Hamlet and the Ghost of King Hamlet

¶ … Ghost of Hamlet and the Sanctity of Death The play Hamlet occupies such an important and fascinating place in public consciousness and in all of world literature for good reason: it explores some of the most eternal themes that the human condition has ever encountered. The themes presented throughout Hamlet tough upon some of the most timeless issues the human race has ever encountered -- these are themes like love and honor, along with death and eternality, obligation and duty, and most of all, vengeance.

While the major characters of the play often visibly struggle with these themes, the minor characters of the play work towards the plays resolution, also not only moving the plot forward, but shedding light on issues that also must be given a longer look.

The ghost of King Hamlet functions precisely in this regard and works to remind the spectator and the reader of the sanctity of death: death is a precious final event in the human experience and to die an unjustly death will forever be a problem for both the living and the dead. It is a problem which becomes the burden of the living to rectify.

By demonstrating the sanctity of death, Shakespeare meditates also on the sanctity of life, and with it the sanctity among the bond of the living and how the duty of a son to his father transcends even death. The speech given by the ghost of King Hamlet reminds the spectator of the grotesqueness of a wrongful death, and how death might be just a moment, but a wrongful death is lasting until it is avenged.

The ghost of King Hamlet describes his death as foul, strange and unnatural (I.v) -- a description which makes the act of death itself -- murder -- even worse. All human beings are aware of the fact that death is an unavoidable fact of human existence.

However, it is so unpalatable to the human brain and soul to fathom that one's death might be the result of an act of treachery and scheming, as this makes one's death seem unnatural, seem to be against the plan of the universe, and seem like it could have been avoided. One's death should not seem like it was the result of man's scheming and conspiracy, as it suggests that it might only result in a tormented afterlife.

This is made apparent from the start of the dead king's speech: "My hour is almost come,/When I to sulphurous and tormenting flames/Must render up myself" (I.v). The ghost of King Hamlet continues to pay for the injustices of his death: this is an unmistakable message that the reader cannot overlook. A wrongful death carries with it a burden that the individual cannot escape even after life.

With the progression of the King's speech it becomes clear that he was indeed conspired against and a plotted against, and was but an innocent victim in the entire escapade. However, the consequences of that evil are his: he is the one paying the price for the evils of those who went against him.

The king is doomed, as he says: "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" (I.v). This description gives the spectator an unmistakable perspective of the veritable hell his soul is in: he is paying for the sins of those who conspired against him.

Without a doubt, Shakespeare is making a strong argument regarding how precious the act of one's death is and how eternal and inescapable the results of such a death, colored by injustice, actually is. By demonstrating the sanctity of death, Shakespeare uses the ghost of King Hamlet to make a case for the sanctity of life as well. The speech given by the ghost of King Hamlet also suggests that a certain intimacy exists between killer and his prey.

By experiencing a death so marked by the scheming treachery of Claudius, King Hamlet has now been bound to this man through that bond of murder. The ghost of King Hamlet is doomed to wallow in that connection of foulness and evil. King Hamlet describes Claudius as, "Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,/With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts, O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power/So to seduce! -- won to his shameful lust/ The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen" (I.v).

As the reader and spectator can clearly realize, there is now an undeniable connection, a bond that survives in the eternal, between Claudius and King Hamlet. This is a bond that does nothing but torments the soul of the dead king. In a sense, King Hamlet's crown and legacy have been reduced to nothing but that of prey. Claudius is the serpent, as the dead king aptly describes and he is now forever bonded to that serpent.

Given his condition, the only recourse of action that he has is to beseech the other compelling bond that he is tied to, the bond of blood between him and his son. The relationship illuminated in the conversation between Hamlet and his father's ghost also underscores not simply the importance of a just death, the sanctity of death itself, but also the sanctity of the father-son bond.

When a wrongful death has in fact occurred, it's up to the living to avenge it, thus making the bonds which inescapably persist between family members just so crucial. When the ghost explains how foul and how unnatural his death was, Hamlet responds by saying, "Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as swift/As meditation or the thoughts of love,/May sweep to my revenge" (I.v). Hamlet's response demonstrates that he understand his duty as a son to his father, in life and in death.

Without needing a further explanation, Hamlet immediately rises to the challenge of his duty as son: to avenge his father's wrongful death. King Hamlet beseeches his son by reminding him just how horrible this act has been, so horrible that he says that if his.