mother and uncle for carrying on what he considers to be an incestual relationship. Upon hearing news of the ghost, and then seeing the ghost Hamlet is excited, afraid and desperate to regain contact with his lost father. According to Lewes Lavater,

Melancholic persons and mad men imagine many

things which in very deed are not. And first it can

not be denied but that some men which, either by

disposition of nature or for that they have

sustained great misery, are now become heavy and

full of melancholy, imagine many times with

themselves, being alone, miraculous and strange

things (1).

Hamlet, having already established his melancholy, is open to suggestion by demons, if the ghost be such a being, or is open to imagine what the ghost might say or do.

Whether the apparition.s voice is a demon spawned or a figment of Hamlet.s imagination the ghost.s word choice and style of speech are too close to Hamlet.s to ignore. When the evidence is reviewed, it becomes a very real possibility that the ghost.s words are stolen from the depths of Hamlet.s own soul. When comparing the words, of the ghost to Hamlet.s own words one sees many similarities. For instance, in Hamlet.s first soliloquy, he mentions that life is an unweeded garden, “.tis an unweeded garden/ that grows to seed, things rank and gross in nature/ possess it merely” (1.2.135-37). The next person to make reference to weeds is the ghost, “I find the apt,/ And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed/ that roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf,/ wouldst thou not stir in this” (1.5.33-5). This seems like a simple word that any character could use, yet it is not until 3.4 when it is used again by Hamlet “And do not spread the compost on the weeds/ to make them ranker” (151-2). Another word shared by the ghost and Hamlet is “adieu;” the ghost says it to Hamlet, Hamlet repeats it shortly after to himself, he uses it in a letter to Ophelia and finally says it to his mother as she dies. It is obviously a simple word that any character could use, but when only the ghost and Hamlet use it exclusively it adds to the pile of evidence.

Two other words are prominent in the ghost.s dialogue as well as Hamlet.s, “damned” and “incestuous.” The ghost first uses the word damn.d when telling Hamlet to avenge him and not let the “royal bed of Denmark be/ A couch for luxury and damned incest” (1.5.82-3

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