ipl-logo

King Hamlet Research Paper

960 Words4 Pages

Victor Cornelius Ms. Light English IV 14 February 2017 King Hamlet’s Ghost: Spirit or Demon? The ghost that appeared to Hamlet and the others was the king’s true spirit. When it comes to whether or not King Hamlet’s ghost helped Hamlet or not, it’s up to the audience’s interpretation. At first glance, the events that occurred to Hamlet post-enlightenment went ary in the fact that the rest of his family died by the end of the story; but it was not the King’s intention. He simply wanted his son to enact his revenge on the new king, his brother Claudius, and in this, it can be seen that it was the late King’s ghost, and not an impersonation. To begin, the past king’s spirit encounters Hamlet, and communes with him. “I am thy father’s spirit, …show more content…

#). With this knowledge, if someone were to see or read his play with no knowledge beforehand, their thoughts would be that it truly was King Hamlet’s ghost, rather than a demon impersonating him. These emphasize where Shakespeare intended for his story to go and for the message it was portraying. People see that it was the vengeful spirit of the past King who wanted revenge on the one who took his life. While he is being vengeful, it is obvious that there is not a real destructive force in him, in his protectiveness of his queen, Gertrude, and in Hamlet as well. In with the religious differences, it allows those the play was intended for to receive the play’s meaning the correct …show more content…

There is no way it could be a demon, not with the compassion it had shown to Gertrude. The audience at the time would not have thought that the spirit was a demon for a moment because of how docile he was, in only wanting revenge on the one who had slain him. That and the fact that it had waited for Hamlet to appear to him, goes to show. If he was a demon, then he would have tormented him with constant thoughts of revenge, flooding and breaking his mind until he was truly driven insane. In all of when it could have reappeared, it chose then, when Hamlet was tearing into his mother for what she had done in ‘betraying’ the former king. He reminded Hamlet that it was not she who had really done anything wrong, because of her naivety, because King Hamlet’s apparition did not want harm to come to

Open Document