The Motive for Revenge Provided by the Ghost in W.Shakespeare's "Hamlet"


The supernatural appearance of the Ghost is the most vital to the play. The play is concerned largely with the theme of revenge, and the motive for revenge is provided by the Ghost. The Ghost is indispensable from the point of view of the plot which hinges on the secret revealed by it to Hamlet. Of course, we may feel inclined to regard the Ghost as a personification of a vague suspicion in Hamlet’s own mind that his father had not died of a serpent’s bite but had been murdered by his uncle, the present King. However, if it had been Shakespeare’s intention to treat the Ghost as a physical representation of mental doubts and suspicions, the Ghost would have been seen only by Hamlet. As it is, the Ghost has an objective reality. It is first seen, on two different occasions, by Marcellus and Barnardo. It is then seen by Marcellus, Barnardo, and Horatio. Subsequently it is seen by Horatio, Marcellus, and Hamlet. It is true that the Ghost does not speak to any of the other persons and speaks only to Hamlet, and that also when Hamlet is alone. But this is not enough

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Summary of Rolland Barthes' "From Work to Text"

Geoffrey Thurley in his work, “Counter-Modernism in Current Critical Theory” (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1983), asserts that Barthes's essay, "From Work to Text" is no more than an expression of a determination not to acknowledge the old ‘bourgeois’ literature, and we should waste our time chasing shadows if we tried to assign his phrases any concrete meaning" (Thurley, p. 228). Though this comment was meant as a criticism of Barthes's work, the second part of the sentence ironically approximates Barthes' own formulation of his essay because his essay offers "not argumentations but enunciations, ‘touches’, approaches that consent to remain metaphorical". In his essay, From Work to Text, Barthes argues that the relation of writer, reader and observer is changed by movement from work to text. In this light, we can observe Barthes's propositions of the differences between work and text in terms of method, genres, signs, plurality, filiation
Read more

I.A.Richards' Two Uses of Language

A REVIEW ON I.A. RICHARDS' THE TWO USES OF LANGUAGE I.A. Richards, born in 1893, is one of the great critics of the modern age, and has influenced a number of critics on both sides of the Atlantic. He and T.S. Eliot are pioneers in the field of New Criticism, though they differ from each other in certain important respects. He is the first-rate critic, since Coleridge, who has formulated a systematic and complete theory of poetry, and his views are highly original and illuminating. In his “Principles of Literary Criticism” chapter 34, he discusses the most neglected subject, i.e. the theory of language and the two uses of language. To understand much the theory of poetry and what is said about poetry, a clear comprehension of the differences between the uses of language is indispensable. David Daiches says, “Richards conducts this investigation in order to come to some clear conclusions about what imaginative literature is, how it employs language, how its use of language differs f
Read more

Analysis: The Fifth Stanza of William Blake's "The Tiger"

When the stars threw down their spears, And water’d heaven with their tears Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee? The lines quoted above are the fifth stanza of William Blake’s poem, The Tiger in the Songs of Experience (1794). The Tiger is the most famous and impressive of Blake’s short poem that is the most frequently and elaborately interpreted. The poem is the product of much thoughtful revision, and is a triumph of conscious artistry. William Blake is a poet who gives spirit and motivation to human life in order to make human life better. Blake, in The Tiger, talks about human beings and the spirit that they have. The Tiger may be regarded as the pure poetry of Blake’s trust in cosmic forces. The tiger is Blake’s symbol for the fierce forces in the soul, which are needed to break the bonds of experience. God has created human beings possessing two powers. One is to act in good manner and another one is to act in evil manner. That is why human beings mus
Read more