Murder Most Foul...

Even today, a ghost is something you never want to see, but in the 16^th century it carried an even greater weight. Ghosts were believed to be spirits of the dead trapped in purgatory, people who were on good terms with God when they died but never received their last rites and were thus doomed to walk the earth until their souls could be put to rest. Whenever a ghost appeared, it was a sign that something was amiss with the natural order of things. That makes it easy to understand why the appearance of the ghost of Hamlet’s father in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” would make a 16^th century audience nervous.

It is unclear exactly what agenda the ghost of Hamlet’s father is pushing. He seems like he is a kindly, justice-seeking ghost trying to bring order back to Denmark so his soul can finally rest and go to heaven. However, he also has the potential to be a vengeful spirit: he comes dressed completely in armor as if he is about to engage in a battle. Which brings us to the ultimate question: is Hamlet’s father a spirit trapped in purgatory or is he a vengeful spirit from hell?

I’m inclined to think that Hamlet’s father is trapped in purgatory. He is described as a fairly good person and a just king; Hamlet goes so far to compare him to Hyperion, the god of watchfulness, wisdom and light. The comparison to the god Hyperion initially screams “good guy.” That argument is strengthened by the ghost’s own words: when he appears to Hamlet he says, “I am thy father’s spirit, doom’d for a certain term to walk the night, and for the day confined to fast in fires, till the foul crimes done in my days of nature are burnt and purged away.” The process he describes sounds like purgatory: he is doomed and bound to earth until his crimes are “purged away” meaning he must be cleansed or purified before he can be admitted into heaven. In this sense, the fires he describes could be purifying fires as described in  the bible, such as in 1 Peter 1:7: “So that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire.” The ghost also says, “But this eternal blazon must not be to ears of flesh and blood,” the “eternal blazon” directly referring to an afterlife of heraldic brilliancy that the ghost can’t tell Hamlet about.

However, he also has the potential to be a demonic figure. Where most Shakespearean spirits at unrest appear to only one person, Hamlet’s father appears to three which already indicates that he is something out of the normal pattern even in the spirit world. Furthermore, when Hamlet is demanding that his men swear not to reveal what they have seen, the Ghost also makes this demand but his voice comes from beneath the ground as if the Ghost is speaking from the very pits of hell. Horatio, a friend of Hamlet even warns him before he seeks to speak to the ghost that it could deprive his “sovereignty of reason and draw [him] into madness.” It seems like the ghost does indeed draw Hamlet into madness later on when Hamlet makes a vast personality change and puts on “an antic disposition.”

Though I see purgatory to be a more likely argument, seeing the ghost as a demon is still a viable reading. But either way, these two different readings of the Ghost make you feel bad for Hamlet. The ghost of his father is either trapped in purgatory or has come to draw him into madness, and Hamlet is unable to determine which one it is doing. You have to sympathize with Hamlet’s ambivalence towards the ghost who could save him and his kingdom from the wrath of his uncle, or could lead him to his own destruction.