Wednesday, November 16, 2016

ghost?

So, whats up with Hamlet? Is he crazy? When he is talking to Gertrude in the closet, he sees the ghost of his father and even speaks to it. However, Gertrude does not see or hear anything. This really raised into question the existence of the ghost. The guards have seen the ghost, so why can't Gertrude? Maybe this is because King Hamlet is furious with Gertrude, so he does not allow her to see him. Is that how ghosting works?

5 comments:

Unknown said...

The ghost can be interpreted in many different ways. It could be that the ghost of king Hamlet chooses not to reveal itself to Gertrude for fear of scaring her or making her feel bad, because earlier on he tells Hamlet not to hurt Gertrude. King Hamlet wants Heaven to take care of Gertrude not Hamlet. I would say that the ghost from the earlier scenes was actually real because the guards saw it. It is possible that the ghost in the scene with Gertrude is not real if we believe that Hamlet has actually gone insane. To tell if this ghost is real we must first try to decipher if Hamlet is insane or not, which even expert critics cannot determine.

Unknown said...

It's true that the ghost does not want Hamlet to hurt his mother. However, the ghost wants Hamlet to avenge him. So I do think that the ghost wanted to hurt Gertrude in some way, just not directly. He wants to directly hurt Claudius, which will in turn hurt Gertrude. I think the ghost is definitely a device that Shakespeare uses to raise the question of Hamlet's sanity.

Unknown said...

I think Gertrude was irrelevant in terms of the ghost. The ghost merely states that Hamlet should not hurt Gertrude which makes me think there is no reason that she should see the ghost. I don't think the ghost is that bad of a guy he seems like he just wants what he deserved from his son, revenge. The ghost doesn't seem evil in my eyes because what the ghost ask for Isnt out of the ordinary. I think everyone should cut the ghost some slack and stop blaming it for Hamlet's poor life choices.

Unknown said...

I think Hamlet is smart enough to know that he is simply acting crazy and is not in fact crazy. Overall, he is seen as an eratic character and not reliable.

Bailey Taylor said...

Another central question about the ghost is whether it is evil or not. I do not think that the ghost is evil because it's not like he's tried to hurt Hamlet he just wants some justice to be done for his death.